Meet the Graduates: Jordan

What’s new with you since we last talked?

Well, I’ve been working at MorganMyers for three months now, so I’ve had the opportunity to see more of the administrative side of things, how you bill clients, what managing that client relationship looks like, and how we find new business and grow out existing business. Those are all things that I see myself leading further down in my career path, so it’s exciting to get to experience that now.

I know last time I had mentioned that I was doing a lot of social media, strategy and execution, but now I have a little more autonomy and am leading some of the that. I’m also working on projects with more long form writing and web development. We’re going to be testing user experience on a website soon and I remember doing that in a digital studies course, so I’ll be able to put my DS skills to use there.

Are you still freelancing too?

Yes! I have a steady freelance contract with Lessiter Media in Brookfield. I’m actually doing a little more work for them now than I was before, which is exciting, but it does take up more evenings during the week. But I do try to keep the weekends free so I can see friends and do other stuff.

How’s the work-life balance going?

It’s definitely challenging for me, especially since I really like this job and feel passionate about it. Sometimes I have to rein myself in and bring a little life back into the work-life balance. It’ll  get busy at work and I enjoy being busy, but then all of a sudden I realize I haven’t done anything but work for a while. I’ve started working at the local YMCA to make sure that I’m still doing things that aren’t work related.

Is there anything you wish you’d done as a student that you think could have prepared you better for what you’re doing now?

Yeah, I had this realization after looking back at some of the job applications I had filled out and the cover letters I had written my sophomore and junior years. I read them and realized that what I’d written was nothing like what it actually is like to work in an agency. I bet the recruiters read them and were like, “what does this kid think it’s like to work in this industry?” If I could go back, I would make more of a concerted effort to get an idea of what day to day is like in the industry and what they need. Being in communications and advertising, I see there are lots of areas where they need younger, digital savvy people, and I wasn’t necessarily always playing to those needs and skills. I was just touting what I saw as my best skills and qualities. So I guess just be more in tune with what the actual work is like and what the actual day to day in the industry issues and problems are would have been more helpful in marketing myself as a job candidate.

Any other advice for current students?

Never stop networking. For work, we do purposeful networking, with our clients and for our clients, to keep up industry relationships. I’ve stayed a member of the National Agricultural Marketing Association (NAMA) and I’ve gone to a couple of events with that, which has been a really great opportunity to keep in touch with other professionals at other agricultural and food marketing agencies and corporate places. I still follow up with contacts from school and other places that interned at. You never know when you’re going to find an opportunity to work with them in a professional capacity.

What’s new with you?

I actually have some exciting news to share. I took a new job with Post Consumer Brands as their Senior Communications Associate in the Corporate Communications Department. I’m wrapping up my time with MorganMyers this week and will be starting at Post in Minneapolis on January 21st.

Congratulations! How did you find this opportunity?

I had interned with Post previously, so I occasionally would check to see what opportunities were available there. I saw the opportunity on their website back in October, but didn’t really give it a second thought because they were looking for someone with 5-7 years experience, so I assumed they were looking for someone with a little more work experience under their belt. Plus, I was content with what I was doing at MorganMyers.

Then in December, I reached out to my former manager there to wish her happy holidays. In her response, she suggested that I reach out to the HR manager about the role, so I did. She got back to me right away and we scheduled a first round interview for the next day. And then it just snowballed from there and before I knew it, I was driving up there for an in-person interview. So even though I’m switching jobs relatively quickly, it seemed like a position that would provide me with enough additional experience that it would be worth making the leap.

Wow! So the moral of the story there is to always keep in touch with your former supervisors and take the time to wish them a happy holiday season. What type of work will you be doing there?

I’ll be doing a lot with internal communications, so managing most of the company’s internal content like the articles on their intranet, communications around training resources, and talking points and presentations for senior management. On the flip side, I’ll also be working with external public relations managing their external facing corporate website, working with agency partners to maintain those relationships, and also managing any sort of company news.

What are you most excited about with this opportunity?

