Embarking on the quintessential 20-Something-Kiwi Rite Of Passage usually means booking a one-way flight to London, accepting the fact that you must now call chips “crisps” and waving goodbye to your old life. But although in April 2019 I was forced to leave my disdain for public transport and mushy peas at Christchurch International Departures, I was able to take one piece of carry-on with me: my part time role as a Virtual Marketer.
Before leaving New Zealand, I’d been working with Team VM for around 6 months as well as in the marketing team of a hotel. The flexibility of virtual working suited my hyperactive night-owl brain and overcommitted social schedule (so many brunch dates, so little time). When I settled in London and found a similar job opportunity, I gratefully slipped back into the friendly familiarity of the Virtual Marketers team and although my role as social media, copywriting go-to-girl was the same, I found that my appreciation for flexible working was heightened
Anyone who’s lived in The Big Smoke knows that life over here moves at a million miles an hour – annoyingly, a fair few of those miles are traveled on your mind-numbing 2 hour daily commute. If you’re a fidgety Type A like me, there’s only so many podcasts, audiobooks and rounds of Candy Crush you can handle before it starts to feel like your precious life is being stolen by 8.07am Northern Line via Charing Cross. Luckily, it took just one lightbulb moment and a sneaky commute alteration (bless you Thameslink Overground wifi!) to realise that these could become the most productive 2 hours of my day. Scheduling social as I sip from my KeepCup and writing copy as I whizz past Westminster, using this time to maximise productivity has truly been a game changer!
My night-owl tendencies still come in handy when catching up with Martina first-thing NZ time and the miserable British weather makes it easy to snuggle up with my laptop and work on a Sunday afternoon. But Friday Nights? Definitely kept free for cocktails and catching a West End Musical and Saturday mornings are reserved for the Soho brunch scene - some things never change!
I’m calling it now – London based Virtual Marketing is DEFINITELY the best job in the world!
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