Bye Bye Beds

After 7 years and 10 months it's finally time to move on to the next adventure as I now begin my last week at the University of Bedfordshire before leaving to lead the digital team at Kier Construction at their head office in Tempsford.

This is a big change of sector for me, but I have clearly done enough to convince them that I have the transferable skills to make the step up, and am very excited about the new opportunities to mentor the staff, continue to learn and to update my LinkedIn profile! Kier are a company who are local to me and seem to be thriving - hence the creation of this role where my responsibilities will continue to include oversight of the digital strategy and websites. Although I've had some great times at Bedfordshire (more on that in a bit) it feels like the right time to move on before I either get stale or begin to get bitter and twisted - I like to think of myself as a 'glass half full' person...

Farewell fun at the Science Museum

For the last month or so I've been saying goodbye to a company which has been a big part of a seminal time in my life in getting married, on the property ladder and becoming a Dad to our three children. I definitely owe Bedfordshire a lot as it has given me the opportunity grow to a position of influence as Digital Marketing Manager and then beyond by encouraging me to undertake my Postgraduate Diploma. I've also earned nine separate industry awards in the last two years with the support of my team. In fact we started my goodbye festivities early by spending the first of my many leaving dos at the Science Museum's late night opening earlier in the month (HIGHLY recommended!)

I won't pretend that it hasn't been a struggle at times and whilst people (both students and staff) are the main reason for enjoying work they can also be the most challenging! I've also had to constantly work to improve myself (work/life balance and learning when NOT to say something being the main two) and I feel that I have developed as a person and manager to a point where I can now work smarter. Digital marketing is an industry where it can sometimes be hard to keep up and I've realised that just because I enjoy my work it doesn’t mean it is good for me to overdo it - I love crisps but I shouldn’t eat them all the time either!

One important lesson is to take time out of the hectic daily schedule to generate and experiment with new ideas. Thankfully I've been blessed with a great team of equally enthusiastic staff allowing us to bounce ideas off of each other and senior staff have supported us in trying new things. With this in mind, the team have recently been engaged in my 'farewell project' of delivering a new film to highlight our research. 

We felt that this was something we could achieve in-house by working together and the combination of my script (edited by every member of the team) an online voiceover audition (courtesy of the excellent online service Voice Realm) and some imaginative use of both Shutterstock's/our imagery we delivered the following in a matter of weeks:

This was all done for a fraction of the cost and is a nice swansong to a company (and team) whom I will really miss. Of course, my new start also means this blog is likely to change slightly too as I will now be citing examples from the construction industry. I do hope that I can continue to offer the same fresh insight whilst also highlighting the fun side of digital marketing.

Bye bye Bedfordshire and thanks for all of the memories...