Who You Callin' Old?

It has been twelve years since I worked as a Marketing Manager at the Fontainebleau Hilton in Miami Beach. My last day was July 16, 1999. In fact, it has been twelve years since I had any job working for The Man, if you will. I worked as a travel agent from home for a while, and then there was that family business where we bought a Subway franchise with my in-laws. (Yea, don’t do that.) However, I chose the route of the stay at home mom and never looked back until August of 2009 when my family moved to Orlando. 

So the plan was for my husband to attend law school and I would get a job since all the kids were finally in school anyway. It would seem that being a full time housewife and mother doesn’t qualify you for anything. No, really…it doesn’t.  I finally did get one interview at the new Hilton on International Drive for a Marketing Manager. Oh boy, I can do that! All I need to do is brush up on my desktop publishing and do a little research about this new hotel before I get there.  My interviewer saw that dazed look in my eyes when he asked me my experience with eMarketing.  According to Alan Charlesworth, “Internet marketing ties together the creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales.” Wish I had that little nugget beforehand.  Marketing was no longer simply creating sleek brochures and direct-mail pieces, which I of course brought with me in my fancy portfolio. It was now all about how to get greater exposure on the WorldWide Web.

Well, I didn’t get the job needless to say. As this did nothing to boost my spirits or ego, I got to thinking about going back to school. Yea, if I get finally get my bachelor’s degree I can get a job for sure! I decided to start small and went to the Valencia Community College in the spring of 2009. A little trivia, your GPA from college way back when stays with you for all eternity. In my school endeavor, I came across WebCT for my summer online classes; or if a professor didn’t like that program, they could use Blackboard – oh yea, even better. So began the juggling act of figuring out the two programs so I could simply know what my assignments were, where and how to submit my work, and learning to take a timed test with the hopes that my internet connection wouldn’t sever with the summer storm. I prevailed. Even when one professor wanted to do online conferencing with the class every Tuesday, I prevailed. I didn’t go to the help page, mostly because I’m tough like that, but went back to my trial and error method I used in the past. 

When I moved on to UCF the following spring, I didn’t take any online classes, however two of my classes called for postings on Blackboard. Fortunately it wasn’t too different than what I used at Valencia, so navigating through the system has been pretty easy from the beginning. I understand how to use all the tools on the system, or at least the ones I need. This past summer I took three online classes, and now have two in the fall. I have come to enjoy the freedom that online access to education provides me; it’s my equivalent to telecommuting to work. I am still faced with the challenge of what I want to do when I grow up, but at least I feel better equipped because of the technology I have had access to each step of the way.