My New Job

• Posted: April 7, 2009
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• Author: Adam
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• Filed under: Young Professonal
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• Tags: New Job, Visible Measures

In August I was offered a position as account manager at Union Street Media, a top-notch web development firm in the hometown of my alma mater, Burlington Vermont. I was excited by the opportunity and I loved the work I did as well as the people I worked with but I felt it was time for a change. This change came when I made the tough decision to turn down the position and two weeks later I hopped on a plane to Dublin.

I spent just under 2 months making my way through several countries, breweries, museums, castles, movie sets and mountain ranges; I had the experience of a lifetime. Not only did I spend all my money but I also spent a bunch that wasn’t mine thank you Citibank. I landed in Boston with an overdrawn bank account, a pair of beat-up Nike’s and my whole-hearted Internet geekiness in tact. I had to find a job.

So I went to work; blogging, micro-blogging, networking (on and off-line) and met some great people, many of whom worked at HubSpot. After visiting the HubSpot offices and meeting a bunch of the prominent ‘spotters I instantly put it on the top of my list for companies to work for.

Naturally, HubSpot was the first company I applied to and as the weeks went on I waited and waited, checking my email constantly and carrying my phone everywhere I went. But one must diversify and keep an open mind, so I kept on the network. As many know this is a stressful time, a time that many young professionals go through, I like to call it the post-college grad, pre “real job”, mom and dad couch bum phase.

In late November I went to BosUp 2008, a local “Tweet-up” and met several local twits. One of which was Wayne Kurtzman, a New Hampshire web analyst with a knack for the tweet. Wayne told me about an upcoming event, “Web Analytics Wednesday” (beautifully geeky, I know). I decided to go after remembering I have fond memories of the Burlington equivalent.

At this event I met many of Boston’s Internet professionals, all with a different unique talent for the art of web traffic analysis. One of these professionals was an up and coming star, a true legend of the log, Mr. Michael Morrissey. Mike was an intern for Visible Measures, a local start-up with some new technology. I talked to mike for a good hour about what I loved about Web Analytics and he explained to me the Visible Measures tale. I was enthralled with the idea of tracking and analyzing the consumption of online video and I gave mike my card, hoping to keep in touch. I left that night with some cool ideas, a few new contacts and a bit of a bounce in my step, but still waiting for that fateful HubSpot email.

The next day I started to investigate the new frontier of online video and wrote my own take on it. The day after that I was reading the Visible Measures blog when I got another fateful email:

“Hi Adam,

Turns out Mike had passed my card along at his office, along with what must have been a few words about my blabbing geekiness. Within the week I got through a phone interview, a Formal interview and 5-hour steel cage match of a team interview. Within two weeks of meeting Mike I was offered an internship as a data jockey and with HubSpot between hiring times I decided to take it. With the hope of a full time job offer I made the most of this opportunity and three months later I was offered a full time position as a Campaign Analyst.

I have once again proved I am the luckiest guy in the world. I have the opportunity to do everything I want; data work, presentation work, blog writing, website editing, site analytics and I am encouraged to try new things. Mike, who was an intern when we met, is now my manager, a damn good one at that. A recent highlight of my job has been working on the recently announced AdvertisingAge Viral Video Chart powered by Visible Measures, an exciting project headed up by friend and fellow former intern, James O’Connor.

The company is small and we are a close friendly group loaded with people who are way smarted than me; one can’t help but learn new things everyday. We recently announced a $10 million series C round of funding, not an easy feat in this economy. I am ecstatic to be where I am and I couldn’t have done it without the people I mentioned and probably a hundred more that I didn’t.  You can also expect much more #socialvideo content on here to come.

*Care to find out what motivates and inspires me? Check out this guest post I recently did for one of the premier blogs for young professionals, Small Hands, Big Ideas.

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