www.tetuliablog.com

As you can see, I am now working for Tetulia and loving it!  Please do check out my current blog at www.tetuliablog.com

Thanks!

Meet the newest employee of Tetulia

That’s right my friends!!  I received a call from Linda last Friday offering me the job of Brand Manager of Tetulia – a premium organic tea company.  Talk about great news!!! I was just starting my rock bottom obsession of if I would even get the job, when I decided that I needed to shower, get cleaned up, and get out of the house.  When I got out of the shower I noticed that Linda had called but didn’t leave a message.  WHAT?!  What could this possibly mean!  So of course, I freaked out and IM’d every person that I could find online.  My friend and ex-boss Neal told me that I could in fact call her back, but to wait some time as to not look like a total stalker.  So I waited.  Un-patiently I waited.  Finally the phone rang and I was even more nervous when I saw that it was her.  We chatted about my phone call with Anis and Shilpa and I said that I hoped I had given them the information they were looking for.  She then said “you must have, because we’d like to offer you the job”.  YES!!!  I quietly jumped up and down, and I think i may have knocked my cat off of the couch (sorry Oliver).  So, I start me new job this Thursday, Valentines Day.  Yes Tetulia, I will be your Valentine.

So that leaves me with one question… What do I do with this blog now?

A Phone Call from Bangladesh

I had my second interview, via phone call, last night with Anis and Shilpa from the Kazi and Kazi Tea Estate in Bangladesh. I was mostly concerned with the fact that I was doing this over a cell phone, as it turns out I don’t know anyone these days that have a land line! The last thing I wanted was for my phone to cut out and drop the call! Well my trusty phone held up and the call went through just fine. I did have some difficulty hearing Shilpa – but I think that was due to the speaker phone they were using.

The call was pretty short, only about 30 minutes. They were very polite and started off by telling me my resume was impressive. Not a bad way to start an interview! The asked me questions about the online store for Flying Dog, my importing experience with Ouray and Abacuss, and some general questions about what I’ve done with marketing consumer packaged goods. In turn I asked them about their growth plans and also about the product in general. I felt very confident, as I was able to intelligently answer each question, and I was pleased with myself as with each answer I displayed that I was very qualified for the position.

They ended the call telling me that they would be talking to Linda about our conversation and thanked me for my time. They also said that if I was chosen for the position, they felt it would be a great working relationship. YES!

I can honestly say that waiting for the phone to ring about a possible job just may in fact be worse than waiting for a guy to call. But overall I feel pretty good and can’t wait to start working!

This 2nd is a 1st

I was talking to my friend Chris today about how I’m starting to get a bit worried about this whole job hunt thing.  I feel as though I have applied for all of the good jobs and not too many new ones open up each day.  Well… low and behold I get a call from Linda at Tetulia today for a 2nd interview.  That’s right… yours truly will be chatting it up at 7pm on Wednesday to Anis across the globe in India.  This is exactly the news I needed to hear and from exactly that people I wanted to hear it from.  Anis and Shilpa be ready… I’m going to wow with my American, consumer packaged goods, beverage, brand manager, general kick ass ways.  If the overseas call goes through that is.

Let’s have a Tea Party!

Mad Hatter: Would you like a little more tea?

Alice: Well, I haven’t had any yet,

so I can’t very well take more.

March Hare: Ah, you mean you can’t

very well take less.

Mad Hatter: Yes. You can always take

more than nothing.

I had Applied for the position of Brand Manager with an unknown company about 2 weeks ago. The posting was quite vague so I really didn’t think much about it. All I knew is that is said Entrepreneurial, Brand Manager, and Beverage Industry – and that was enough. I then received an email from Linda asking if I would be interested in meeting up for an interview. Of course I don’t want to turn down an interview so I ask her where her office is and when she would like to meet. Her reply kind of made me laugh. She said that this was truly a start-up company and that the offices were not yet finished. We agreed to meet at a Starbucks the following week, January 30th.

Before the interview I did my research, as any good job-applier would, and found a blurb about Linda indicating that she had been the VP for consumer brands such as Oxi Clean, Orange Glo, and various other cleaning products. I instantly got nervous, as this lady knew her sh*t! (I have no idea why I didn’t just type shit, but I like the way the * looks, so I’ll leave it)

I met Linda and her Husband at the coffee shop and I was instantly charmed as her husband joked with me about not taking him up on his offer for a scone (dribbling coffee out of my mouth while telling her how qualified I am was enough, I don’t think I needed the added attention of scone crumbs lingering… hm, I wonder if she would have told me I had food on my face, I bet she would).

