Tuesday, March 13, 2007

My Elevator Speech

I have one of those jobs which is kind of hard to sum up quickly in a sentence, like, “I’m a lawyer,” or “I sell counterfeit jewelry.” I’ve never been able to refine my spiel into the ‘elevator speech’ you’re supposed to have ready and waiting as a professional. Instead, I have to take the, “Well, it’s like this. . .” route, and tailor my account of what I do based on how much the person to whom I’m talking knows about digital media.

I am an SEO. I do search engine optimization for websites.

Here is the part where most people get the glazed, blank look where I know they have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. Let me explain: I make your website findable when people look for your stuff on Google or Yahoo! or whatever. It’s kind of the perfect job for me; a balance of creativity and technical proficiency that makes me decidedly dorky but highly evangelical about what I do. I could seriously talk about SEO all day, in a way that, as my audience is committing seppuku and leaping from windows, I’d still be happily rattling on, oblivious to the mayhem and carnage before me.

Today a colleague mentioned that my name had come up in an industry-related podcast. Now, the SEO world is pretty small, but still, I had no idea I was on such a short list. The podcaster was actually quoting this article about some of the 60 top in-house SEO’s in America. I was included on the list, and now I feel like a total bad-ass. A flattered bad-ass, but a bad-ass nonetheless. It’s nice to be recognized for what one does (and loves).

I’m leaving my current job, which I adore, in early April, as our offices are relocating far, far away, and commuting is totally not my thing. Without doing a lick of legwork, I was able to secure a new job at an awesome place, where I feel resources and support will be no problem. I’m a little heartbroken to be leaving my current job, but it was incredibly reassuring to walk into interviews knowing I DO know my stuff, and I AM an expert in my weird niche. I shall now go celebrate myself by buying shoes.

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3 Comments:

Blogger amandapetunia said...

Yeah try telling someone what interaction designer/ user experience is. Eventually they nod just to shut me up.

Congrats on being famous.

11:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

SEO could easily be misheard as CEO if you say it really fast. Talk about bad-ass!

Congrats on the new job and being named one of the best. You deserve it.

Really, "search engine optimization" is pretty self explanatory. What is interesting is how that is actually done at the programming level.

I remember writing algorithms for a clinical database in my first job out of college. People thought I was some sort of smarty pants.

10:02 PM  
Blogger demdiva said...

Liz is the smartest girl ever. We ♥ her!

That was, like, the most genuine and positive emotion I've had in weeks.

4:54 PM  

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