snowgoose

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I know I have been totally useless for the past few weeks. When I started this blog I promised myself I’d post at least once a week… another one bites the dust then.

In my defence, they have been the busiest 2 weeks in a long time. 5 other QuirkStars and I prepared frantically for and travelled down to INDABA in Durban, the biggest Tourism show in Africa, to cover the event for a Quirk client; South African Tourism. Despite little sleep (or maybe because of it), our team managed to record over 6 hours of footage, took 73 photos, tweeted 56 times and wrote close to 3 000 words on the INDABA blog. But just as awesome was the time I spent getting to know my fellow QuirkStars. Radness abounds here – and so does madness.

From a daily diet of 5 bar-ones to the infamous shared towel, we ensured we kept true to the mild insanity our company name suggests. I learned that Jamie has never eaten anything interesting in his whole life, If you ask Daniel to start talking about music you’d better be sitting comfortably and Asher is a complete germ-a-phobe. Rob and Mary are both nuts in their own way, but that just adds to their awesomeness. (Oh, if you are a nervous passenger, I would not suggest you drive with Rob!). I’m sure they also think I am completely nuts (rightly so) but I don’t think they care if the look on their faces when I presented a cooked breakfast as they woke up on Sunday morning is anything to go by.

After the excitement of INDABA, this week could have been very dull if not for the birth of my Ginger Collection and The First Baby To Trend On Twitter Before He Was 4 Hours Old. If that sentence makes no sense to you, you’re obviously not following me on twitter, so let me elaborate:

I recently realised I know quite a few Gingers. Definitely more than the average person, I would say. My boyfriend (and favourite ginger), his older brother, my boss – Rob Stokes, 2 of my colleagues and 1 of my friends have red hair and freckles (in varying degrees of intensity). Now having dubbed myself a ‘Polyester Ginger’ (natural blonde, dyes hair red), I am pretty chuffed by this. So chuffed,that I decided on Wednesday to start a Ginger collection. I’d call myself “Snowgoose and the Seven Gingers”. I was so stoked when after I tried to recruit my 2 outstanding gingers, I got more than 5 Gingers volunteer to be in my collection! (even some girl gingers!). I have decided to expand my collection and start a Ginger Political party, with the goal of winning one seat in parliament in 2014. Laugh now, but you’ll be voting for us soon!

My weird fascination with red hair was interrupted by history being made on Friday, as Tertia Albertyn’s new-born son, Max, became the first South African baby to feature on TwitterTrends before, during and just after his birth. On Friday morning, Cath Jenkin & Exmi decided we to dedicate a hashtag to his birthday and get it trending on twitter.

They succeeded. With the help of just 170-odd of the 10 000 South African twitter users who put the tag: #MaxDay in their tweets, they got Tertia’s baby onto the number 3 spot on Twitter’s Home page, ahead of Star Trek and Swine Flu.   This means that #MaxDay was the third most important topic on twitter in the world, and with an audience of over 7 million – that is no mean feat. Max Albertyn made history and gave all us twitter weirdos something to do for a few hours. Thanks little Dude.

So now you know why I haven’t blogged in a while. Forgive me yet? No?

Ah, bah humbug!

I love to act like a 5 year old with ADD sometimes. When my boss sends around emails asking if anyone wants to attend a conference, instead of the standard: “I would love to be included, many thanks” I always reply “oohh OOOH… PICK MEEEE!” and copy the whole department in. I’m famous for bucking the corporate trend and calling everyone “dude” and telling suppliers they “rock the party that rocks the party” in official emails. It’s just me, and people always comment on how refreshing it is. But as with every 5 year old with ADD, I’m not always cute. I also have my spoiled brat moments and though they are infrequent and mostly in private, they happen.

Like now for instance: My amazing and very hardworking boyfriend and partner in crime, Shaun Custers, is down in Cape Town as we speak, blogging the Standard Bank Pro20 final. Through his passion for cricket & social media and his awesome new venture – SA Cricket Blog – he was chosen by Standard Bank as the only Gauteng blogger to travel to the final and live blog it. And very deservedly so – he has been really committed to blogging the Pro20 games this season.

“Woah, hold on a minute!” you may be saying “but don’t you work for Standard Bank?”.
Yes. I do, and the Achiever Box at the final is a part of my biggest, and most favourite campaign to date (www.standardbank.co.za/achiever), one I have been working on non-stop since July last year. But in these “tough economic times” (gawd, I hate that term!) budgets are tight and the Bank can’t just be sending people off on Weekends in Cape Town, that would be irresponsible and unfair to our customers. I understand that and as a customer myself, fully support it.

Well, the 25 year old me does. The ADD stricken 5 year old inside is whining; “but it’s MY campaign… why can’t I be there…whyyyyyy mommmmeeeee!?!?!”. As I sit here alone in my study with the sound of my annoying neighbours in the background instead of seagulls and a smog-laden Johannesburg my view instead of “the Mountain”, the 5 year old is winning the battle.

I know I’m being a spoiled brat – I have had more awesome opportunities in the last year than Shaun has had in his whole life. I am very very happy for him and even more proud of him.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not pouting. And boy, am I pouting!

I am of the firm belief that everyone should start their career off working for a big company.
The benefits are just too amazing not to. Especially if said company is a bank.

Let’s use myself and my boyfriend, Shaun Custers as examples: I work for Standard Bank, he works for a small IT company. He earns more than I do, has shorter working hours and travels less every day but I still have the better deal. In the 2 short years I have been there, I have gone on over 6 training courses on things like web development, Usability, Web Project management, Marketing and the latest one, Leadership, all free. I have also gone to numerous conferences, also free. The interest rates on my house, car etc are all discounted. On the other hand, Shaun hasn’t been on one training course that he hasn’t had to pay for in full. And his company isn’t able to offer him interest rate discounts, a retirement fund, a free counselling service, free Will drafting, a free library, a subsidised canteen, etc (I could add quite a few more things that I am lucky enough to get.)

Now you see why I say all young people should at least start their careers at a corporate. Imagine you are a 21 year old, straight out of varsity, and you are able to get this phenomenal head start. You would be way ahead of your peers in a few years and if you don’t like the enterprise culture, then you can move to a smaller company or even start your own.
People like Tyler Reed are the exception to the rule, most young people need to claw their way up the ladder and spend their first few years in the working world slogging away for peanuts. Corporates don’t pay peanuts, and the training and bursaries they offer are enough to make it well worth ‘being a number’ for as long as you need to.
Think about it.