Linda explained to me that the brand of the tea was Tetulia and it came from the tea farm Kazi and Kazi Tea Estate in Bangladesh. The company would consist of the overseas tea farm and the two of us. She had already done package design and set up PR, accounting, and in the process of setting up fulfillment. The idea was to target consumers directly and then after creating a buzz, get into the premium tea market, targeting restaurants and hotels. She explained that the product is unique because not only is it 100% organic, but you can trace it’s life cycle back to the individual that picked it’s leaves. Well – that’s AWESOME in my book!

Yes, this is a start up company. However, I feel very confident about the product, about Linda herself, and about my abilities to make this an amazing journey. Linda said that she had a couple more people to interview (i hex you people, i hex you!) and that there would be a second interview early next week. I’m extremely excited about this opportunity, and I can’t wait to shift my drinking habits from craft beer to organic tea. (well, most of the time anyway)

Let’s Play Catch-up

I’ve taken some time off from writing The Great Job Hunt. So rather than posting 50 entries about various topics, I’ll just post a recap of the past couple of days.

Blue #2 – I still love you:

I had what I felt was a great interview with Cindy at Blue Moon Works. I was upfront, honest, and genuinely interested in our conversation. I mean really, you can’t bullshit your way though an interview when you both know that you don’t really know what you’re talking about. I tried to expand on my personal / professional selling points as best as possible. I talked to Cindy for quite some time and we went over various aspects of SEO as well as some of their current projects. I asked as many questions as I could, but when you don’t know a lot about something, it’s hard to ask questions. She gave me a great interview. Just the right balance of stern and accessible. Also, she was very upfront in saying that most applicants had an edge over me, as their resume was full of SEO experience… mine was not. But again, she was complimentary in that she said I possessed a sharpness and creativity that she liked. And also, she liked me in general (thanks Cindy, I like you too). I then met with the CEO, named Cindy as well. CEO Cindy was a very exciting person to talk to. She had this amazing energy and wonderful laugh. I found that what was supposed to be part 2 of my interview may have turned into a wonderful friendly conversation.

I left with the instructions to go home and think very hard about the possibility of moving my career into the SEO industry. I was so pleased that they were as cautious about this as I was. The last thing I wanted was to get there and only be there for a month.

Over the weekend I gave it some good hard thought and emailed Cindy back on Monday. I’m not sure if I told her what she wanted to hear, as I pretty much said that I wasn’t 100% ready to say Yes, I want this. I was, however, 100% sure that I was extremely interested, I was very excited about the company, and I wanted to continue to speak about it more.

As of yet I have not heard back from Cindy. I think I’ll send her one more follow-up email, but I’m guessing she decided to go another route. I don’t fell that bad about that as it was kind of a long shot to begin with. However, I can’t thank her enough for opening my eyes to other possibilities outside of typical marketing jobs.

Randoms:

Online Marketing Manager: After my interview with Blue #2 I went out to my car to find that I had received a Message about another opportunity. Wow, a call about an interview while in an interview! It was from Linda at ShopAtHome.com about a position I had applied for a few days prior. I called her back when I got home and talk to her for about 15 minutes. At the end of the conversation she said that she would be calling the next week to set up interviews. As of yet, I haven’t received a call, but that’s okay because I really don’t think the company is right for me anyway. Sure, rejection hurts, but why waste time.

Social Networking: I received a call from Michael Wachholz for Shift Marketing. Michael does marketing for the racing team K-PAX of the World Challenge GT Series. The only experience I’ve ever had with racing is changing the channel when my boyfriend watches it. Michael was interested in reaching a younger demographic and wanted to develop a Myspace and Facebook campaign. The position would be contract and he was very understanding about my job hunt. He said that it would be okay for me to stop work for him once I found a full time position (he also said I sounded very Mature…. is that a good thing? Is very mature when you’re 28 reaching the line of sounding old?). He asked that I put together a strategic plan and send it to him by Tuesday. At first a couple of things went though my head. First – how would one get paid for a project like this? I assume some sort of lump sum, as tracking ROI would take quite some time. Second – who’s to say that he doesn’t just take my plan and give it to some 15 year old Mypace genius. I thought about it and decided that maybe this wouldn’t be the best for me. My main reason is because in order for something like that to be at all successful, you need to maintain those pages for quite some time, and hopefully I’ll be busy soon with my dream job. So sorry Michael, I’m not your gal.

That brings us to Tea. Which deserves it’s own post.

