The AdNews NGen blog: From IT nerd to digital marketer

Have you ever sat on a train and thought “What am I doing and why am I doing it?” These are the same two questions I asked myself one evening going home from work in late 2010.

The time was 7:15 p.m., the train had just reached Summer Hill station and after a long and exhausting day at work all I needed was a bed to sleep on. My phone rang and one of the guys from work advised me to urgently log in to work and look at an application that was having performance issues. Since I was on after hours support it was my responsibility to investigate the problem. So, after a long day at work, I was on the train with a laptop trying to figure out what was causing the degradation. I resolved the issue within 15 minutes and once I hung up the phone I realized I had missed my train stop and was now heading west. This is when it hit me and I asked myself these two questions.

I felt really angry inside thinking, “Is this what life is meant to be, you wake up, go to work, work hard all day, catch a train back home, receive a phone call to do more work and then miss your train stop”. I was exhausted and I felt that the passion for the industry I loved so much was slowly disappearing.

My I.T. journey started back in 1996 when I got my first computer and with it a dial-up internet connection. I was in love with the technology, and from then on all I wanted to do was work in the I.T. industry as a programmer.

So after graduating from high school, I attended RMIT University in Melbourne studying for 4 years for a Software Engineering degree. Towards the end of my degree I decided I didn't want to be a programmer after all, I now wanted to work in the infrastructure area, working on fixing servers and computers.

I moved from Melbourne to Sydney where I worked at a computer retail store doing sales and PC and laptop repairs for about a year. I then moved to a finance leasing company where I was in a variety of positions before moving into the service desk team and then eventually becoming a server engineer.

In late 2009 I was helping out a friend with his computer and I asked him what he did all day working from home. He introduced me to the world of online marketing including SEO and paid search marketing. I became curious as I love to try new things so I decided to do my own research on the topic and was amazed about this world of online marketing which I had never heard of.

I could see over the next year or so my passion for online marketing was getting stronger day by day and my passion for my current role was slowly diminishing. I decided to leave my full time role in the I.T. industry in March 2011 and join dgm, a digital marketing agency in Sydney, working in the search team as an SEO exec.

I now look back and I can see that this is probably the best decision I have made in the past 5 years which is to move to a new career, and I am now very passionate about my work. I love what I do, I am passionate about people and I love to figure out what makes people tick. I still like to play around with servers so I challenge myself with projects at home but I am so grateful for every opportunity I have been given and feel blessed to be a part of this industry.

I have met some amazing people so far in my marketing journey that are passionate about making a difference and that's what keeps me going. I hope if you ever get to a stage, that you ask yourself those two questions, that you take a step back and trust your gut instinct and do what is best for you. Good luck with your journey.

If you wish to connect with me, you can reach me on twitter – http://www.twitter.com/amantalwar

Aman Talwar
dgm Australia