Recently in About Category

I'm working on a new "About Us" page for Aquent.com. As part of that process, we asked a lot of the staff what they tell people when asked why they work at Aquent. My favorite response was the simplest, "Because it's awesome."

Still, as much as I would like this page to state, "The only thing you really need to know about Aquent is this: It's awesome," I feel a distinct pressure to be somewhat more specific and elaborate. To that end, we also asked people to provide us three words they use to describe this place. The sorts of words they came up with, and I had asked them to do so "off the cuff," were: Unique, Passionate, and Caring; Fun, Exciting, and Global; Creative, Inventive, and Friendly; Wicked Smart, Holistic, and Entrepreneurial [technically, that was four words, but you get the picture]; etc.

I dig all of that, and think that these words do indeed capture what Aquent's about, but I was concerned that they were too "internal." To get an external perspective, I started looking through my notes from various interviews I had conducted with Aquent Talent. Of course, these were people for whom we'd found work, so I understand that they would be positively disposed towards us, but I thought their thoughts would help lend a deeper sense of what we're about. So here's what I found.

I got a PhD in German Studies which means, among other things, that I had to make a living as a corporate trainer, writer, and more recently, marketer. It also means that I spent a lot of time studying fascism, communism, and the dynamics of power.

In the course of my studies I came to view both individualism and collectivism with ambivalence and skepticism for much the same reasons: Individualism tends to deny the collective backdrop from which it provisionally emerges and upon which it depends for meaning and survival; collectivism tends to overwhelm and erase the individuals it is supposedly there to nurture and protect and from whom it draws its sustenance.

In the new world of total social mediation, as Theodor Adorno might say, this dynamic plays itself out in a novel way: Online, while a username gives the appearance of individuality, the "user" speaking may actually be a collective, and vice versa.

In this way, the power imbalances that reign in society at large, are simultaneously recreated and obscured. When you confront someone, you don't know if you are confronting a person, an institution, or an entire complex of social relations. At the same time, when an individual responds to this confrontation, he may forget that he is not necessarily speaking as himself, but, instead, as an extension of a larger corporate entity or a particular group of people united by a common interest.

When evaluating online conversations, or participating in them, we err when we reduce them to their literal content. We have to continually weigh and reweigh this content in terms of real, off-line power differentials. For example, based on this differential, a participant may be right in a logical or rational sense, but wrong in a political, social or ethical sense.

Ya get me?

It's high time I took the time, dear blog reader, to explain what I'd like you to do now that I've gotten your attention (at least for the next minute or so). Here goes.

Since you're reading this, you're already doing something I'd like you to do. Thanks!

Next, I'd like you to find this informative, entertaining, and/or interesting. If that's happening, then I'm hoping you'll respond in some way (comment, email, phone call) or that you'll think about my words after you've clicked away to other destinations on the InterWeb and, perhaps, share this blog with someone else.

Of course, this isn't a personal blog; this is a corporate blog. As such, it should be "driving business," which is where the path starts to fork. From a marketing/business development perspective, "what I want you to do" depends on your relationship to Aquent qua Aquent. Here are three possibilities:

1. You already have a relationship with Aquent.

Maybe you're working on assignment through us. Maybe you have in the past. Maybe you're a client. Maybe you're an Aquent employee.

Whatever the particular way you relate to Aquent, and these relationships can and do change with time -- talent become clients, clients become talent, staff become clients or talent, talent become staff, etc. -- I want you to continue that relationship in the way that makes the most sense for you. I also want you to tell other people about Aquent because we did something for you and did it in a way that left a lasting, positive, impression. OK?

I said I was going to use this confounded blog to talk more about what Aquent is up to, and, tarnation, I'm going to do it!

First of all, back in December, our DC office landed a $5.2 million contract to provide the Library of Congress with web services for their New Visitors Experience Project. The contract runs through June 2010. Nice!

Secondly, our Detroit office was selected by the readers of Corp! Magazine as a "Best of Michigan Business" in the "Staffing Firms" category. We've got a great team of hard-working, experienced, and friendly folks working in Detroit and it's nice to see them recognized by their community.

Finally, although it might not be news to some of you, even I sometimes forget the extent of Aquent's reach around this vast green globe. I mean, we've got 5 offices in Australia, 5 more in Japan, 3 in China, and 2 in India, not to mention offices strewn about Europe from Warsaw to Barcelona and from Manchester to Prague. We've got 120 staffers in London alone (which may make London a bigger Aquent-town than Boston, where we've got our headquarters - got to check on that)! Who knew?

In other words, people who work for Aquent work on cool projects in cool places for a cool company.

Wait, wait, wait. That sounded like marketing puffery, so let me rephrase it: Some people who work for Aquent work on some cool projects in some cool places for some cool companies. And you could be one of them!

(Ugh. I try to dial down the puffery and I turn my moment of honesty into a crass promotion. I'm so ashamed.)

This blog, brought to you by Aquent, focuses on the career challenges and choices facing people in marketing professions. By marketing professions I'm referring to marketing, advertising, and design (of the print, web, and product variety). While you will find here discussions of trends, innovations, and big ideas in the relatively vast world of marketing, the common theme will be: What does this mean to marketing organizations, the people running them, and the people who aspire to work in or for them? To that extent, you will also find information regarding career development, job-hunting, recruiting, and all things associated with doing the work of marketing.

Email Address: Email Me
Website: http://www.aquent.com
Location: United States

Biography

In 2003 Tim Donnelly plotted to overthrow the small sporting goods industry town of Sidney, Nebraska (home of Cabela's) with nothing more than a Hostess Twinkie, a pack of matches, and a good deal of gumption.

After being released from the state penitentiary prison hospital (and collecting his Hostess treat, still good after 5 years) he began the long journey to Los Angeles, with every intention of finding a psychotic billionaire in the desert along the way.

Two years later and 40 pounds lighter, he arrived at the home of one Elizabeth Knight, where he fell promptly fell asleep on the couch until the rent came due.

Aquent found Tim in a Copywriters Rescue group in Los Angeles, just hours away from euthanasia.