Stay Tuned…

Blue #2, I come for you…

So far the most exciting job news that I’ve had was a phone call from Cindy at Blue Moon Works. There is some history here, allow me to explain: A couple of months ago (while still working at Flying Dog) I received a google alert about a presentation on social networking given at a conference. The presenter was Cindy Krum of Blue Moon Works. Included in her presentation was a bit about Flying Dog Brewery and the success we’ve had with Myspace. I quickly commented on her Myspace page and thanked her for including us. Cindy then emailed me and asked if I was the administrator of the Flying Dog Myspace page and of course I replied yes. We exchanged a couple more emails on the subject and that was that. After the news of my departure from Flying Dog, Cindy emailed me and asked for my resume – just in case she saw any opportunities for me. I thanked her and sent my resume on over.

Last week, Cindy called me with some questions about my resume. It just so happened that there were a couple of positions open at Blue Moon Works, and she wanted to explore the possibility of me being on her “team”. My first thought was how awesome of her to think of me! My second thought was, wait – I don’t even know what the job is! We chatted for about a half hour and she explained to me that Blue Moon Works is a progressive SEO company. I instantly got a little nervous, as I do have experience with SEO, but not a ton. She then asked me if I knew HTML, and I replied a little ( a little meaning I know how to look up codes in HTML for dummies). She assured me that they have great training programs, and that what I didn’t know, it was possible I could be trained on. She also told me that she thought of me because she is looking for people with fresh, innovative ideas. Well, THAT’S ME! I asked for a formal job description and she asked for some writing samples. After that, she invited me in for a formal interview – which is tomorrow at 1pm.

I have never thought about pursuing a career with a SEO company, but it’s all I can think about now! As for my qualifications… if they can train me more on the technical stuff, I feel I’m TOTALLY qualified. I love the idea of my career heading in this direction!

Effective UI, Effectivly Awesome

I just got off of a brief phone interview with Catherine of Effective UI. I knew it was going to be a good conversation in the first 2 minutes. Catherine is new to the company, and the honesty and genuine great spirit she displayed made me instantly want to work with her. One of the things I like best about what she had to say was the description of the company culture. Not only does it fit with what I’m looking for, but it seems that having a good fit, culture wise, is just as important to them. I had explained to her that upon reviewing my options and where I’d like to go with my career, I’ve definitely given a lot of attention to the internet/tech industry. And after speaking with her that has just made me re-enforce that decision even more. The company itself seems to be growing at a healthy rate, and from what she said, they are very open about business practices and financial information. I now see this as a huge plus because not only does it make you want to work harder for the company, but it also instills a sense of confidence and security.

I explained to Catherine that I might be looking for a little more in terms of a challenging job description and a more suitable salary. I was blown away when she mentioned that a conversation had taken place, in regards to my resume, about the potential to make changes to this position to be more attractive (probably not just for me, but in general). I feel that there could be a great opportunity here for me, and that I could be a great candidate for them. And if anything, she did a great job of representing the company and the marketing department. If it turns out that this position just isn’t meant to be, I will harbor no hard feelings and this would be a company that I would pursue later down the road – and how knows, maybe I’ll even be in the position to hire them some day.

So thank you to Nick and Catherine and I can’t wait to talk further about any upcoming opportunities.

Effective UI

My friend Nick works for a company in Denver called Effective UI. I don’t know a lot about the company, but I do know that Nick travels a ton and works on some pretty high profile stuff for some big name clients. Outside looking in, it looks pretty sweet to me. Like any good friend would, Nick sent my resume to the marketing department. Turns out they have a position open for a marketing coordinator. I received an email today from their marketing manager to set up a phone interview. Upon setting the time (3:30) I also requested a copy of the job description as they don’t have it posted on their website. I received the job description and carefully read it over. My one fear is that I may be over-qualified for this particular position. Also, their posted salary range is below what I’m looking for. Of course I’m still going to have the phone interview, but I think I might use it as an opportunity to gain more knowledge about the industry to help me in other interviews. Also, if they increased the salary, I would definitely take a more serious look at the job. And who knows, maybe there is an opportunity that I or they don’t even know about. Or maybe there is an opportunity that I could convince them of!

PS When I see and say Effective UI i can’t help but think “infected urinary tract” – i might be a crazy cat lady.

Jobs that I have applied for today:

Online Content Guru – eToys.com / ParentCo

Online Affiliate Coordinator – Video Professor

Interactive Media Specialist – 90Octane

Sourcing and Merchandising - Company unknown

Some of these are total pie in the sky attempts. But who knows…. I might just be that savvy tech girl that I’ve never knew I wanted to be.