Nice pay but no work?! What do I do?!

[zpivat]

Before going into details, here's a little background about myself. Basically I got my degree in Computer Science last year, and has since then been working as a freelance web developer/designer/junior SEO specialist.

In June, I got hired full time by a company, as some kind of an Internet marketing consultant, and the initial job descriptions involved web 2.0 marketing initiatives. However when I started the job, it seemed like I've been doing considerably less (i.e: only about 50%!!) than what was stated in the job description. I totally didn't see that coming.

Mostly, my work involves uploading sound files, writing 1 or 2 blog posts, shooting videos, and occassional Google Adwords campaign and landing page creations. My "busiest" days are Mondays and Fridays where it takes me at most 3 hours to complete everything (yes, everything!), and from Tuesdays to Thursdays, it takes me only 2 hours. So basically I often find myself finishing everything before noon even comes, and having nothing to do, which is INCREDIBLY boring. I often ask my boss if there's anything more that I can do, and his answer is always the same "just play around with your assigned tasks, and get yourself comfortable with them." (which is kinda bad, considering the things I do don't really require much effort to grasp, and I AM already comfortable.)
Ironically, for the type of stuff that I do, I feel somehow that they may be paying me too much?! I won't say my salary of course, but I'll just say that it's almost $50,000/year.
Money is certainly not everything, and I am more than willing to leave this position if I were able to find one from which I can learn more skills, even though it may have less pay. But I'm not sure what to do.......the thing is, I feel so bad for quitting just like that. Also, the boss is really a nice guy, and he hired me because initially, the stuff that I am doing were his, and as he got more busy with other stuff, he got overwhelmed, and decided to let someone else do it, and so if I quit, he'll have to find another guy, train him again, bla bla bla......
But at the same time, as a recent graduate I feel like wanting to get as much relevant work experience as possible, and I'm not sure if my current position provides that.
I'm really confused now? What's your opinion?

[Max Power]

Originally Posted by zpivat

Before going into details, here's a little background about myself. Basically I got my degree in Computer Science last year, and has since then been working as a freelance web developer/designer/junior SEO specialist.

In June, I got hired full time by a company, as some kind of an Internet marketing consultant, and the initial job descriptions involved web 2.0 marketing initiatives. However when I started the job, it seemed like I've been doing considerably less (i.e: only about 50%!!) than what was stated in the job description. I totally didn't see that coming.

Mostly, my work involves uploading sound files, writing 1 or 2 blog posts, shooting videos, and occassional Google Adwords campaign and landing page creations. My "busiest" days are Mondays and Fridays where it takes me at most 3 hours to complete everything (yes, everything!), and from Tuesdays to Thursdays, it takes me only 2 hours. So basically I often find myself finishing everything before noon even comes, and having nothing to do, which is INCREDIBLY boring. I often ask my boss if there's anything more that I can do, and his answer is always the same "just play around with your assigned tasks, and get yourself comfortable with them." (which is kinda bad, considering the things I do don't really require much effort to grasp, and I AM already comfortable.)
Ironically, for the type of stuff that I do, I feel somehow that they may be paying me too much?! I won't say my salary of course, but I'll just say that it's almost $50,000/year.
Money is certainly not everything, and I am more than willing to leave this position if I were able to find one from which I can learn more skills, even though it may have less pay. But I'm not sure what to do.......the thing is, I feel so bad for quitting just like that. Also, the boss is really a nice guy, and he hired me because initially, the stuff that I am doing were his, and as he got more busy with other stuff, he got overwhelmed, and decided to let someone else do it, and so if I quit, he'll have to find another guy, train him again, bla bla bla......
But at the same time, as a recent graduate I feel like wanting to get as much relevant work experience as possible, and I'm not sure if my current position provides that.
I'm really confused now? What's your opinion?

If the money's good and the works acceptable, but there is spare time within the work time, then use that time to either make the business your working for better and/or make yourself better by learning more skills.

Don't see it as a problem, see it as an opportunity, because that's what it is.

Max

[silicon toad2000]

can you see any way to improve the aspects of the business that are related to your task? even if you have some vauge awareness of a newish technology that may help to do something just that little better.
I would way use your spare time on some research and development, nothing looks better on your resume than initiating some improvement program successfully.
Maybe look at doing a graduate program at uni with the spare time, extra knowledge is good for you and for the company.

