Interview with Web Analyst Joel Collymore

Continuing my series of UBC course helpful?

It was helpful for me. The courses gave me an excellent understanding of the online industry.

How did you find your current job?

The position was posted in the Yahoo Web Analytics Forum. I reached out to the poster, and went in went for two interviews. Though I did not have any experience and they were interviewing other people with experience, they were impressed by my enthusiasm. I was tested and given tasks to complete, to show what I would recommend to optimize their site, and how I would present data in front of the President. In the interview they were interested in hiring someone who could communicate their ideas and back them up with insights. I later learned that I was wrong on some of my recommendations, based on the uniqueness of the business structure, but the fact that I could back up what I was saying was valuable.

Where did you get your MBA from?

I attended Sacred Heart University, in Fairfield Connecticut and graduated in 2004.

What are your responsibilities in your current job?

Right now I am running pilot tests and implementing Omniture Site Catalyst and WebSide Story.
I set goals, and manage the relationships with the vendors. We are setting high goals and holding the analytics systems to a higher standard than we had with our previous implementation. We have created unique success events and defined variables to measure our successes. One thing that is different is we are now using commerce and product variables for a media site.

I also work with organic and paid search. Developing our search engine optimization initiatives working with a search consultant and our IT team, we analyze the search traffic and re-optimize.

Who are your customers or stakeholders? Describe your typical work day.

My stakeholders are general management, editorial, the Director of Business Development and the marketing team.

My day is pretty free from. I work with the editorial team to optimize search and I provide reporting on various articles and sections of the site. I work with ad operations using Dart for Publishers, to help determine how many impressions we can serve based on request for purchase of our ad inventory.

What education is lacking, education or experience that would have helped in your current job in Web Analytics?

It would definitely help to know statistics and modeling.

Which Web Analytics book(s) do have or have you read?

All of Search marketing incWAD (Web Analytics Demystified) was very helpful in getting me the necessary knowledge to land the job.

What were the major challenges that you are facing in this industry?

I have decided to focus my career in the Media and Marketing verticals. One of my reasons is that I see more opportunities to develop in Media. eCommerce is lot more defined than Media, you can tie revenue and product sales into performance. Media you can be more creative in measuring and analytics implementation. It is more of tying ad impression and tying in demographic information from Nielsen and ComScore in to your site’s performance.

How do you make sure you are learning and growing in this field?

I keep up with the blogs and user forums, I read every thing I get my hands on. I read and re-read the implementation manuals for vendors. I listen to my co-workers to find out what they feel is missing.

Do you have a blog?

No.

What is your advice to aspiring web analysts?

First, not to give up and be persistent. Second, don’t be afraid to show enthusiasm for what you want to do and what you want to learn.