From time to time, we try to give you a glimpse into work in our offices around the globe, so we are excited to bring you an interview with Erin Hathaway, a Marketing and Exhibits Coordinator at Oxford University Press. We spoke to Erin about her life here at OUP — which includes organizing over 250 conferences that our marketers attend each year.
When did you start working at OUP?
I started working at OUP in May 2012.
What is your typical day like at OUP?
I spend most of my day working with our Exhibits Management System (EMS), our database that helps us coordinate and prepare for the over 250 conferences that our team manages each year. Our work also involves closely monitoring conference budgets and making sure we’ve covered all the bases in regards to our booth set up, attendance, AV needs and book lists. In those few months out of each year when the conference load lightens up, I do some fiscal analysis and create training documentation to help our conference stakeholders.
What is the strangest thing currently on or in your desk?
It’s a three-way tie between a Transformer, a painted skull, and a Wonder Woman metal poster.
What’s the first thing you do when you get to work in the morning?
Read my email to check for any conference emergencies or time sensitive deadlines. Then I go get a cup of tea.
What’s your favorite book?
The Black Company by Glenn Cook.
What is the most exciting project you have been part of while working at OUP?
We recently transitioned the storage of our journals from a third party warehouse into our warehouse in Cary, North Carolina. While difficult at times, the move has saved us both financially and logistically by allowing us to combine our books and journals onto one pallet for a given conference. This project allowed me to work closely with people from different areas of OUP, from the Journals Production team to the Cary warehouse staff. Everyone was extremely helpful in getting this transition underway and it was exciting to see a project long imagined come to fruition.
What is your favorite word?
I like the word “tactile.”
What’s the most enjoyable part of your day?
I love strategy meetings with the Exhibits team where we dream up ways to make our systems more efficient.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you take with you?
A Kindle filled with many books, my chainmail jewelry kit (a side business of mine), and a comfortable pillow. I’m assuming basic necessities have been covered, otherwise my choices are not very smart.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve found about working at OUP?
After working here for over six years, I’m constantly amazed by how much things have changed. In the moment, it feels like change comes so slowly. Yet, when I look back on how OUP was organized and the systems we were using when I started in 2008, I’m amazed by how committed OUP is to making our company more efficient and incorporating new technology.
Headline image credit: Oxford University Press by George Sylvain. CC-BY-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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