August 1, 2005

Today was my first day of work as Director of Marketing. It’s hard to believe that I wasn’t even looking for a job, when this one cross my path in early June. How often does an opportunity emerge, that’s the next rung up the career ladder? I was fortunate that the process took a little over a month. I had three weeks to get my business projects started, hiring web contractors, so I could start my new job.

I had a great first day in the office. I like my new boss, Tom . He’s calm, quiet spoken, and a nice guy. Even the Controller, who’s supposed to be a “cranky” guy, seems very friendly. It’s nice to have a fresh start. I thought I’d be keyed up like the first day of school, but I it was more of a “matter of fact” feeling. Either I’m getting older, where nothing fazes me or I’m just more confident and prepared.

I spent my first hour with Tom. We mostly chatted, as he gave me the tour, introducing me to everyone, my office, and work laptop. I haven’t had an office, since two jobs ago so that’s a plus. I’m stuck with a little Sony Vaio, which concerns me, since I haven’t had the best luck with Vaios. I had one, but the hard drive crashed twice, so I finally bought an HP. I’m hoping to use my laptop mostly with a flash drive, so I can transfer files or something. I already had mail come in my name for a trade show that we have to attend in September. Talk about hitting the ground running.

First Meeting with Key Colleagues

Tom quickly scheduled a meeting for us with Amanda and the CTO, both of whom, I’ll be working very closely with. They gave me their priorities for marketing. Tom would like me to have a first draft of my 100-day plan by August 12. From Barbara and Luke’s perspective, they’ve identified the following as top priorities:

• Product collateral: channel and direct
• Proposal (standard template): channel and direct
• Tradeshows: speaking engagements, new booth, and lead integration information into Salesforce.com

Top priorities from Tom’s perspective:

Initial Plan for 100 days

• Qualified leads to sales
• Channel development and support (there are two more channels he’s trying to development)
• Non-channel (direct) marketing

Tom mentioned he realized he hadn’t prepared for me, so he started to work on something. He found my two documents that I had given him during the interview process, the 100-day plan and the needs assessment, so he stopped and realized he didn’t have to do anything but show up for my first day of work.

Our Daily Work Tools

I’m such a creature of habit. I always use a separate keyboard and mouse with laptops. I found today to be inefficient, due to not having the right tools. Fortunately, I never unpacked my box of personal items from my previous job. In my personal box, (I believe in not personalizing workspace, in case you need a quick exit), I have my keyboard, mouse, mouse pad, halogen desk lamp, desk pad, desk accessories, and other things. I need my whiteboards, my desk chair, and other things, and then I’ll be truly ready to hit the ground running.

My Portfolio: Key to My Success

The binders I created for Tom have made the rounds with the Management team. For example, my Sales Reference Guide with examples of my work were passed from Barbara to the COO/EVP and CTO; both of whom were very excited to see that they too could have tools like that for their company. These notebooks were key to landing the job. More importantly, my portfolio demonstrated I’ve created these documents before. It’s been nice to hear positive feedback from everyone.

First On-site Demo Tomorrow Morning

I’ve been invited to sit in on a sales demo with Tom and Barbara for tomorrow morning. It’s not very often these things happen locally, so I’m looking forward to seeing both of them in action.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company.

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