Its now 4 years ago that I graduated from university with a degree in Entertainment Technology from Portsmouth, finishing with a 2:1, although I was agonisingly close to a 1st (69.7 was my final grade).

I was immensely fortunate, that upon graduating I got the very first job that I applied for, as a trainee SEO at Vertical Leap, and on the 1st August, I will celebrating 4 years working in the industry.

In the time that I have worked at Vertical Leap, I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of amazing people to learn SEO from (as well as learning many lessons on life) and seen a tremendous amount of growth in the company. In the time I’ve been here we’ve outgrown2 office already and seem to be swiftly filling up our new one too (though there is still plenty of room for us to grow further).

When we first moved in to these offices, we almost had enough space for a kick about with a football, whereas now we are getting to a stage where we need to think carefully about how to use that space.

In those 4 years, staff have come and gone, as they do, and I have looked to step up to the plate every time it was necessary for me to take on responsibility.

From starting as a trainee SEO, with no real knowledge of the subject (although my degree did supply me with a host of related skills), I have worked hard, kept my head down, retained as many of my clients as possible and done what I can to grow as a person into a bigger role in the company.

Around 18 months to 2 years ago, I was made Team Leader of the growing SEO department at Vertical Leap.

In my previous post, I alluded to this being a bit rubbish title, which was meant to be a joke, although with the pain I felt inside when writing that post, I don’t think that was particularly clear.

A title isn’t really very important in my opinion. I think mine at the moment is somewhat wordy “SEO Team Leader – Campaign Delivery Manager”. Suffice to say, I don’t use that in my email signature!

As I say, a title isn’t very important – what is important is how you fulfil that role.

As Vertical Leap has grown & we employ more staff in the SEO department, the more my role has grown too.

When I first started at Vertical Leap, I was entrusted with a small number of clients, and as my confidence and ability grew, I took on more responsibilities, more campaigns and helped the company generate more revenue.

We launched a blog on the site, and I am one of the more regular writers on the VL search marketing blog (I’m not THE most regular writer, though I do write more than many).

I now have to spend not inconsiderable amounts of time with new staff – teaching them the “Vertical Leap” way, showing them how we utilise our campaign management tool Apollo and ensuring that we treat our clients consistently well and do everything you can to keep them happy – understanding their goals for a campaign.

At first, these extra responsibilities did not come easily, but over the last year in particular I have done my best to do right by my team and help the, to help themselves in their own development – just like I was helped by those that came before me.

Around a year ago, I was also challenged to become better known in the industry – as I’d been doing all this great work for my clients and concentrating on getting things done.

At first I wasn’t sure how to achieve this – and I was left scratching my head about it for some time.

I decided first to start talking to the rest of the SEO community on Twitter – a great place to exchange ideas and techniques , whilst also a platform for some fun exchanges with some other interesting people, and believe to a certain extent I have achieved this goal (although I’m not going to rest on my laurels just yet).

I’ve also looked to put myself about a bit more at industry events – initially with the local Brighton SEO events, but hopefully extending myself a bit further around the country if suitable opportunities present themselves.

Doing all of these things takes hard work and determination – just working the 9-5 hours aren’t sufficient for me to achieve the goals that have been set for me, and buy me.

Clearly, as can be seen from my last post – things in life can affect the course you are trying to take – and there are going to be bumps in the road.

But nothing worth having in life is ever easy – so I will continue to work hard to achieve my goals in life and be more of the person those close to me, need me to be.

I need a device that pauses time. In my work and personal life, time keeps on slipping away…

It’s been months since I’ve written a credible blog on here (tho I have started a recipes blog in that time, which has a few posts), and I never find the time to do things in the evening that I want to be doing – mostly because evenings are my work ‘research’ time…

Life is busy, and as more commitments are added to work and personal life, it adds to that slippage.

At work I’m the ‘team leader’ of the seo department. I think I’d like a better title than that, although I guess that isn’t for me to decide.

Essentially, whilst I don’t have to concern myself with the human resources issues of the staff, I am in charge of making sure everyone services their clients properly and fully, and I’m charge of the way that we approach seo.

Despite this, I also have a full portfolio of clients to manage as well as being responsible for our companies seo, although I don’t always have the control over that, that I would like. I’m not going to gloat about it here, but there are some things that we are doing pretty well for at the moment, although I have targets for improving this further.

In my personal life at the moment, my partner for the last 7 years (well almost, it’s our anniversary next month) has had to deal with an immense amount of problems with her back, as well as starting a new job, having finally escaped the shop floor at HMV, she is now an artworker at b&q’s head office, finally landing the role with graphics she has been seeking since returning from her round the world travels.

She does love the job, although the commute can clearly be a drag. Still, she’s learning fast how to drive (I’ve never had a lesson in my almost 28 years of life :s ) and that should make life easier. It might stop the question ‘when are we moving to southampton’ being asked (quite so frequently).

But it’s her back that really causes her problems. Mich is the same age as me, 27, but for the 8 or 9 years we have known one another, her back has been in a serious decline.

It is hard seeing the ones you love in pain, and being utterly helpless in the face of it.

Mich has what seems to be an uncurable condition in her lower back, which 2 years ago when she had her last MRI scan affected 4/5 of her vertebrae – though I suspect that it is likely to be affecting more than that now, something I guess we’ll find out soon, as she has another back specialist to see in just over a week. I think this will be the 5th or 6th specialist she has seen now, and whilst I want to hope that this can offer the attention and treatment she needs, I’ve mostly come round to the fact that this is a permanent condition, that ultimately we are going to have to live with.

This week has been a particularly bad one for the poor girl, but with lots of commitments at work, I haven’t been able to pay her the attention she not only needs, but thoroughly deserves.

This is why I need a device that can warp time, as sadly my workload is dictating that I need to work this weekend, when I really need to be paying attention to the woman i love.

I guess… Who ever said life was going to be easy