Lauren A. Sorensen
It certainly wasn’t a direct path from graduation day to my dream job.
Along the way I sampled positions as a junior high math teacher, collegiate office manager, legal secretary, freelance database designer and, for a brief period there, as a Mary Kay sales rep.
Although they all had their high points (some more than others) I just couldn’t find the right “fit”.
I could give you the line about being a new mom and needing to supplement my husband’s income, but when it comes right down to it,
I just wanted to work hard and to be happy doing so. To be completely honest with you, I just plain don’t like working for other people,
and I’m not all that crazy about working WITH them either! I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and a workaholic when I have work to do and expect the same level of work ethics from my boss/co-workers.
Though I haven’t yet figured out if this is a strength or a weakness, I certainly made it a priority to find employment where I could do my own thing, at my own pace, in my own time without dragging a team along behind me.
So, when a former database design client of mine asked me if I could build a website for them, I threw all sense to the wind and said, “Sure!” I quickly ran home and learned all I could about html, ftp transfers, and just how much code I’d have to learn versus the amount that could be done with a GUI interface.
As it turned out, designing websites was a nice blend of right-hemisphered design work and left-hemisphered coding.
A few years later they asked me if I could get the website I designed to show up closer to the top of the search engines results pages.
Again, I stuck my foot squarely in my mouth and uttered another, “Sure!” This time, I ran home and discovered algorithms, image optimization, keywords and descriptions (they were much more important back then!), site architecture, and robots.
That’s when the SEO bug bit me – HARD.
This stuff was really cool! You could change a couple of words on your webpage, make it more interesting for the reader and move closer to the top of search engines all at the same time.
I could rearrange the layout of a webpage, putting the important stuff toward the top and the miscellaneous stuff at the bottom and again, improve my rankings.
I realized that this was a rapidly changing, up-and-coming industry where nerds like me could make a living surfing the internet from home until 3:30 in the morning and compete with other websites to deliver what the browser really wanted to see.
It was all like a science experiment to see what effect certain changes would make.
So, because I’d rather hang from my toenails than make a cold call, I hooked up with someone who loved sales and understood the internet.
Now he brings me work and all I have to do is what I love to do – optimize websites. It may not be for everyone, but it certainly is the right “fit” for me!
Respectfully submitted,
Lauren A. Sorensen