I'm Aaron Burris,
And you're watching Job Hoppers.
Big Jobs.
Small jobs.
Like, the tiniest jobs!
I'm going to find all of them,
just so you can see
...what
...is
...out
...there!
Woo! That's what I'm talking about.
[AARON PANTS]
That's the stuff.
[MUSIC: Job, Job Hoppers!]
Today we're in the Hudson Valley, right next to the Hudson River.
And way over there, is the Catskill Mountains.
But today we're meeting Jenna at the...
We're trying to film!
[CREW: Action!] Today we're meeting Jenna.
She is the project manager at the Friendly City Creative Club.
[AARON SIGHS]
I hope they're nice.
Jenna! I'm Aaron.
-Pleasure to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, I like your outfit.
- Thank you!
- It’s um, different.
- We're biking to work today.
I like this.
Oh, that's a nice picture. - Thank you. I took it.
- I'm a photographer.
- She’s a photographer. - Very dynamic.
Follow me. - Which one is mine?
- This one.
Are you ready?
[AARON SIGHS]
- We're doing great. - Going, going down.
- Oh, sorry.
Okay, let's go.
Follow me.
So, you said you work in the office?
Yes, but I also work at home. - But you also work from home.
- Oh, ho ho! You’re ahead of me. - Yeah, Jinx!
If you want, we can stop at any of these houses.
I'm very good at knocking on random people's houses
and making friends with them. - Let’s not do that.
You know what?
We're never going to make it to work at this rate.
[AARON SPITS]
There's stuff flying in my face!
- You don't open your mouth while biking.
- What?
- You’re gonna swallow... - What? Oh ho ho!
My plan worked! Ha ha ha!
What’s up Friendly City?
Oh, okay.
- Tough crowd.
This is my desk.
I'm gonna go change.
Don't mess anything up.
[AARON SNICKERS]
Hey!
What's your name?
- I’m Pat.
- I’m Aaron.
- Nice to meet you.
- What's Jenna's password?
- I can't tell you.
- What's the password?
- I can't tell you.
- What?
- I can't tell you.
That’s the password.
Oh!
All right! What did you break?
Nothing. You know what? - Let's switch, yeah.
- So, what do you do as a project manager in this advertising agency?
- We wear many hats. So I'm project managing,
also helping out on social media, helping plan events we’ve thrown before.
So the client comes to us with an idea,
and we take that idea, and we find creative solutions for them.
And that's when we'll hire folks from outside the office
to come in and work with us.
So whenever we're working on creative, we want the client to review it.
So I'm the person sending over the creative
and sending back notes to my team saying, “Okay, they liked this part of it,
but we'd really like to explore this other part in a different way.”
So what's a busy, like what's a chaotic day?
We had our first exhibition here a couple of months ago,
so that really kept us busy for a while.
There was a lot of managing
and coordinating with the artists and the creatives we were working with,
as well as curating the actual space, and setting up for success.
- So what's next for us today?
- We're wrapping up a project with a client who owns a ferry in Hudson,
and we're going to be launching the brand and the actual ferry today.
This is actually the spreadsheet I made for this ferry project.
I'm keeping track of all of the creative.
We went from, you know, brand inspiration and building a deck of designs that we love,
all the way up to designing the merch, and sending them to printers.
First, though, would you like to go to lunch?
- Where are we going? - We’re going to bike to my house.
[JENNA LAUGHS]
[AARON EXHALES]
[JENNA EXHALES]
Are you okay? Do you want to slow down?
No, I’m good...
I can't believe you fell for that twice!
[AARON LAUGHS]
- All right, we made it.
- So, project manager, what made you want to do that?
So, I was actually furloughed from my office manager position.
I kind of just went into full panic mode and wondered what the next steps were.
I actually found the Google Career Certificate program and realized that,
you know, this is a very accessible thing that I can do.
I can afford it while being unemployed and be able to,
you know, make a next step in my career that makes sense for me.
I just need the tools in order to move forward.
So, it was actually doing the certificate, and applying the jobs at the same time.
Though, it took me about a year.
Oh. And how long after that?
Until you got your job at Friendly City?
Just a couple of months, actually.
My boss reached out to me via email
because he noticed on my website that I'm a project manager.
Also have the Project Management Certificate,
and he really sold me on the idea of Friendly City, and the way it utilizes
local creatives in order to work on projects together.
- That was really cool.
- Being a project manager means that you also have to be an empath
and be able to connect with people, and make sure that they're doing okay
because you can't just keep pushing your team
to the limits and to the impossible.
It's about managing those relationships,
and finding ways to work together the most efficiently.
Hey! - Hello.
- How are you? - Good how are you?
Thanks for the mail.
- You’re welcome.
So, finish up that sandwich, because we are biking back to work.
- We’re biking back to work? - Mm-hmm.
- We're just got here!
I'm signaling!
I am signaling.
You want to give me a ride?
Guess not.
- Hey, Pat. - What up, Pat?
- Hows it goin? - Ow!
- Okay, so now I need your help with something.
Oh, really? I get to do something.
So this checklist, you're gonna help me make sure all the deliverables are ready,
- Okay.
- and to help us with the official launch of the ferry.
So you're going to look at the checklist, do the task, check it off,
- feel good about it. - Feel good about it?
- Yeah.
- Okay. - It’s required, actually.
Where did you go, printer?
Yeah. You're alive.
You're well.
- She talks to her printer.
- Go get it, it’s working. - Okay, boss.
Hi, Mr. Printer.
[AARON CLEARS THROAT]
Lets see here...
Check on the graphic deliverables.
Check.
Check that the t-shirts have arrived.
Check.
Check that the website is public.
Check.
Check that the social media assets are ready.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
Check.
Already ahead of me, I love it!
Convince a social media creator to come promote the launch.
Today, I am playing
rock, paper, scissors against this guy for this boat.
Pretty soon this boat's going to be named “Job Hoppers.”
Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!
- Woah! - Oh!
- Can I have the boat? - I’m just gonna jump in the water.
[AARON LAUGHS]
I’ve had... you're leaving me behind!
I'll catch the next one.
- It's really cool to see the ferry finally launch.
- This is nice.
I would literally be here all the time.
We should put our feet in the water.
- Let's do it.
Three, two, one, go.
- Are you sure nothing's going to come up and bite me?
- No, not sure.
- I've been told my toes look like worms.
[JENNA LAUGHS]
Today has been great.
I do have one last question for you. - Yes.
- For anyone interested in doing project management,
what one piece of advice would you give them?
- Hone in on your people skills, learn how to communicate with them,
learn how to be empathetic,
make sure everyone feels valued and involved,
and we’re all on the same page.
- Are you try to make me cry? - A little bit.
- Well, I could spend the whole day here.
- Me too.
- But, I have a ferry to catch.
- Bye, Aaron! - Bye!
[FERRY HONKS]
I'm on the Hudson!
Thank you, Jenna and Friendly City.
This is just a great example of how
you don't have to work at some huge company to have an impact.
Hey, can I drive this thing? Is it hard?
I can drive it?
[AARON LAUGHS]
I'm just gonna go for it. - Sure, go for it.
- I can do wheelies?
All right, Let's run right into that building over there,
- The lighthouse?
Job... Hoppers!