What I’ve learned by working for one year as a SEO? One small change in values

There’s one change in my perception on what’s right and wrong that I wish to blog about.

One year ago I was writing:

In March 2008 I talk to quite a few persons in PR and I confront them about these two premises: “PR is all about peace” (it’s mostly true, in their opinion), “PR is on saying true things, but mostly positive” (I think they would say true, but no clear answer was given). And one person gives me reasons for the “say only positive things”: you don’t say positive things, you are just so much impersonating with the company, that the true things are mostly positive (OK, and probably you control a few others). Anyhow, it was an argument that if I have the urge to say mostly negative things about a company, then (again) there is a problem between the values of the company and mine: it’s not normal to work for a company for which you see mostly bad things. Then I think: what company and institutions I would recommend as great? Google, GMP (Romanian advertising & PR company; I mostly like them for their works, this generally does not extend to their clients, except, say, Itsy Bitsy radio) are fine, but most of the people from Obor marketplace (in Bucharest, Romania) are great. These are the companies or institutions I would present nicely in perfect accordance to my values. Not a very long list to work for in PR. Again, a problem on personal values: I can’t fit with any organization’s values. Creating financial reports for a company you don’t value 100% may be fine, but being the voice of that company with the external world can lead to problems.

What changed from that time?
1. I am working as a Search Engine Optimization specialist (see my blog about SEO) for Webvertise;
2. I am working indirectly for Google (the one company I best view in this world);
3. I am working for other companies also (Webvertise clients and freelancing clients);
4. Some things I do at work involve not following my own values.

So what changed in my perception?
1. I realized working for the best company you can imagine is great (and Google is really great);
2. Not working with the ideal companies is fine;
3. I can work for a company even if this doesn’t follow 100% my values; Sure it would be great if it did, but working in a less-than-perfect environment is fine also;
4. I still love my job.

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Bottom line: You can still live a decent life, even if not working for the perfect company. I’d love to work directly for Google and do everything 100% perfect, but a lower percentage of value-to-results ratio is good enough. And that’s actually an improvement. Still, switching to SEO from PR seems to have been a good career decision.