Know your [Pro]: The Great Longhini

It’s not everyday you meet someone who has achieved Skai [Pro] status – with flying colors – and owns two bulldogs named Marty and Duncan.

Meet Will Longhini, a search evangelist and member of the Resolution Media team in the Windy City. Will joined Resolution Media more than a year ago and has been using Skai for about a year. I had the pleasure of speaking with Will about his experience preparing for and passing the Skai Search Certification Exam. Below is our conversation:

Kate: Will, first off congrats on your recent [Pro] certification – and a stellar score at that! You were in the prep session we hosted at your office. What were you thinking going into that session having worked on Skai for more than a year?

Will: I had been using Skai for about a year and so I thought I knew all of the ins and outs of Skai from attending office hours. But the session taught me the ropes and more advanced things. I had planned to just show up, take the exam, maybe find a few new things here and there to get some extra clarification…

Kate: But what happened?

Will: I learned 2-3 full pages of new things about Skai that I didn’t know before…about the platform around Advanced Search, bookmarks and other topics.

Kate: That’s awesome! So fast-forward to the exam, what was that experience like?

Will: After the prep session, I decided to take the test within the next hour or so. Everything was still fresh in my head. I thought the exam wasn’t tricky.

Kate: I’m glad to hear it! Why is that so important to you?

Will: Skai is a tool to help us to do our day-to-day activities for our clients. Why trick people when this can only help us use the tool more effectively? For a lot of the questions, I could think back to what I do already in my day-to-day instead of my notes and think, “oh right, this is the way I’ve been taught to use the program.”

Kate: What would say to someone thinking about getting certified?

Will:  It can only help you. Its not just to put on a resume or boast about it if you’re looking for another opportunity or a raise. Going through the prep for the exam, I learned things that make my day-to-day job much easier. I found out there are tools in Skai that can help me shave 5 minutes off here and there. It’s helping me now do my job more efficiently.

Kate: What does education mean to you?

Will: In the end, when I speak to our clients, I know that I’m doing all that I can to make their program run the best and deliver the best results.  I’m making sure I’m up to date on new offerings, new thinking behind things like bidding strategies or ways to build out keywords and using those tools in Skai. I want to make sure that I’m providing the best possible product to the clients I’m working for and pushing results even further.

Kate: Will, it has been a real treat talking with you today about your experience with the certification exam and your philosophy on learning. Thank you. Before we wrap up, tell us something about you that not many people know.

Will: One thing people may not know about me is that I had an appearance in the feature film Super Size Me. Morgan Spurlock was at our school interviewing our Director of PE about a program in our school geared towards making exercise a part of everyday activity. While they were filming, I was riding an exercise bike just staring at the camera, not breaking a sweat or even using my hands to hold on.

Kate: I’m going to watch that movie this weekend to find you and your big debut. Well, thanks again Will. It was a pleasure!

If you want to achieve [Pro] status and be like Will, reach out to your Skai Account Manager for details on how how to enroll in our prep sessions and access our testing platform or read more at about Certification.