A Big Cog in a Small Machine Once Again

A Big Cog in a Small Machine Once AgainIn my 16 + years as a digital professional, I have worked for small businesses, a couple of charities and a global corporation. And now I am a big cog in a small machine once again.

Working for Johnson & Johnson for the last 15 months was about as a big a business as I could have worked for. A 130-year-old global giant with over 125,000 employees, 250 subsidiaries in 60 countries selling products in 175 countries. Their worldwide sales amounted to over $70 billion in 2015.

I worked in their High Wycombe office, an inspiring corporate HQ and in offices in Maidenhead and Crowthorne, all impressive places. The last part of my job was managing a project where I was working closely with a development team in Ireland and delivering results through agile processes. I was thoroughly enjoying my time and my team.

It was sad to finish my contract and I was looking for a similar move when I left but the dice rolled and I was snapped up by a small agency in Surrey.

And so I am a big cog in a small machine once again. And I absolutely love it. I am now the Digital Marketing Manager for Clever Marketing, a creative and digital agency in Woking, Surrey. I don’t report to a boss who reports to a boss who reports to a boss and so on and so forth until, so many rungs up the ladder, you get to the top. No, there is me and then there is my boss, the MD. The rest of the team of designers, devs, copywriters and account managers are all on the same level and we all report up one level.

It is also the exact role I was looking for. I wanted to be a Digital Marketing Manager.

Additionally, the work is not just digital marketing. My project management skills are a boon for a small business, I can chip in with copywriting, maybe contribute some graphic design and web design, throw in some development, content management, no longer a small, single-purpose cog in a massive machine, I can make a difference again.

Not that it didn’t happen in the bigger machine but the speed at which change can be managed is so much more responsive.

Let’s do this for at least a year and see if I want to go to a bigger company again…

I love being a big cog in a small machine once again.

 

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