One of the requirements to pass Planning 10 is to set-up an opportunity to   job shadow someone that is in a job you’re interested in. This is a good idea because it gives you a chance to see the “day in the life” of a position you think you might want to do one day.

I did my  job shadow with a company named Intranet Connections. Intranet Connections is a 30 some employee company, based in North Vancouver,  whose business is to develop and sell their intranet systems.

An intRAnet, not intERnet,  is a platform that works as a communication channel and collaboration program for members of a company or organization. These can be very important to companies that are too big to know everyone on a personal level and have everyone communicate effectively with each other.

The specific position I was job shadowing was Intranet Connection’s VP (Vice President) of Marketing, Ashleah Wilson. He is in charge of the company’s marketing strategy. The difference between a Vice President, Marketing, and, say, a Manager Marketing is that the VP is responsible for not just the work that goes on to market the company and its services, but also to set the strategy that will guide the work that goes on to market the company.

So Ashleah is a very smart and busy guy. He got his start in marketing working at the Capilano Suspension Bridge while he was still a student in university. He then did a post graduate diploma at SFU and eventually became the Assistant Marketing Manager of the Capilano Suspension Bridge. He went on to many other positions in marketing, in many other industries focused on areas such as theatre production, financial services, real-estate and eventually technology, working in both Canada and the United States. His resume is varied because marketing exists in every industry.

My day started at 10:00am with Ashley picking me up from my house and taking me to the Intranet Connections headquarters in North Vancouver. When we arrived, we put our bags down in his work space and headed right to our first meeting. Every morning at Intranet Connections, the staff have a meeting where they start by asking everyone to answer three questions. The first question is usually personal (on my day it was “what are three words that describe your weekend”) and the other two questions are more around what’s going on in the company. They then go on to talk about general company news such as big accomplishments or company short term goals. Finally they go around the group, talking about what they where planning on doing that day.

After the our first meeting, I interviewed Ashley about his position. I asked him about his “regular” work day and what that included (he said it was a lot like the day we were having) . I asked him how he got to the position and what he liked best about it (he likes the variety, making a positive impact on both his company and the companies they work with). I asked him if he could do anything differently on his career path, what would that that been and he said he wouldn’t have really done much differently.

And then we went for lunch.

The work place environment seemed to be quite kind and open. Everyone was very respectful and all seemed to gel quite well. It also had a very west coast business attitude. What is a west coast attitude? A west coast attitude is very casual yet devoted. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you wear, or what you look like, if you have an idea and know how to get it done people will listen. They also had an abbreviation they used to help strive for a perfect work environment. Their abbreviation was SPICE. This stood for Simplicity, Positivity, Integrity, Creativity, and Empathy. I thought this was a great idea because it shows employees what they need to do, how they need to act in order to create a good  work environment. It also reminded me of Seycove’s (my school’s) Modo CLASS (Consideration, Leadership, Achievement, Sportsmanship, and Scholarship).

I think that this job shadow was important to help me figure out what I want my future job to be. I’m seriously considering going into marketing or sales however I’m still figuring out what position I would specifically want and what industry I am interested in. One thing that I’m now absolutely certain about is that I want to work in a west coast business style company. I think that this style of business works well with my personality. I would also like to work in a smaller company since I feel like it would fit really well with my work style as well as my personality. If I where to do my job shadow again, I would like to find out even more about the specific jobs in marketing and sales.