Editor’s Note
Read on to discover how Andrea stays connected while remote, what tools she uses in her day-to-day, and how she relaxes after work.
Q1: What is your role and how long have you worked at Terakeet?
SEO Manager! My first day here was right after Thanksgiving in November 2018, so almost 3 years.
Q2: What advice would you give someone who is new to Syracuse or to Terakeet?
I’m a remote employee living in Central Florida, so as far as advice to someone new to Syracuse I don’t have much to offer other than — bring a winter coat and some heavy boots if you go there in the winter!
As far as Terakeet though— if you’re thinking about applying to work here, don’t hesitate. I joined in 2018 and can see myself being here for a long time to come. New employees have a ton of options to connect and network with other teammates within and outside of their departments, both professionally and socially, even as a remote employee. Everyone here is so friendly and smart and comes from different backgrounds, so the more you can talk with people, the more you’ll learn, whether it’s SEO-related or not!
Q3: List a quote that has helped you get through a tough time.
I actually have two!
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” ― Albert Camus
“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on. In all the confusions of today, with all our troubles…with politicians and people slinging the word fear around, all of us become discouraged…tempted to say this is the end, the finish. But life — it goes on. It always has. It always will. Don’t forget that.” ― Robert Frost
Q4: How do you unwind after a long workday/case of The Mondays?
I fire up my Nintendo Switch and escape to my island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Q5: If you could invite any famous businessperson or workplace guru to dinner, who would it be and why?
I would love to sit down with Rachel Maddow. I’ve been listening to her since she was on Air America and I’ve always found it amazing how she is able to tie historical and current events together to create a narrative, and, as I am someone who is incredibly shy, I’d love to pick her brain about how she’s crafted her delivery. It’s also really inspiring to me that in under a decade, she went from working on a local radio station to being a prominent news anchor on a major news network. While she may not be a typical “workplace guru” I think the success she has takes a lot of ambition and confidence and those skills lend themselves well to success in the workplace as well.
Q6: If you could only use 5 workplace tools or platforms, what would they be and why?
Slack – As I mentioned earlier, Slack is pretty much the backbone of my day. I use it to collaborate with colleagues on my team as well as connect with people on more social things (Hello #Teracat channel)!
Screaming Frog – Absolutely necessary for crawling a site and diagnosing technical issues, especially for larger-scale sites.
SEMRush – All the keyword data you could ever want, right at your fingertips.
Google Sheets – Though I love Data Studio for visualization, Google Sheets makes it easy to share data without having to email big Excel workbooks back and forth to each other.
Google Search Console/Analytics – These two really go hand in hand. Search Console is great to see how Google sees your site and what people are organically searching for to get there, and Google Analytics is great for seeing how people are getting to and using your site.
Q7: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received from a coworker?
Treat everyone as if they’re the CEO of the company, whether they’re the president of the company, the person sitting next to you in your office, or the person working the drive-thru at the local McDonalds. People won’t feel inspired or empowered unless they first feel respected.
This is a continuation of our “Workplace Wisdom” series. Read the previous posts here:
Workplace Wisdom: Melissa Stefanec
Workplace Wisdom: Caroline Withers