[Jill]

There's a TON to learn about SEO, web development, Web 2.0 etc. What exactly are you doing with all your spare time? Are you signed up with all the SEO blog feeds and newsletters? Do you devour all the forum posts on the subject?

This of course assumes that you enjoy this field and want to stay in it. If you do, you surely still have a ton to learn. Read, read, and read some more and then propose some ideas to your boss of other things you could be doing to help with either your company's website or those of your clients (assuming you have them). If your boss is as good as you say he is, he will welcome your ideas.

Your post could have practically been written by one of my employees, although we've been lucky enough to keep a bit more busy than it sounds like you are. I can tell you that from your boss's perspective, you are definitely worth your salary if you're doing all the stuff he had to previously do and now doesn't. But keep doing more. Take the initiative. It sounds like you have a dream position, and you should do what you can to make the best of it.

You may also ask if you can attend some of the conferences or seminars so you can really build up your skills. Or take some online courses on some more advanced web development techniques. There has to be plenty you can learn. I know that even with SEO that I've been doing for like 15 years I still learn new stuff every day!

[zpivat]

Thanks a bunch for the response!! Can't agree more with you guys. That's what I plan to do too, which is to learn other skills. In fact I'm deciding between whether to use the spare time to study QA (Quality Assurance) or to further my SEO skills by creating optimised niche sites.
It's just that I'd wonder what the boss will think if I do that. I'm kind of afraid of getting caught, if you know what I mean? I'm not sure whether or not he'll be angry if he catches me doing/learning something unrelated to work.

As for doing more research for ways that can be used to improve their business, that's actually what I've been doing, and so far the boss has been quite glad. But for the type of stuff that I do, there isn't too much that I can do to improve, and I'm not sure how further I can go.

As for other stuff such as QA for example, my concern is this: yes I will get to learn new skills, and yes it will help improve my resume. But afterall, that's something that I learn part time, and should in the future I decide to jump ahead and get QA related position, how can anyone ever hire me since I'm not actually WORKING as a QA Specialist/Analyst? I mean, every employer these days wants someone with work experience right?

As for graduate school as suggested by silicon toad2000, unfortunately that's out of the question for now. It's a very very nice idea indeed, but the thing is, it's a full time job for which I'm required to stay in the office until 5, and so the spare time that I have, is had at the office. Probably I can ask the boss if it's okay to leave if I have finished everything for the day, but I'm not sure if he'll agree to that idea... lol....

[RT Wolf]

I would suggest that they're paying you to have your production capacity around. If they wanted just your production, they would just hire you on an as-needed basis or something. PC is the goose that lays the golden egg and the egg that is laid is P. I would suggest that if you feel that they are over paying you--like others have suggested--you can try improving your production capacity. Learn new stuff durign that time, dream up crazy ideas that just might work and boost income or whatever, ask yourself, "If this was my business and I was running hte whole place, what might I implement?" Learn new stuff like Getting Things Done by David Allen, if you don't already know about it, or public speaking, or better communication or principles of successful management and leadership. Stuff which you think might be useful in the future for both you and your company.

Alternatively, you could ask to be taken down to part-time hours, or work out a deal where you are only around on a part-time basis but get paid for the same work. With the extra time, you can go do other stuff.

[zpivat]

Originally Posted by Jill

There's a TON to learn about SEO, web development, Web 2.0 etc. What exactly are you doing with all your spare time? Are you signed up with all the SEO blog feeds and newsletters? Do you devour all the forum posts on the subject?

This of course assumes that you enjoy this field and want to stay in it. If you do, you surely still have a ton to learn. Read, read, and read some more and then propose some ideas to your boss of other things you could be doing to help with either your company's website or those of your clients (assuming you have them). If your boss is as good as you say he is, he will welcome your ideas.

Your post could have practically been written by one of my employees, although we've been lucky enough to keep a bit more busy than it sounds like you are. I can tell you that from your boss's perspective, you are definitely worth your salary if you're doing all the stuff he had to previously do and now doesn't. But keep doing more. Take the initiative. It sounds like you have a dream position, and you should do what you can to make the best of it.

You may also ask if you can attend some of the conferences or seminars so you can really build up your skills. Or take some online courses on some more advanced web development techniques. There has to be plenty you can learn. I know that even with SEO that I've been doing for like 15 years I still learn new stuff every day!

