Fun Friday: Meet Marie Elliott

We’re back with Fun Friday and excited to be introducing you to Marie, our newest member of the Community team.

Marie, welcome to the team. You’ve just finished a six-month internship on our Community team and joined us full time early January. Nice.

Before your internship, you’ve stayed in touch with us over the course of a few months, applying for the internship opening twice in a row. The second time was a bingo, what excited you about the idea of joining SoundCloud.

Well, when I saw the internship position, I felt a strong pull towards it. What really excited me about joining SoundCloud was that I was a huge advocate and lover of the concept, the widget and the community! I was using the widgets for my blog and had fallen in love with it the first time I saw it in action. Once I got involved in the SoundCloud community, I couldn’t stop coming back!

What’s your role? What do you like about it? Any highlights?

My job title is Community Management Assistant. When people ask me what I do at SoundCloud, I usually tell them that I do my best to help keep the SoundCloud community members happy. I get to reach out to users and connect with them, and users can always reach out to us (the support team) in times of need. When you can help solve someone’s problem, it feels really good! I really like the one-on-one interactions with users as well, and I enjoy exciting the community and talking with engaged SoundCloud users.

Where are you from? How did the re-location work out for you? Three things you love about Berlin?

I’m originally from Vancouver, Canada, so the trip here was pretty long but was surprisingly very pleasant. The relocation went smoother than expected. Before I left Vancouver, I decided to have a yard sale, where I parted with a lot of things I didn’t use or wear. This also gave me some extra money to help me out when I got here! I also have a car back in Vancouver but it was no problem to take that off the road and put it in storage (aka my Dad’s carport).

I found a temporary place to stay in Berlin when I was still in Vancouver. And within two weeks of being in Berlin, I found a more permanent place to stay! Looking back on it now, everything worked out really well.

And Berlin is an easy city to adapt to. I would say one of the things I really like about it is all the quirky/cool places you can go to and all the fun facts about the city. You can never run out of things to do here. Another thing I really like about Berlin is, it’s really easy to meet new people! And even though it’s a big city, you’ll still run into the friendly faces you’ve met before.

Tell us about your weekly community feature called SoundCloud Local!

SoundCloud Local is a feature on a different city every week, which includes 5 SoundCloud users who show talent and passion in this one place. SoundCloud Local was inspired by our feature, SoundClouder of the Day. I thought it was very cool to highlight a great SoundCloud user every weekday and it got me thinking that there are bundles of great users all located in one area.

I’ve always found it interesting to find out where people are based and how that place has inspired their recordings. SoundCloud Local was also another outlet to show these users who else is in their city on SoundCloud! And hopefully, the feature inspires them to get together during a meetup (or during their free time to collaborate) — there’s a big chance to do this with Global Meetup Day coming up as well!

Any current favorite SoundClouder?

I hate to play favorites :) but ever since I reached out to Vanchy, he’s been my favourite SoundClouder. Not only is he making music I sincerely enjoy but he’s extremely excited and engaged in the SoundCloud community. That’s always great to see and witness! This is my favourite track by him:

[One or two or] three reasons why someone should join SoundCloud, or our team in particular?

Being part of SoundCloud is a great feeling. What I really like about working at SoundCloud is that everyone is working really hard as a team and sharing their expertise with one another. Every time I leave the office, the wheels in my brain are turning. I’m learning something new everyday. And, Berlin is a bonus!

Fun fact?

I have an addiction to stuffed animal toys. I can’t walk into a toy store without buying something that looks like a real animal.

Thanks, Marie!

Everybody, please join me in welcome our newest addition to the Community team and say Hi on SoundCloud, Twitter, her blog and Tumblr.