Usually, when you first join a new company, you walk into the office with the first day jitters, awkwardly trying to find your desk and shake hands, juggling all of the items you have in your hands between papers, your laptop, lunch, etc.  But, we’re in 2022 and everything is online now. My experience joining a digital marketing firm has been much different than the example mentioned above.  My “first day” consisted of me sitting in my apartment with a button down shirt and sports shorts on. My first interaction with everyone from the company was when I clicked on the team’s “Google Meet” link. It was a far different experience than any other job I have ever had. 

We had a team wide meeting with 15 plus people all crammed onto my 14” laptop screen. Only one person can talk at a time so it makes your voice heard even more because everyone is listening to what you have to say. 

In the digital landscape, you really need to try hard to create personal connections with your co-workers because the only times you're talking to them is when you have a scheduled 15-30 minute video meeting on the calendar so you need to make every minute count. On the flip side, it is also more convenient because if you need to ask someone a question you can either Slack them or drop a video meeting link and within seconds you’re sharing your screen pivoting between different projects. 

Working remotely for a digital marketing firm has taught me a few things, 

• Communication is more important than ever.
• Trusting your co-workers is just as important.
• It’s ok to reach out to your teammates for updates on projects that you are both working on. 
• It is imperative to start organizing all of your files instantly, or you will feel like you are drowning every time you try to find a photo, video, email or word document from days prior.
• It’s ok to work in your underwear if you want to.
• Google / Youtube university is your best friend.

Working in a digital marketing firm for the last 3 months has taught me how to wear many different hats whether it be talking to clients, creating graphics, performing initial keyword/SEO research, editing photos, creating email campaigns, configuring workflows in HubSpot and organizing social media posts just to name a few. 

In my situation, what really made it feel like a successful onboarding was the over communication and the green light from “higher-ups” to ask questions if/as needed. When there are so many moving parts, it is very important to try first and if you can't figure it out, ask questions after. 

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