It was only two weeks ago that I got the call from South and City college telling me they’d found a job I might be interested in. It was a Business Admin/Social media role. This wasn’t too concerning since my last job was a business admin position so I was quite confident about that side of things, but the social media part was something that would be completely new to me. I did have an interest in marketing and more creative industries but I had no experience in social media and was a bit worried about jumping into the deep end. In the end I decided to go to the interview and would work out, once I got there, if it was the right kind of thing for me. I had a couple of days to prepare so of course I went online to look for more information about the company and found next to nothing. I found I had no real information about the company except what I had been told over the phone about the kind of position it was. I even emailed the college to see if they could give me any further information. They couldn’t tell me much either. Eventually I gave up and just hoped for the best.
The interview –
Ok I haven’t done a lot of interviews so I still get really nervous. I hoped the questions would stick largely to my CV and from there I could confidently freestyle my answers. That didn’t really happen, but luckily the interview wasn’t too formal and I felt I had a natural bond with Radu and Taylor. Even at that time it was easy to see that the office would be a relaxed and friendly place to work. Parts of the interview did throw me a bit and there were some very random questions. I think the most difficult question was probably: Sell me a pen that can’t be used as a pen. I hadn’t prepared for these kinds of questions! At the time I felt like I was taking too long to think of something so naturally I went with the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind when asked about an un-usable pen: A magic wand. What?? I think it was something to do with shape, I don’t know. I couldn’t think of anything else. Overall, It was one of the better interviews I’d had and it looked like a creative place to work that didn’t take itself too seriously. So I was happy to accept the job offer.
First Day –
On the first day there was a lot of new information to keep up with. I started with a tour of Aston Science Park. Its a really open space with loads of windows and communal areas. The atmosphere is really social and there’s a laid back vibe which is always welcoming. The office we’re in is medium sized and actually has windows (unlike many of the other offices in the building!). Down the hall there’s a canteen which serves breakfast snacks (luckily, since its an 8 o’clock start) and a kitchen area where everyone meets up in the morning for teas and coffees. So a pretty cool place to work.
The atmosphere is really social and there’s a laid back vibe which is always welcoming
Later we got down to some work and went through key things about the company and its values. Radu explained that the company was currently in its stealth mode, which was why I couldn’t find that much information online and then went through some of the basics about my role and the company. The largest part of my day was spent going through the companies values and later on to what we thought would inspire a person to use our site. It was a great place to start for someone new to the company. We started off with a group discussion on the flaws of online shopping. I had never thought about how I shopped online before but typically it was an arduous process and I would stick to the popular sites rather than spend the time searching for the product with the best price or exactly what I was looking for. It didn’t take long for us to conclude that Shopping was broken! It was long, confusing and often fruitless and the more we spoke about it, the more we found the need for a brand new way.
So, here were some of the ways we found to improve the online shopping experience. Unlike other websites our focus would be on:
- Accessibility: Simplifying the comparison process so that all your options were displayed in one place. One of the problems we identified was the need for multiple open tabs to compare products we were interested in. This seemed a senseless and ineffective way to shop to us.
- Choice: Providing the customer with the clearest picture of what their options were. Choice was an important factor for us. From personal experience we found that there were so many choices available online it was easy to become overwhelmed by all the options, actually making it harder to make informed decisions as a consumer.
- Individuality: Letting the customer decide which product is best for them. In the confusion of the countless choices, we found that 9 times out of 10 we opted for the easy option. In many cases this meant the first website we could find with the product most resembling our wants and not necessarily the best choice for us.
We would help the consumer make the most informed choices and do all the work of searching; matching and comparing products..
I spent most of the time listening to the conversation but every now and again I would join in and share my ideas.
Overall not a difficult week. For the next couple of weeks I’m going to be helping with the marketing strategies and, hopefully coming up with new content for the blog and social media which should be fun.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave a comment below, or on our Facebook Page or Twitter!
Vanessa
Leave a Reply