A Happy Coincidence
I’ve been lucky, and I’m hugely grateful for it.
A few months back, where the job hunt was just beginning to tell, Go Think Big (a great scheme for those seeking employment in the media) informed me of a programme ‘powered’ by Google (an opportunity I’d like) or, more specifically, the chance to be awarded a full scholarship for it (an opportunity I might as well go for). The programme in question is Squared Online, an online digital marketing course. My application for the scholarship amounted to not a whole lot more than me gallivanting around the countryside, describing my appropriate skills in locations that were somehow also appropriate (I expressed my sensitive side whilst near a church and such… I know). Expected to be trumped by magic manoeuvres on iMovie and various forms of Photoshop wizardry (it was a digital marketing course, after all), I soon received the happy news that I had been awarded the full scholarship.
A few classes down the line (I’m actually writing this introduction after my initial blog post) and it’s been made clear we’re required to write blog posts that ‘reflect’ on the subjects we discuss ‘in class’ and the thoughts that follow as a result. And I will do so quite happily, for several reasons. Firstly, I’ve got a job now. Just like the rest of you who are fortunate enough to be employed: yes, I work very hard and yes, I don’t have all that much spare time as a result. The crucial difference between the bags of time I had when job seeking and the gold dust-like time I have now I’m employed, though? The latter I can enjoy. Secondly, I want to reflect and I want to write. I’m fortunate that my job (Junior Account Executive at 3 Monkeys Communications, working for the likes of Microsoft, Lenovo and Three) pretty well revolves around a subject I am very fond of: tech. And what does most of digital work hand in hand with? Handy.
The releasing of Svbtle to the general public is yet another addition to the already long list of happy coincidences I am currently enjoying. Like pretty much everyone else, I enjoy being there before anyone else, whatever ‘there’ might entail and, probably not like everyone else, am happy to admit that. The term ‘hipster’ springs to mind; a term, I can appreciate, that’s hardly going to be used as a compliment any time soon. Were I to be an item with the phrase ‘content is king’, though, our relationship status on Facebook would currently be set to ‘it’s complicated’. On the one hand, my head would have me believe that I am very much in sync with the blogging platform, both in terms of aesthetics and philosophy. Aesthetics: the only aspect of your blog you can customise is the words you write. If anything, there being two colours involved (black and white) are two customisable options too many. Philosophy: because of this, a real emphasis is on the message you have to say and nothing else, like playful gimmicks and clever trickery that makes avid Mashable readers get coding envy (if that’s even a thing), suggesting that content is indeed very much ‘king’. Despite my being a traditionalist and believing that prose is a very underrated form in this day and age, my heart is not so enthralled at the prospect of content having ultimate rule. Perhaps I do want in on all the ‘playful gimmicks and clever trickery’, or at least have the capability to do so? The issue, though, is that my aspirations and consequential outputs for digital are similar to those I have for, say, musicianship and art; I feel I have the potential to strum a few chords on the guitar or give Van Gogh a run for his money (a little ambitious maybe), but I am met only with feelings of frustration for I simply don’t have the technical knowhow to realise such ambitions.
And that’s, hopefully, where Squared Online can help out a little. As purveyed in my initial blog post, I’m not looking for the ability to code or anything of that complicated nature, just to be a little less clueless.
A happy coincidence and I’m hugely grateful for it.