Well, this past week has been so exhausting, busy, fun and exciting, I don't know where to begin! I realized last Tuesday that I was about to start work for Woolworths, and yet I had never even been in one of their stores! So that night I rode the bus out to the mall and shopped at the Woolies there. (The supermarket.) The place was huge and bustling at 7 pm. I have only been shopping at the Coles supermarkets because there are TWO within a half mile from us in Manly. First thing I learn on my first day, Coles is the arch enemy of Wollies. Whoops.
So on my first day, I arrived early, (even if I had to put my make up on on the ferry.... Good thing I don't wear very much,) and was greeted by one of the women who interviewed me. (Because I know you're wondering mom, I wore the black pants, a nice gray work top, and a black sweater. I realized last week that I didn't bring that many nice work clothes with me, so I went to Big W, another store owned by Wollies, and bought two shirts. One of them was the one I wore on the first day and I panicked mid way to work thinking people would recognize it as a shirt from Big W and think I was either a suckup or really poor. Big W is kind of like Kmart, but they have cool clothes! Luckily, I don't think anyone noticed.) Anyway, Victoria took me to the first floor, half of which is made up of the Woolies team and started introducing me to everyone.
They were all really nice and seemed excited to have me on board. Turns out, the three other people they are hiring aren't starting until next week and the following, so they are severely understaffed at the moment, and need all the help they can get! To be honest, that first day of work was so busy and crazy that I left thinking, "what have I gotten myself into." But each day I have been learning more about how their media plans and buys work, and gotten more and more comfortable, and I'm really liking the fast pace life of working for an enormous company.
I think part of the craziness was because I am being trained by the girl who I am replacing, (she's moving onto another account,) and although she has been with the company for 2 years, she is only 21 and not the best at explaining things in a logical manner. : ) (She has worked 4 days a week for two years while going to school part time, pretty common over here, so she's moving to an account where it will be easier to not work on Tuesdays.) She is really sweet and trying hard to give me all the information I need to do the job, but sometimes I have to say, "Ok Alice, from the beginning, what is the process for booking radio..... No, lets finish going over radio before we jump to newspaper..." : )
It's really interesting how they do things differently over here. Client relationships seem much more relaxed, and they call the clients all the time with little questions, whereas in the US, we try to bother the clients as little as possible. They also don't need an official document signed and dated by the clients to book media like I'm used to. As soon as the client sends an email saying Yes, we're good to go. I think I like this style better, but some procedures, such as invoicing, might drive me crazy. (4 different documents that all have to match perfectly. Why can't it all be in one place?!)
By Friday, I had already met a bunch of our media reps, and I had put together a plan for a new store opening in Merrylands. Yes, that is the name of one of the towns. There is also a neighborhood in Sydney called Woolloomooloo. Can you believe that?! Can you imagine writing that as the return address on every piece of mail?! Haha. It cracks me up.
My office is in the Rocks, the area that juts out into the harbor and has tons of cute cafes and restaurants around. We also have a lot of great perks because the office is so large. Such as, fresh fruit delivered every Monday and Wednesday, a fridge stocked with bread and jams and peanut butter , and one Friday a month, one of the media sales companies throws a little party with drinks and snacks for the whole office on the third floor. Oh, and they also get 20 days of vacation, 10 sick days and 4 personal days a yer! Unreal! So all in all I'm really liking my job so far.
I'll have to write another post abut scuba diving last weekend because it's time for bed. I'm getting up at 5 am tomorrow to go for a row and need to get my 8 hours!
Goodnight!
Xoxo
Ellie
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