#fireupchips

I have a passion for product, project management, and instructional design. There is nothing more thrilling than seeing something to completion within the timeframe, budget, and specifications you helped set forth. However, that was not always the case. Let's talk about my past, present, and future.

Past

I received an Associate of Arts (A.A.) from Mid-Michigan College in 2006, studying Secondary Education. However, teaching wasn't my destined path. In 2010, I became an accidental instructional designer (ID). By chance, I came across a posting that opened my world to the joys of teaching adults. I dove in headfirst, learning anything and everything I could, writing, and sharing my experience along the way. I decided to go on an adventure in 2014 and continued my path in South Dakota. After five years of experience and sharing, I was contacted by a software company to provide my recommendations for building up a customer community base online. I shared the vision and passion with upper management, so in 2015, I became a Community Manager for the company. Although all of this may seem disconnected, my path has made me a well rounded and knowledgeable project/product manager.

Present

I currently work as the Vice President of Product Manager for a training solutions provider. I have been with the company for three years and love to continue to grow my knowledge and passion. In 2020, I decided to return to Central Michigan University to finish my Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Business Administration. While studying my major, General Business, I'm working on a concentration in Applied Business Communication. Central Michigan University was my first choice since it's a local college noted for its business degrees from which my father and sister are alumni (1986 and 2017, respectively).

Future

In the future, I plan on continuing my work in the adult education field. I've come to enjoy product management and hope to continue managing training implementation. I've seen the most success in technical training; however, I've also served the manufacturing, medical, and hospitality industries. After college is complete, I plan on continuing my education by completing a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute.

Blog Goals

By maintaining this blog I hope to share my process of social media evaluation and other marketing tactics with students, professors, and marketing industry leaders.

I feel like Hot Topic is a great example of the fundamental cycle of collaboration. Hot Topic knows the purpose of the store is to bring together people who like similar products together with product makers (purpose). They provide the opportunity for style influencers to participate in campaigns (contribution). They’ve allowed changed and transparency by running contests which provide products that community members have created or agreed upon. My personal favorite was the Rick and Morty T-shirt design from 2017.

My name is Austin Jones and I am currently a senior at Central Michigan University. I will be graduating in December, 2019. My major is Accounting and I double minor in Finance and Information Systems. During my time at CMU, I have had a few internships. First, I worked for Auto-Owners Insurance Co. in Lansing, MI as an information systems intern. After that, I worked as a financial advisor intern in Los Angeles, California for a firm by the name of Gideon Strategic Partners. Currently, I work in my hometown of Jackson, Michigan as an accounting intern for Partners Bulk Logistics.

After graduation, I would like to move back to Los Angeles and find a job at an accounting firm, preferably one of the big 4. I plan to sit for the CPA exam within one year of graduating from CMU and want to become certified in both Michigan and California. A career goal of mine is to become a partner at one of the big 4 accounting firms before the age of 40. With this blog, I hope to get myself and my BIS 315 classmates thinking in more of a “Biz Mentality.” As many of us get closer to graduation, we will begin our careers and will be entering the real business world. This requires us to start thinking differently, more like a business professional and less like a college student.

To start getting us all thinking, I wanted to share a company with all of you that I believe is exemplary with regard to its use of social media. Here is the link to VAYNERMEDIA:    https://vaynermedia.com