More on Ascentium

I apologize for my post, “Day 1 at Ascentium”, I may have seemed ignorant in saying the internal/HR department when in actuality it is the Infrastructure team. I was completely off on this. Instead of internal and HR work they offer consulting services to help businesses set-up and manage their desktops, software programs and internal communications. I am sorry if this is still not an accurate description of what they actually do. I haven’t had much time to talk with them yet but should be getting the chance next week.

Second, I apologize for not having posted in several days. I’m not going to lie. I have been taking some free time after work to lay out by the pool, golf and just relax trying to process all that has been going on.

So, what has been going on? A LOT is really the best description. Ascentium is becoming a second (sixth if you consider all the places my time is divided between) home. I enjoy the atmosphere and the people a lot. My favorite part so far has been the enthusiasm for new clients and the company’s growth over the last year. I’ll be sitting at my desk (actually it’s someone else’s desk) and then I’ll hear a call out, “Meeting in here who wants to be a part of this project?” I like that dynamic it offers a nice segway into the “forget about it stage” so often mentioned in the creative process.

A lot of what I thought I knew about Account Management/Project Management isn’t entirely accurate, taking into account that every agency operates differently. There is a lot more interaction and collaboration between managers and creative. Its not merely managers creating timelines and task lists, it’s a combined effort between what happens in the meetings and the discussion that takes place afterwards.

I attended the Quarterly Meeting that served as an Ascentium 101. I learned a lot about the company as a whole, and it was a nice to see everyone outside of the office. I was able to interact with people from departments other than creative.

I’m not going to lie, some of the tasks that I do at the office are not glamorous. Not that I was expecting that, because there are always the things that people hate to do at their jobs. I have worked on task lists, brainstorm meetings, research, PowerPoints, meeting minutes and updating internal lists. Even from these tasks I have learned about different methods to produce the lists in an effective and easy to understand communication tool.

I have also learned a quick lesson about video files that was more aggravating than anything else. Ascentium’s video camera creates movies in a format that is unrecognizable to Quicktime 7.5 and iMovie 08’. Mason and Brian helped to try and solve this problem by downgrading to a older version of Quicktime and downloading a Mac App, Pacifist. This still didn’t work because the problem was that the file format is too old for iMovie. What ended up happening is Mason saved the file on his computer so it would be compatible with mine. Then at Friday’s group meeting, I tried to open iMovie, but, surprise, it wouldn’t work unless I had Quicktime 7.5. Odd because it worked the night before. Anyways ridiculous and a huge waste of time. (Intern’s going to Ascentium be warned potential problems could arise with video camera...)

Ascentium is proving to be a unique agency that I admire. Their different business components, Infrastructure and CRM, are intriguing to me because they are so left field compared to services that a typical agency would offer. Ascentium is a good fit for me because I have a passion and interest for different aspects of business, specifically in new ventures, ways to make a business successful beyond the standards of selling the product or service, and the variety of businesses that exist; Ascentium addresses these areas on some levels throughout their work not only at the Portland office but in all their offices. Ascentium is also tech focused, which combines with my growing awareness of tech and web 2.0 possibilities.

In summary; Ascentium experience to date= GOLDEN.