It's December and I'm in London, employed. The year 2011 is almost over and so is my Twitter project – looking for a job via my @TheLondonJob account.
After the first notice of having an interview in London in July I immediately booked a flight to my dream city. I got this interview through Matt O'Shea, a digital strategist at the creative agency Public in Shoreditch. He sent my CV to his managers at Public after I contacted him on Twitter. My application was successful and they invited me in for an interview. I was offered a six-week paid internship, which I started on 28 September. As I didn't know if I would be hired me after the internship, I kept looking for contacts on Twitter.
During my internship I met Mat Morrison, head of social media at Starcom MediaVest.
At the event, Mat introduced me to people who work in social media and I enjoyed the night chatting not only about my job hunt but also about general topics like social media or life, and also giving away my business cards.
On another occasion, I met Rob Mosley from Nonsense, a digital agency. I also contacted him on Twitter, asking for some help and to see if there were any vacancies at Nonsense. He was really interested in what I had to say and although he wasn't able to offer me a job, he promised to send out a note to people he knew. I was not disappointed. I had two agencies ask me for an interview. I had started my internship at Public, researching on social media and writing blogs for the company's website, when I had the other two interviews, but was told that I didn't have enough experience.
When I came to London the first person I met was Mauricio Samayoa, who is a former We Are Social account manager. That was the first time I heard about this agency. The second time, I encountered We Are Social was with Mat Morrison who introduced me to Robin Grant, MD of We Are Social. It didn't lead me immediately to a job but, looking back, it was part of what I like to call my career destiny.
It happened that We Are Social was looking for a German account executive and Grant remembered me. He invited me to an interview. Steve Ward, a social media and digital recruiter, who I met as well before, told me about the job at the same time.
I just had the feeling the job was meant to be my dream job because wherever I went in London there was always the talk of We Are Social from different people. In the job I could use my German skills, connect with people via social media, and live my creative and communicative side within account management. After the interviews, I was even more convinced of it – the whole atmosphere in the office was really great.
My first interview was with Melina Hägglund, an account manager. I didn't feel any pressure in the interview because Melina seemed to be easygoing. But the interview was really about what experience I have, why I like social media and so on – and I had lots to say about that!
After the interview with her I talked to Jordan Stone, the account director of the team I would work with. He made me feel comfortable as well. It just didn't feel in an interview anymore, although I took the interview very serious. They told me that I will be responsible for the German Facebook page of their client and they expect something big next year (no more details about that – it's a secret).
Two days before finishing my internship for Public, I got a call from We Are Social and was offered the job as account executive. This was by far one of the happiest moments in my life. I live in London and I found my dream job. I've completed my first couple of weeks at We Are Social; I love the team and I can't wait to take the daily challenges in social media.
Ulrike Schulz is account executive social media and marketing agency We Are Social (@wearesocial). She tweets at @TheLondonJob.
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more content and advice like this direct to your inbox, sign up for our weekly Careers update.
