What I do for my Full Time Job

While I mention "work" on here all the time (since it's a big part of my life), and have mentioned here and there what I do, I realized that I've never really gone into detail or explained what I spend over 40 hours a week doing! This year I made the decision to share more of my life on here (even if it's simply woven into my outfit posts), and work is a huge part of my life! 

While I am often overwhelmed by a full time job and two side hustles (a post about balancing all of that is coming soon!), and would be lying if I said I wouldn't love to be my own boss someday, I do like what I do and find it unique and interesting!

So, my full time gig is as the Director of Communications for the school district where we live. I'm a one-woman department, so my role in "communications" includes a wide variety of things:

building out long-term communications strategies

running the school district's social media accounts

publishing two email newsletters each week (one to staff, and one to the community/parents)

being the point of contact for all media and coordinating news stories

writing & disseminating press releases 

taking, editing, and posting photos

creating video content (a new skill I'll be tackling this year!)

updating information & articles on our website

attending and reporting on school board meetings

There are other things, but those are the main roles and tasks off the top of my head! One thing I really like is that I do a wide variety of things, which helps to keep my days interesting and moving quickly. I don't have a standard task list for each day, and many days I'm out and about visiting school buildings and attending meetings and events. I also like that my job has a greater purpose - children and their futures. The more I'm able to share the positive things we're doing to impact students' lives, the more I set us up for success in both the present and future. I also work with a lot of amazing people. They're all passionate about what they do, and that's always good to be around.

Some days crazy curveballs hit (life in the PR world!), and that's always really stressful. There are also times where I have more work than what one person can do (back-to-school season is always cray), but I just have to tackle it as well as I can. I'm a stresser anyways, so there are definitely days when I'm kind of a stressed out wreck trying to juggle my to-do list or a crisis that's popped up. I often have evening commitments outside of normal work hours too, which can be draining when you don't get paid overtime and when there are a lot happening on top of each other (think end of the school year).

But, overall I really do like my job. I get to do all of the PR and communication I went to school for, and I like that there are some creative aspects sprinkled in. By working in public education I also get good benefits and am part of a good retirement program, so I'm definitely thankful for that being in my 20s. I got this job at 23 years old, which was pretty crazy at the time, but I'm thankful they took a chance on me. June marked the start of my 4th year here (how that's possible I don't even know!), and I definitely feel more comfortable and know what I'm doing quite a bit more. But I also constantly have opportunities to keep learning and improving too, which is great.

Is my job my passion in life? No. And I'm definitely no workaholic. But, I get to explore my creative interests through my side hustles, so all in all I feel pretty fulfilled right now.    

And now onto my outfit! I recently bought this amazing jumpsuit (also online here) because it's daring, fashion forward and fun, but also works for the office! It can be a challenge to incorporate my personal style in my work wear, so I always jump on unique pieces like this that can be worn for work or play.

I also wanted to share that today is the last day of a great Shopbop sale where you can get an extra 20% off of most sale items with the code TREAT20. Shopbop is truly one of my favorite places to shop because they carry such a wide variety of brands and have fast + free shipping. My jumpsuit is by the brand BB Dakota, and Shopbop always has a great selection of their stuff.