Why I Love Mondays

David Clayton is General Manager at Gaumina where he has worked since 2009. He has eight years of experience in the digital industry.

Company: Gaumina is a full-service digital agency. We create web / social / mobile digital projects and campaigns. Our departments include creative, design, programming, advertising and project management. We are challenge-lovers who relentlessly pursue new ways to excite online audiences with bespoke and unique website designs and apps.
Job description: My main responsibilities are the direction and promotion of Gaumina in the Irish market, and acquiring new clients and maintaining existing ones. I help our clients formulate a brief for their campaign or upcoming project by focusing them on the goals they are looking to achieve and the people they want to reach. Then propose a digital solution to reach those goals.
Likes: Almost every industry in Ireland has digital needs. This variation of industries keeps my job interesting, as there are always new challenges ahead! My favourite moment is when you get the chance to pitch a creative concept to a client, and it’s an approach they never considered before – then they give the go ahead!
Career ladder: After I qualified in industrial design, I realised very quickly that there are almost no career prospects in this area without leaving the country. I was always passionate about computers – from building them, to playing games until 4am, to learning new programs. I got the opportunity to get into a very small web design company (Denobi), it was just the boss and myself! This is where I learned my trade – web design, online advertising, client management. I have worked up through the ranks at Gaumina, starting as a Project Manager, then as a Digital Account Manager, and now General Manager. My recommendation for people looking to work in this industry is to take part in a digital media course, then try to get an internship in a small web design company or digital agency. Smaller companies will give you exposure to lots of different areas of the business, so you can get a handle on where you’d like to specialise.
Qualifications: Certificate, CIW Foundations; Bachelors Degree of Design, Industrial Design
Working hours: 8am to 6pm. I try to avoid overtime where possible, and DO NOT take my laptop home. Your family is more important than your job!
Breaktime:  We bought a juicer recently, so twice a week we have a healthy juice lunch (normally followed by some sausage rolls when I get hungry!)
Social media credentials:  As I deal B2B, LinkedIn is essential to my work life. The more I use it, the more I am getting back from it. We’ve been trying to practice what we preach with Facebook, and posting regularly. We’ve been running Facebook ads for our business for the last 3 months with great results. Of course we build Facebook apps and run ad campaigns for our clients too.
LinkedIn – http://ie.linkedin.com/in/claytondavid  Facebook – www.facebook.com/gauminadigital
News sources: The Digital Hub – www.thedigitalhub.com ;  LinkedIn
Onsite or offsite:  Mainly onsite, with offsite adventures about 3 times a week. Preferred mode of transport: taxi (using Halo app).
Digital strategy/vision:  We are committed to using web, social and mobile channels to promote Gaumina in the Irish market. We’re really pleased with the positive response we’ve had to our (award nominated) blog: www.Gaumina.ie/blog and will continue our firm blog schedule. Our website already caters for mobile users as it uses a responsive design, but we are investigating the use of apps and hope to have something launched in 2013 – exciting stuff!
I love Mondays because…  Our clients! We’re not interested in once-off projects. We want long term relationships, and we feel that client become like friends. Monday is when we catch up on what happened over the weekend!