June Dershewitz has been a web analyst for almost as long as that has been something to be. Currently a member of the leadership team at Semphonic, a top web analytics consultancy, June is a passionate advocate for the field of web analytics as well as a thoughtful and informed adviser on how best to pursue a career in it. An involved member of the web analytics community, June was an early instigator of "Web Analytics Wednesday" and is currently running for a seat on the Board of Directors of the Web Analytics Association.
For this podcast, I spoke with June - the first interviewee to ask me, "You do know that I grew up on a goat farm, right?" - about careers in web analytics, the changes she's seen in the field, and avoiding the "report monkey trap." I invite you to listen in on our conversation. You can do so by clicking on the Flash device below. You are also welcome to download an mp3 of this interview by "right-clicking" ("control-clicking," Mac-wise) on this link. Finally, this and other Talent Blog Podcasts are always available on iTunes.
powered by ODEO
A few highlights of the interview can be found at the following time coordinates:
02:36 - "Web Analytics" is really about "people"
06:28 - "The technology has changed quite a bit - THANK GOD!"
08:43 - Omniture, Visual Sciences HBX, WebTrends, and the limits of Google Analytics
10:47 - Analysis starts with thinking about your goals
12:25 - Things to consider when hiring a web analyst
13:21 - Avoiding the "report monkey trap"
14:59 - Going from "what people are doing" to "why they are doing it"
17:00 - The value of using staffing firms to get project-based contract work
20:12 - Advice for people just starting out in web analytics
21:13 - The origin of "Web Analytics Wednesday"
23:06 - A WAA campaign pitch: Vote for June!
24:53 - "It's important that every company has someone on staff who owns web analytics"
26:03 - Happily employed (and unemployed) as a contractor
Image Courtesy of linkerjpatrick.
Minh Nguyen, a Southern California-based web designer currently working for Sony Electronics, has been represented by our San Diego office for a little over a year. Interestingly enough, his entrance into the Aquent world was fairly coincidental. "A friend of mine was looking for work and I told them about Aquent," he tells me. "I was walking them through the application process by setting up a profile of my own. I didn't think much about it but pretty soon someone from Aquent contacted me."
Minh got into graphic design at an early age. As he puts it, "I owe it to my family. My grandfather taught me how to draw when I was 3. My mom taught me how to color inside the lines when I was 5. My dad taught me HTML and introduced me to Photoshop when I was 14." He was doing web-design casually as a teenager, but by the time he got into college realized he had a passion for it.
Having a hard time getting a full-time design job after graduation, he started his own studio with some friends. Although the studio did fairly well - garnering clients from Jack in the Box to the Surf Rider Foundation - he decided that he was more interested in doing design work than running a business. He turned to Aquent to get back into design and eventually found a permanent position through us.
Since running one's own studio is a choice that many designers make and even more consider, I asked Minh what he learned from his experience doing so. Here's what he told me:
1. Don't just take any job you get, do things for free, or do things on the cheap.
Not only does this lower the bar for other people working in the field, the sites usually aren't that great, and the client will ultimately be dissatisfied.
click to continue...
With Memorial Day safely behind us, summer has officially begun (well, technically, summer begins on June 21, but let's not quibble). While businesses in the U.S. don't generally shut down for the summer, things do sort of slowdown as school lets out, college kids go home, and people go on vacation.
While some full-time employees may be able to breathe a little easier because the boss has gone off to Europe for the month of July, free-lancers eye the dog days of summer with not a little trepidation. As a case in point, I received this question as part of a comment on this post: What is your advice during the slow months of the Spring and Summer when business is slow? How can you reinvent yourself?
While I would like to suggest that, if you are hitting a slow patch in your freelance business, you should give Aquent a call and use them to supplement your workflow, I'm aware that this might not actually address the problem (and could be perceived as fairly self-serving). That being said, wondering where your next gig is going to come from is a fairly typical worry for freelancers, and one that can be tackled in several ways.
Way 1: Never Stop Looking for Work
Most companies have a division of labor between the sales team that spends all their time drumming up business and the service or production team that spends its time doing work for clients. When you're freelancing, you've got to be doing both and unfortunately you can't stop looking for work just because you happen to be doing work. The best way to perform this juggling act is to schedule regular weekly (or daily, if you can swing it) business development activities. If you can think like a salesperson from time to time and maintain a heatlhy sales funnel, fueled by regular networking, you may be able to avoid the work doldrums altogether.
Way 2: Get Some Steady Gigs into the Mix
Many freelancers, particularly freelance writers, find that they can provide themselves a baseline of guaranteed work by getting teaching gigs here and there. While competition for adjunct work may be stiff at the big name universities and colleges, community colleges and adult education centers are often looking for part-time faculty or instructors. In addition, adult ed centers will usually allow you to recommend potential course offerings, which they'll include in their catalogs if they believe there will any interest in them. Of course, most schools are on some sort of quarter or semester schedule, so these teaching engagements will have to be set up several months in advance.
Way 3: Plan NOT to Work
The best way to deal with slow times workwise is to plan on not working. Naturally, this means making sure that you have money squirreled away for the dry spells, which is why you should be taking this "time off" into account when budgeting. Of course, since it is always a challenge for freelancers to find time for honing their skills or acquiring new ones, these slow times could be the perfect opportunity to take a class or "woodshed." Heck, if you can swing it, why not actually go on vacation?
Do people out there have any other suggestions of tactics for handling the slow times when freelancing?
Photo courtesy of OctaviusPie.
