Flashback: The New Job

A few mentions recently have meant that the next flashback to follow the job hunt should be about my new job - particularly as I'm referring to it a little more.

Role-wise, my position is still the same; I am still a business analyst and what I do is similar enough, although naturally different as befits a change in company, when all things will differ. I'm part of a small programme team of two business analysts, two project managers and one contractor project manager.

The company is a digitial marketing pseudo-agency operating in the automotive sector, and supplies software to vehicle manufacturers for their vehicle remarketing programs. If you understood that, you're a long way ahead of where I was several months back when I joined.

The target market is car, van and other vehicle manufacturers. Unbeknown to me, in addition to their new car lines, all of these companies spend a significant amount of money and time on reselling used cars in their brand. There are many reasons for this - in addition to controlling brand standards and brand prices, it also helps to makes a profit for their dealers.

To help sell their used cars they have a variety of tools - predominantly online now - and practically all manufacturers have sites advertising all their used cars across the country, as well as dealers' individual websites. These are the tools that the company I work for designs, sells, supplies and supports - both the online 'used vehicle locators' and the behind-the-scenes tools for dealers to manage and upload their vehicle stock.

It's not a sector I anticipated working in - I have often joked that I am touring the country's most loved industry sectors, having moved from recruitment to used car sales - but it is interesting and, when you get down to it, the role is fairly similar. Although there is something to be said when you're working on the product and get to use nice luxury cars as your test data as opposed to random candidates!