My Career at 23.

As mentioned when I first started this blog, I have a bad habit of only posting when extraordinarily exciting things are happening. While my life has been exciting the last couple weeks, I haven’t taken any photos of it, something my family has reminded me of. So here’s what’s been going on…

4th of July weekend. Friday night we went to the drive-in movies with Randy, Sabra, Megan, Ryan, and some of Randy and Sabra’s friends from church. We saw Jurassic World for the second time and part of San Andreas (I wasn’t impressed..)

Saturday, we had a big BBQ/pool party at Brian’s house and watched fireworks in Clearfield, which was one of the most amazing shows I’ve seen yet.

But the most exciting part of my life currently is my new job. For those of you that don’t know, I accepted a new position as the marketing director at Smith Knowles Attorneys in Ogden, UT. Funny story how that worked out actually…

For the last couple months, Brian and I have talked about how when my apartment lease is up in September, I should move to Ogden. Not only is it an opportunity to live closer to him, but Ogden has a charm to it that Salt Lake City does not. Ogden is more rural and not as cramped. It has an old time feel to it and I think it’s cute.

After applying and interviewing with a company that I thought would be a good fit for me, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t financially what I was looking for and after not getting a response from them, I was annoyed enough to begin looking for another  position earlier than I had intended. 

Side note: I decided I did NOT enjoy B2B sales, and Ricoh, as the big company that it is, was going through some organizational change that made every single day of my job a headache and a half. I decided I would rather commute 45 mins each way to Ogden each day than stay at Ricoh any longer. 

I was searching on KSL.com for jobs sporadically when I came across a listing for a receptionist position at Smith Knowles. While there wasn’t any indication of what the position paid, I decided to apply anyway. I immediately got an email from Ben, the manager, asking if I was aware that the office was located in Ogden, as he saw my address on my resume was SLC. I explained I would be moving to Ogden soon, and he had someone call and set up an interview for me.

On the day of, I wasn’t nervous at all, almost assuming the position would pay too low for me to even consider, and I was proven right when halfway through the interview Ben stopped me and said “I have to say this now, you’re overqualified for this job and I don’t think you’ll be making the kind of money you’re hoping for.” My heart dropped a little when he said it. I was already making mental plans to live in the apartments beside the temple (literally across from the office) and dreams of walking to work seemed crushed. But then, he followed it up with this:

“However, we have a job I think you might be interested in. We haven’t been advertising for it in hopes that the perfect person would fall into our laps. We need a marketing director, and based on your sales experience and marketing work in Los Angeles, I think you’d be a great fit. If you’re interested, I’ll grab the president of the company and he can explain more about it to you.”

Obviously I said yes. And freaked out while he was out of the room. When the president came back in, he was holding my resume and the first thing he said was, “So Jessica, you’re from West Virginia.” I wasn’t sure whether to be offended that this was what stuck out to him the most, or scared that WV jokes were coming. It turns out, he served his LDS mission in WV and one of his best friends that he taught out there grew up in my hometown. SMALL WORLD. And on top of that, totally unheard of since no one out here knows where the heck Berkeley Springs, WV is. 

Giving me more information turned into me walking out of the office half an hour later with a formal offer letter in my hand. 

The first thing I did was freak out with excitement. The second thing I did was take the letter to Brian at work so we could both freak out with excitement. After a lot of speculation and prayer, it seemed like the offer was too good to be true. However, after two weeks I can happily say it is as good as I had hoped.

I market for 10 attorneys who are all LDS and incredibly nice. Everyone at work is helpful, uplifting, supportive, and extremely kind. My days fly by, my salary and commission are both significantly higher, and I have a renewed sense of happiness and accomplishment in work. 

I’m currently typing this from my brand new MacBook Pro the company provided me with. I have the freedom (both managerially and monetarily) to extend my creativity into any marketing idea I can think of. Best of all, I’m happily in a successful career at 23. 

Lessons learned here:

1. You’ve got to pay your dues. If I hadn’t struggled unhappily through 10 months at Ricoh, I wouldn’t have this job now.
2. God’s timing is spot on.
3. Prayer solves all problems, or at least changes your outlook on them so they can be seen as a blessing and not a problem.

I will try to remember to update on exciting events and marketing ideas I create at work. It shouldn’t be hard since I actually enjoy my occupation now.. Every aspect of my life makes me extremely happy. I truly have an absolutely incredible life with amazing people in it.

The only photos I've taken recently...

This was actually a snapchat but I found it amusing so here it is. Pre 4th of July party.

 New place of employment.

My pretty new MacBook Pro & Kate Spade case (:

 My cousin, Joe, his wife Julie, and their boys came to visit. These munchkins hold a very special place in my heart. & Here is a photo of 5 of my very favorite boys all together.

 I think I'll keep him.

XOXO.