Brod-BG

I'm from Bulgaria, that's in Eastern Europe. I've been working full time for the last 7 years. I began working in a small ISP in my home town - Varna. The job was quite challenging and I spent 2 winters on the rooftops, providing outstanding customer support to our valued clients. Back then I developed quite a few technical skills which still serve me. I also became quite good with working with people. It only took me an year to get the chance and lead the technical team. We had a personal approach with each client and knew how exactly to get things done in a way that both sides were satisfied. It was a good job, a bit hard, the payment was not that good, but we were making progress. At that time bigger companies were trying to push us of the market and it was inevitable that at one point my boss will have to sell the business.

Iberostar Tiara Beach

Anyway, I needed change. For nearly 2 year I had little development and I was about to finish my first year at the College of Tourism. I've decided to quit and find a summer job at one of our two biggest resorts on the Black Sea coast. I went to Sunny Beach. By far our coolest resort. Situated on the south coast, providing accommodation to people from whole Europe, 7 months of the year. There I worked as an entertainer. I was part of the hotel's entertainment team along with 7 other people. We had a great time. I had the chance to meet many people from different nationalities and cultures. I had a hard time with my boss, but somehow we were able to work together.For 6 months I was a part of the resort, not working as an entertainer, but living as one. I don't know if you will get that right, but there were periods of 4-5 days when I don't even leave the premises of the hotel. Every second Sunday I used my day off to come back to Varna. I felt it more like a resort than the actual resort. There were some downsides, but the only one I can remember now is the 15-16 hours of work each day.

The College Of Tourism

The season was at its end and winter was not far too. I needed another job. I remembered how I had to skip classes to be able to work and skip work to be able to study and I didn't want to go through that hell one more time.At my first year in college I had this small site running where me and my colleagues collected our work, exam materials, etc. There was a news section, announcements for short trips, exam dates and such. It was quite popular in college it even gained me some popularity.

One of our teachers noticed it and in my second year I was invited to become part of the staff. I was working part time on trying to fix the obsolete computers, horrible local area network, I even began thinking on an official web page. After 4 months I decided to quit, because I needed more time and there was only one month left until I can go back to Sunny Beach for another season of fun under the sun. 5 days before I had to go I called my boss and told her that I have other plans and I won't go this summer. I did not have any other plans. The only thing I knew is that I want to work less than 15 hours per day. I recalled many bad moments from last summer and I knew I won't face them again, however I needed something new.

Customer Service

5 days after I called my boss to tell her not to count me in for Summer '06 I began working for a company dealing with tax refunds. I was a part of the Australian Team, helping people who have worked abroad (in Australia) to get their overpaid tax back. I was in the so called "morning shift". My team leader was quite helpful and I am still thankful for the fact he helped me so much. 6 months of barely having any sleep was enough for me. Each morning I left work at 8:30 AM only to go to college and spend another 5-6 hours there. The high season was to its end and that's when I got the opportunity to move to the newly formed SEO team.

SEO/SEM/PPC

I knew very little about SEO, when I began working it. My new boss was able to give me a short, but very well structured training and then left me in the deep, armed only with enthusiasm and the horrible habit to ask a lot. Since I already had experience with people and dealing with problems over the phone, I at least had the way to find out what is expected of me. This is the job I felt I'm good at.

Now, working in-house SEO for a company hosting many businesses is a two edged knife. You get good at advertising and optimizing for product you are familiar with, but you don't have the diversity which is required to be able to keep up with everything new. Freelance work is a good way to compensate.

There come other problems like the management of the different businesses. Most of them treat AdWords as the magic pill which will bring in a lot of work and easy money. You can imagine the long hours I have spent explaining what is what and how things can be done for each business, what are the limits of SEO and when SEO is applicable and when not. I still do it, I will do it as long as I'm here. I have even considered to have SEO classes for interested people each month. That might not be such a bad idea and it can be my new thing for 2009, who knows :). I've even tried to spearhead some ideas about charity, PR, corporate image and a lot of other fields where I have little expertise, but I'm eager to learn.

I don't consider myself smarter than the average employee here at the company, however I go after ideas that are good and try to innovate in my work every day. Sometimes I'm successful.

• We will actually work full day on a Friday.
• We tend to get along with people from different cultures, due to our past experience and reality we live in.
• Most of us can drink a bottle of Rakia and still live to see the dawn of a new day...an this is the good part - be able to come to work.
• Many companies outsource to Bulgaria, so we are familiar with different models of workforce organization.
• We speak at least one foreign language.