EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: Megan Holland

John: This is John McMillan, back again with another employee spotlight. Today we have Megan Holland, a project manager. You’ve been at Vyral for six months now?

Megan: Seven months. I started right at the beginning of January.

John: Why did you join Vyral Marketing to begin with?

Megan: I was just looking to get out of food service. My friend Kristin started working here before I did and referred me to the company.

John: What was your first impression like?

Megan: Pretty laid back. I walked in and wandered around until someone sent me down the hall.

John: How come you’re still here after seven months?

Megan: I enjoyed the work. There’s a regular amount of change, a lot of the same stuff over and over. The processes change on a regular basis so there’s always something new to learn.

John: Where would you like to head with your career, be that at Vyral or beyond?

Megan: I’m looking into taking language classes. I was thinking of being an interpreter. MCC has some language classes.

John: What have you learned since working here at Vyral?

Megan: I’ve learned plenty of stuff. Learning about databases, working with Excel extensively. Just building a rapport with clients is something that you guys talk about a lot. You email them every single day. Phone skills. If you’re not comfortable on the phone, you’re either going to get comfortable here or quit before you do. It’s really casual here, but it’s still a different environment than food service.

John: Have you had any breakthroughs in your mindset?

Megan: The flexibility of the scheduling has been the most mind-altering for me. I was used to having a very specific schedule that you keep. If you don’t show up on time enough times, you get fired. While we do encourage nine to five, people have lives and a big deal isn’t made of someone handling something in their personal time as long as they get their work done. I guess I’m spoiled by that.

John: What makes us different than your last employer or other places that your friends work?

Megan: It is younger. A lot of people are going to look for a big name company when looking for a job, but I would encourage them to work for a more local company that’s younger. They are going to have a much different experience. A growing company is a lot different than working for someone who has a lot of established standards and is less flexible.

John: What can we be doing better as a company?

Megan: I think because we are still young, we’re still growing into the human resources. I think there is a lack of training. Everyone knows that it’s there, but I think you guys are trying to look towards something more regulated. It is an issue as far as a standard of training.

John: Let’s talk about your co-workers. What do you like about working with the people here at Vyral?

Megan: Everybody is nice, everybody is young. I am kind of pushing the age limit and maybe a little older than everyone else here. It makes me feel like a senior in high school. It feels like a bunch of goofy kids sometime, but they’re actually doing work.

John: Do you have a most memorable moment so far here at Vyral?

Megan: I am guilty of going into work mode, and it’s really hard for me to get out of that. There’s been a lot of things posted to Slack that I’ll get a kick out of. Quinn also used to do his photograph sessions after he cleaned the refrigerator, and those were always good.

John: Have you ever had a moment where you helped solve a problem with a client and were thankful about how that made you feel?

Megan: The thing they are most appreciative of is the testimonial program. They don’t really know what to expect most of the time, but we send over these edited, fully transcribed testimonials and they are kind of shocked at how extensive it is. Most of the people who send in names for testimonials end up being really happy about the results.

John: We will have a lot of people applying for jobs watching these videos. What would you tell those people that are looking at Vyral as a potential place to work?

Megan: Go for it. You’re going to learn a lot about marketing, you might pick up some real estate knowledge, and a little bit of coding information. There are a ton of skills that even if you don’t hang around forever, you’ll be able to use at some point.

John: What are personality traits of someone who shouldn’t work at Vyral?

Megan: If you can’t motivate yourself to do the work. If you don’t like sitting in front of a computer, this is not the job for you. Anyone who has to have someone breathe down their neck should probably not apply, because it’s not how the teams function.