Moving On…

Thanks for all the query tweets and general interest in my ‘moving on’. In a nutshell, I effectively left Epiar and all the great people there today (December 30^th).

I can honestly say that working at Epiar has been the highlight of my career so far. It’s pretty darn hard to find a dedicated multi-service you believe in enough to begin to sell to your potential new employer during the interview stage when you are considering a move from agency to in-house; but I can say with certainty that Epiar’s market research (MarketView) software has no equal in the market place for online keyword, industry and competitive research. I can also say with utter conviction that the spin-off service they provide in terms of a fully comprehensive negative keyword list for PPC is peerless. Their AccuLink phase for gaining quality backlinks is phenomenal – not cheap, but awesome.

For anyone who gets the chance to work at Epiar, I say grab it with both hands and learn from some of the best.

SO, Why am I Leaving?

Simple mix of personal and career goals. Epiar is small, decisive and focused on their offering. They have a great offering, and I firmly believe that they will continue to make an ever expanding impact on the world of internet market research and pure SEM as we know it. Me, I’m a bit of a rebel, and I came from a big agency. I thought smaller would be better, which in many, many ways it is. I’m just a natural mover. Apart from personal moves from South Africa to the UK in ‘98, around the UK from ’98 to ’06 and to Canada in ’06, and now around Canada – with three small children and an equally footloose husband, dog and recently aquired stray kitten, I’ve been ‘moving’ for some time. I hope this next move is my last in terms of companies, and the fact that they are international right now might speak to that. There is also the fact that I’m a stay at home mom requiring remote employment. Epiar enabled me to do just that. I didn’t think a big company would… I thought wrong.

I therefore also want to give a huge heads up to my new employer, Intuit. Named a top employer for at least three years running that I can find by various publications, I can already attest to their (successful) goal to make their staff feel at home and secure. The beginnings of my official on-boarding experience have already started, and I don’t officially start work until the 7^th. The team I am joining is sharp, motivated and totally proactive, and I’m very excited.

I will miss Epiar, and would like to publicly thank the entire team particularly Damian (MD) and Ken (CEO). In the full spirit of personnel development, they have wished me well, and I am sorry to leave them. I would like to send my deepest congratulations to their next hire; you will be joining an incredibly select group of super intelligent SEMs.

In the spirit of this post, please accept my disclaimer; nothing I say here may or should be attached to any employer, current or previous. This is my personal blog. The views expressed on this page are mine alone and not those of my employer.

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