Wow, a reply from Jill Whalen....how exciting?? Yes!! I am subscribed to different newsletters about SEO (one of which is yours, he he ), web development, web 2.0, etc. In fact, been doing so for almost 4 years now.
As for SEO blog feeds....hmmm, not yet!! But I'd love to actually. Can you recommend any please?
As for IM forums, definitely I scour them....in fact I'm a member of at least 5 of them, and they're all really high quality I think.

Since you're an SEO for 15 years now, I guess you're the master, and I'll get into a bit of details. As a matter of fact I've suggested a lot of ways for improving the company's Adwords campaigns. Before I came on board, they used to have tons of different campaigns, each with thousands of keywords, mixed together, believe it or not!! As we all know, relevancy is the key these days, or else we'd get low Quality Score, and hence high CPC bid price. So yeah....I just reorganised their whole campaigns, grouped them into tightly matched ad groups, wrote better ads, did some split testing, and so far the CTRs have been better than ever. So yeah that's basically it so far. I'd help them even more if I could, but for now I seem to be running out of ideas..... :-(

As for web development, I really love SitePoint : New Articles, Fresh Thinking for Web Developers and Designers and have learnt quite a few tutorials from there, and in fact am planning to purchase some of their really excellent books. Do you have anything else to recommend?

[zpivat]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

Alternatively, you could ask to be taken down to part-time hours, or work out a deal where you are only around on a part-time basis but get paid for the same work. With the extra time, you can go do other stuff.

That's what I was thinking to do too!!!! I was kind of hesitating, wondering whether or not it's the right thing to do, and if anyone else would even think of it....
but I just may do it may be. I try not to do things in haste and I'll try and see how things develop, and hopefully will arrive at a very good decision as I really don't want to disappoint or make anyone angry.......
Another option that I thought of was to find a more suitable position (that's if I find one anytime soon anyway), and offer my current boss to do my work for free from home with no string attached, until he can find a replacement......hmm....

[Jill]

It's just that I'd wonder what the boss will think if I do that. I'm kind of afraid of getting caught, if you know what I mean? I'm not sure whether or not he'll be angry if he catches me doing/learning something unrelated to work.

Nooooo! You don't work on your own stuff during work hours!

You should be learning stuff that can help in your job (assuming your boss is ok with that). If you happen to use what you learn also for your own stuff (after hours of course) then that's your business.

But there's no way you could already be an expert in all the things that you might have to do for your job, so that's where you can be focusing your efforts. It's great that you fixed up your company's adwords campaigns! That's exactly the sort of thing that will get you a raise.

What else does your company need done? I would suggest another chat with your boss. Ask him what sorts of things he'd love to do to build the company that he's never had time for before. Perhaps he wants to have a blog, but can't write in it every day. Or perhaps he can't think of good topics to write about. You could be researching this stuff for him.

But it's really YOU who has to take the initiative if you 1.) don't want to be bored, and 2.) provide the most value you can for your company.

Are there others who work for the company as well, or just you and your boss? If so, perhaps they need an extra pair of hands?

[zpivat]

Originally Posted by Jill

But there's no way you could already be an expert in all the things that you might have to do for your job, so that's where you can be focusing your efforts. It's great that you fixed up your company's adwords campaigns! That's exactly the sort of thing that will get you a raise.

Well the only thing I think I can improve is my Adwords skills, and that's pretty much it! Everything else only consists of blogging, editing and uploading videos, things like that you know?? These things are really really easy and take anyone pretty much minutes to be a grandmaster.... (okay probably not minutes....but not long for sure....).

Originally Posted by Jill

What else does your company need done? I would suggest another chat with your boss. Ask him what sorts of things he'd love to do to build the company that he's never had time for before. Perhaps he wants to have a blog, but can't write in it every day. Or perhaps he can't think of good topics to write about. You could be researching this stuff for him.

That's a good suggestion actually. I'll try and ask about the things that they've wanted to do but never found the time to do.....

Originally Posted by Jill

Are there others who work for the company as well, or just you and your boss? If so, perhaps they need an extra pair of hands?

Well....the company is headed by 2 guys, a president/founder, and a vice president. Working under them are 10 guys (including me), plus they have a web developer, but I think he's a contractor, who does the stuff from home, and only comes for meetings once in a while.

[Waker]

Though I have no experience you should try telling your boss that you should either be busy or not in the office. It would probably be best to have a look at how you could help the business through technology. Suggest to your boss that you make some system that would let the other people do the uploading and menial tasks while you expand things.