I Drank the Orange Soda
Since I got into Internet marketing and fell in love with it the holy grail was a work-from-home job. I thought now I’m free! I can make money anywhere. I thought to truly arrive you had to work at home for yourself. That’s what I wanted. Then I got it, mostly.
At first working for myself was an adventure. I exercised most days, I met and talked to friends during the day and worked until late at night. I had flexibility. I worked in my pjs or sometimes in a towel (I don’t recommend you do that very often).
Then it started to wear off. I missed working with a group of people. I had some big disruptions with one of the companies I worked for and suddenly what I’d spent months building started to fall apart. In just a few months I lost over half my income, crashed my car, and had a rough go of it. You can probably tell from the tone of this post about getting a job.
I chose two places to apply. I’m not in a position to move or I’d be in the hipper Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake. But being environmentally and family - conscious I didn’t want a long commute. For a few reasons, I also had lingering trauma over having a regular job. I knew I wanted to work for a place where I wasn’t fighting for Internet marketing by myself. I wanted a team and a friendly or at least not hostile IT department.
I thought of not blogging about this but I notice a trend that even big time execs blog about departing or starting new jobs. It’s fashionable and in the dynamic industry I’m in, the average time at a job tends to be about 18 months. Then note that I live in an extremely entrepreneurial place. Most startups I’ve worked for over the years are out of business. Or they have VC funding that can mean quick unexpected layoffs.
Besides, Andy Beal outed the news on Twitter. I have built a bit of a following there, thanks in a large part to him. So I drank the Orange soda and rode the beach cruiser around the office. I’ve joined a few fellow Utah bloggers and others doing SEO for businesses at a company called OrangeSoda.
A thank you for inspiring this change goes to Penelope Trunk. I talked about how over time Internet marketing went from being my obsession to being a job I love. That means more balance and better separation between work and home life.
Orange Soda has grown quickly as agencies outsource their Internet marketing services to them. When someone says “free food” people here stampede. It’s young, hip, and still hungry like the beginning days of the web. Plus I love the noise.
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4 Responses to “I Drank the Orange Soda”
Leave a Reply
February 20th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
What the…oh yeah you told me about that already - best of luck…W2
February 20th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Congrats and good luck on your new venture. But keep writing … I enjoy reading your stuff!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:40 am
Working by yourself in a vacuum can get old. Sounds like you’ve found a fun, gung-ho crew to work with. Not to mention the free food opportunities.
February 24th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
“sometimes in a towel”…. picture’s please.
God males are such $%#^@#+%s
Congrats on your new job. Alexis must be
very happy. Who is that, why did I type
that? Maybe writing comments on a blog
while someone is talking to me as I watch
TV is not the thing to do.
So much for multi-tasking. Is that still the
thing? I should go get a job. Six years of
working from home has created a huge
‘vacuum’. I wonder am I even employable
anymore?
Paul