Today is officially my five year work-aversary! This is my second-longest job ever, as seen in this list:

• Professional ice cream scooper: 11 years
• 3 positions* at a university: 5 years
• Account Manager at a marketing agency: 2 years, 5 months

For folks who are new here (or just need a refresher), I work in the marketing department at the university where I got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees (both in Communication). Contrary to popular belief, I did graduate and was employed somewhere else—the marketing agency—before coming back to campus. But let’s be honest: it feels like I never left.

*I was hired as a Web Content Coordinator in October 2018 and was in that position until October 2020 before being promoted to Digital/Social Media Specialist. Although the titles were different, my role was the same: updating/managing the university’s website as well as managing the university’s social media accounts. Then, this year, I was promoted to Web Content Manager, fully overseeing the university’s website—which coincided with a complete website re-design—and stepping away from social media—which was something I wanted.

Looking back at these past five years, there’s really one thing that stands out: COVID. Boy, higher education in the OG COVID days was rough, especially when you worked on the website and handled the social media accounts. Not to mention the transition to working from home for a year and a half (see “Working From Home While Living With Your Parents” and “One Year in Quarantine”). It really didn’t feel like pre-COVID times until 2022, almost two years after students were sent home the day before spring break started. I look at that period of time as a once-in-a-lifetime thing, that, thankfully, we made it through.

As I mentioned with my new position, I dropped the social media part of my previous positions, and that was my decision. I think I was burned out from COVID, the constant changes in the platforms, and just feeling like I needed to know all of the trends, and it wasn’t enjoyable for me anymore—professionally or personally. My boss knew I wanted to take on more web projects, and there was an opportunity this year for me to change roles. (I’ve always been a web nerd; I think it started when I was younger, and I guess it was inevitable that I’d end up in a digital role of some sort.) I’ve been in my current role since July, and I do enjoy it more. I was already familiar with the website and CMS, and now I just get to do it full-time, working with offices and departments across campus as well as taking on marketing-related projects.

Some highlights from the past five years:

• Created a year-long campaign in 2019 on social media to celebrate the university’s centennial (100th anniversary)
• Worked three in-person commencements, covering the ceremonies for social media
• Created the OG Coronavirus website
• Some cool social media moments: introducing the university’s first comfort dog, highlighting the inaugural seasons for women’s ice hockey and women’s wrestling, introducing a new president
• Got to be an extra in Amazon’s The College Tour when they came to campus to film an episode
• Worked on a complete website re-design from start to finish (along with others from marketing and IT)
• Supervised two awesome work-study students (one graduated in 2021 and my current one graduates next year)

I don’t have a five year plan—or even a one year plan, really. I’m happy I was able to take on a new role this year, and I feel more confident in my abilities. I’m open to learning more website things—like in the class I took over the summer for HTML and CSS—and if I were to ever leave, I think I’d want a similar role in web and digital. (I just never want to manage an Instagram account again.)

Just maybe one of these days I’ll stop getting mistaken for a student.