Day in the Life (In Office): Meredith Wardell
School and Library Marketing Assistant, Scholastic Inc.
Day: Wednesday, August 14, 2024
7:49 AM: My day begins! I hop on the LIRR commuter train bright and early to head into Scholastic’s New York City office. The commute can be long, but it’s always a great time to get some reading done!
9:00 AM: I arrive at Grand Central Station and hop on the subway to make my way downtown to SoHo, grabbing some coffee and breakfast along the way!
9:15 AM: I finally arrive at the office! I unload my ludicrously capacious bag at my desk, and embark on my first task of the day, which is to comb through my emails. I answer any quick questions that have arisen, add new tasks to my to-do list, and fill away what I can into some semblance of order. Since I am currently working on award mailings, today’s morning inbox largely consists of shipping confirmations and statuses.
10:00 AM: I spend the rest of my morning preparing for ALSC Institute, a bi-annual library conference coming up next month. I research travel plans for authors, take a crash course in Denver’s event venue scene, and write marketing copy for an event invitation.
11:00 AM: I meet with my teammate Maisha to discuss NCTE, an upcoming educator conference in November. This is our first major meeting about the conference, so we discuss big-picture items as we build out and prioritize our conference to-do list.
11:30 AM: I carry my newfound NCTE energy with me and work on conference prep. In short, I make spreadsheets! So many spreadsheets. Checking against current inventory, I create a preliminary list of promotional materials for our booth and events. I create an author travel grid, which will help me in the future to keep track of everyone’s travel information and booking status. I also create a hotel housing list, featuring our sponsored authors and staff, and I research our databases to find any local authors (hello, Boston!) who we could invite for book signings.
1:00 PM: Lunch break! Because it is a beautiful day, I finally leave the world of spreadsheets behind and venture outside for sustenance.
2:00 PM: I head to my weekly meeting with the larger School & Library/Conventions Marketing team. Here we discuss upcoming conferences and projects, brainstorm ideas for promotional materials and events, and recap our week so far.
3:00 PM: After the meeting, I share some notes on in-progress promotional materials with the design team and continue my earlier NCTE conference prep.
4:00 PM: Time for an (almost) end-of-day clean-up! I circulate the trade journal book reviews that we received during the day, check on the status of my department’s payable invoices, and prepare for future mailings.
5:30 PM: The end is in sight, but I don’t leave yet! Instead of running to make the LIRR, I join my office Dungeons & Dragons group for an adventurous way to end the day
Check out more from the Early Career Committee on our blog.
