About A Job

Job title: Account Manager
Previous Job Title(s): N/A
Year(s) with Company: 1
Industry: Higher Education
Age: 24
Highest level of education (major if applicable): Bachelors Degree
Income: $40,000 - $45,000
City/Region: New York, NY
Company Size (employees and/or revenue): 40/$5 million per year.
What does your company do? Develop and deploy web based modules to engage and influence target audiences in higher education.
Who do you report to: Director, Client Services
Positions reporting to you (if applicable): Interns and Production Team
Typical day: There is a lot of travel involved. A typical day when I am in the office is spent following up on emails, training on different aspects of the software programs, coordinating the production of project with design and editorial, and communicating progress and next steps to the client. When on the road, we are typically gone for a week at a time focusing on a specific geographical region. Time is spent reviewing projects, training additional client team members, reinforcing the value of the product, and putting in face time with the client. Travel requires a lot of driving, cheap hotels, and a lot of late nights following up with what is happening back at the office.
What time do you show up in the morning? 9:00 am
What time do you leave at night? 7:00 Pm
Lunch Hour or Free Time? 1 hour. Go to the gym 3 days a week during this time and bring lunch back to the office.
Does someone monitor your attendance or track your hours? Yes. I get a hard time if I am late.
Corner office, Shared office, Cube, Work from home, Travel: Shared office with 4 other account managers.
Job duties/Responsibilities: Training clients, coordinating projects, presenting and engaging client throughout project duration, coordinating internal team to meet deliverables.
Essential skills: Presentation skills, negotiation, project management, patience, follow through.
What I do most is… answer emails and convince production to work more expeditiously.
How is your performance evaluated? Retention of clients.
Special Projects and assignments: Tasked with leading upsell initiatives which requires discovery, sales, and negotiations.
Perks? Corporate credit card and no out of pocket expenses when traveling.
The BEST thing about my job is… Autonomy to drive project from inception through delivery.
The WORST thing about my job is… My boss.
What they never told me when I was interviewing? FIND OUT IF YOUR BOSS IS A MICRO MANAGER OR NOT! Make it known what type of manager you work best with.
What I expect to do and desired salary in 5 years? Marketing/Advertising Executive making ~$100k.
Would you recommend this job to a friend? NO.
Would you recommend this industry to a friend? NO.
Do you think you are on the right career path? Yes.
Do you expect to go back to school? Yes for my MBA.
Company Events, Happy Hours, Friday Beer, Gym Membership, Summer Fridays, etc? Yeah right.
What else? Don’t hold back with your rant or rave: The job really gave me some great experience and learning by trial and error. Ufortunately, my boss was terribly rude to other employees and fostered an unpleasant work environment. The entire organization was aware of the problem and since management failed to do anything, a lot of good employees resigned. The higher education industry is very cumbersome and most people I encountered were highly educated and opinionated which resulted in a lot of resistance and time spent coddling them.
Overall opinion of this job on a scale of 1 - 10. 6