The free breakfast cereal! But more seriously, I’m excited to have more control and autonomy over the sorts of communications we put out. One of the great things about working for an agency is that you get the broad experience of working with different clients, but you’re also continuously answering to the client and the end product isn’t necessarily yours. With one organization, you have the opportunity to grow with that brand, build that brand, and you have the final say when it comes to how you’re going to communicate.

But I’ll definitely miss the people I’ve worked with at MorganMyers. It’s a small team and I’ve worked with some amazing people. I’ll also miss working directly in agriculture because it’s such a welcoming field. But I’ll still be working with food and agriculture, just more on the consumer and food side now rather than the farming side.

Changing jobs evokes a whole lot of emotions.

Yeah, there are so many unknowns. For me, it’s not only just taking a new job, but it’s a job that is really a lot different that what I do now. There’s not going to be as much  social media or any client relationship management. I’ll be on the other side of the agency relationship, where I’ll be giving people work to do. I think there’s also going to be a lot of cross-departmental collaboration. But I’m excited about the possibilities with this job and the opportunities I’ll have to grow as a young professional.

Last time we talked, you had just accepted a new job with Post Consumer Brands. How are things going?

Well, I’ve been there for about three months now. For the first month, I was just meeting people and learning about the company, how things work, and what everyone’s roles are. But now I’m really getting into things and am really enjoying it!

What does your day-to-day look like? Was it was you expected?

There’s actually a lot more flexibility in my position than I expected. I had this perception that corporate meant rigid; that I would have my job responsibilities and that’s what I would do. But in a lot of aspects, it offers as much flexibility and creativity as I had in my last job at MorganMyers.

I spend a lot of time developing content for our internal communications – a weekly employee newsletter, the employee intranet, and assisting with the CEO’s monthly letter. I also help coordinate a monthly townhall that every single Post Consumer Brands employee is invited to attend. At first, I was hesitant about employee communication because it was an area I wasn’t familiar with and honestly, it didn’t sound that exciting. And even though it’s not flashy like advertising or PR, it’s been really great and I can see now that it’s one of the quickest ways to have a direct impact on the organization.

I’m so glad to hear it’s going well! Are you working on any fun projects at the moment?

Two, actually! The first is that I’ve been working on putting together a corporate social responsibility framework around charitable giving, responsibility, and the environment, which we didn’t have before, but many companies do. It’s been really exciting to build and research and develop my own strategic communications framework. One thing that’s come out of this project is realizing how much Excel matters. I have a lot of spreadsheets with corporate giving numbers and charitable giving for our corporation and other corporations. And I have to take those numbers and manipulate them into visualizations that we can use in presentations with our stakeholders to gain buy-in.

The other project I’m spearheading is the creation of a Post Ambassadors program. It will be a professional development opportunity for employees to sit on a corporate communications committee and to develop their communication and leadership skills while gaining a broader view of the organization. Because we have 14 different locations in the US and Canada, this will be a way to bring people together and create community. I’m hoping with the creation of this program, that I’ll be able to get to know more people at the various locations who can help me come up with content ideas for the weekly newsletters and the employee intranet since coming up with content on a daily basis can sometimes be a struggle.

Those sound like great projects! And are you still doing the freelance work for Lessiter?

Yes – that’s still going really well! And now that I have more free time in the evenings, since this job has more of your standard 9-5 hours, I’ve also been looking for other opportunities to freelance. I’ve been doing some work for friends designing posters or fliers for their events and also helping our neighborhood association with their website and other digital media stuff. It’s been a great way to continue expanding my network now that I’m living in Minneapolis.

That’s for sure! Has there been anything from Digital Studies that you’ve found helpful as you’ve navigated through this first year after graduation?

The introduction to a variety of technical skills through my Digital Studies classes has been super helpful. Even if I didn’t master them in DS, just gaining proficiency and familiarity with them has been very advantageous – like having a basic understanding of HTML coding and knowing how to use Photoshop to crop photos. Working in communications, there are a lot of really strong writers in the field, but what helps you stand out are all those additional technical skills, like being able to edit a website. It’s those sorts of things that might seem insignificant now, but when I can edit our website for my boss, I know they really appreciate that we don’t have to outsource that.