1. Employment Profile: What exactly does a Senior Manager do? |
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 What field is your job in?
Education
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What is your job title?
Senior Manager
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Please provide a brief description of the firm or organization that you currently work for
(size and general description of what type of organization it is)
I work for a educational television station that is a PBS affiliate. We have about 260 employees and a budget of 6.1 million annually.
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How long have you been employed in this position?
2 years
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How many hours do you work a week on average?
45
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Please provide a BRIEF description of your duties and responsibilities. (job description)
I manage content of a well-known website. For example, I write a monthly e-newsletter, write a homepage, find material, make decisions about navigation, develop content in other areas. For example, I study websites and decide which will be recommended links and which will be in our resource section. Another example: I review books, decide if we will include them in our library section and where they will go and if we will promote them.
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What was your gross income last year? Please include any bonuses or incentives received.
75,000
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What is your expected gross income for this year? Please include any bonuses or incentives you expect to receive.
76000
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Please
list any benefits you have (Please include number of weeks vacation,
sick leave and type of health insurance, retirement plan 401k)
3 wks vacation, 3 personal days, 10 days sick leave, regular health insurance, retirement plan with 2/1 match up to 5% of salary, life insurance
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Do you feel you are under/well/over compensated at your current position?
Undercompensated in comparison with market. This is because it is an educational website
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2. Work environment! |
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Does
your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this
something you like/dislike about your job? Explain
I work collaboratively with others. I supervise coders and make sure their work is correct. I have four people at my level who also run websites. The websites are connected through a content management system. We share staff. So we often need to decide things as a group. For example, by total accident, one of the web managers and I share a specific section of the web, which I'll call the resource section (don't want to inadvertantly identify us). Well, we met with the technical manager and we had to decide if we would separate the 2 sections, how we would implement the separation, and how we would handle the section until we were divided. I like working with others.
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Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes
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Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
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Describe
your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what
you like/dislike about working in it
I have explained above how I worked with coworkers. I have a great relationship with my supervisor and we check with eachother a few times a week.
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Please rank in order of importance from 1-8 (1- most important 8- least important) Assign each number once.
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7 Income
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2 Work Environment - co-workers
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4 Work Environment - supervisors
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6 Benefits
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5 Hours
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3 Level of responsibility
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1 The actual "work" you do at your job
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8 Job Title
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3. How should someone new to the workforce get a J-O-B like yours? |
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If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
I would suggest that you develop content expertise and study the web in your area of expertise. Try to pick an area that has a lot of web activity and where the web is profitable. While in school, volunteer or try to find freelance jobs in that area. Figure out who hires for the website in that area. Be in touch with them and try to have about 4 or 5 positions in your mind so when you are ready to graduate one of them might have an opening or hire you.
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What
skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a
position like yours? Please be specific and explain why (e.g., social
skills, organization skills, technical skills)
To be clear, my job is not entry level. And I am unusual--they hired me with almost no technical skills and I've faced a very steep learning curve. Here is what you need for my type of job 1) Strong content knowlege OR strong connections in the content area so you can set up a committee to make professional judgements for you 2) Technical skills web design, HTML, different CMS's, useability, and others 3) You must know how to handle your time and multiple competing priorities 4) Yep, you need social skills. You really can't hide behind your computer screen.
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Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
No, but I think a college degree would help. My job tends to like Ph.D.'s, but very few people at that level will do web work. But we have one Ph.D. who works for a well-funded website and supervises a bunch of people.
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What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
1) Study the website hard prior to starting work. Know it in and out 2) Find out about the culture of the office you will be working at unless, of course, you decide to work on a contract basis -- and even then it would be helpful. 3) Get internship and volunteer and 4) If you do get an internship, ask for feedback at the end of your internship on how you could do better. Go for high quality in everything you do. Quality is so much rarer than you think- and people will respect it.
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