It's all in a days work

So I've completed a full week on the new job.  I'm so very excited to be here, I can barely contain myself.  One of the many things I've grown to love about this place so far is they have a unique and sometimes quirky culture.  From our lunches together as one big team/family, to the (sometimes) over-the-top informality, to the ability to hold each other to really high standards without getting nasty, I think these things about working here are pretty cool. 

On Thursday, this guy stopped by to see how things were going for me. He's only been here for a year and a half. He hit on something that has been in the back of my mind…when is the honeymoon period going to end? He said after a month he was sure it would end, and it didn't. Then two months, then three…and now a year and a half later he still loves this place.  It was exciting to hear that this could be a company that is what it appears. 

I'm trying very hard to be optimistic about that. 

Now, I've just got to hit the very high expectations that have been set in front of me. 

Product Specialists initial expectations:

1. Supervise and distribute intake on all new work orders (easy enough, once you figure out what's what). This company is a company of processes, homemade tools, and really organized.  I love it.
2. Project manage any size product job, from fast turn to massive profiling customization (again, easy enough)
3. Consult with clients on course/curriculum builds (I'm going to start taking some Instructional Design courses to really understand this. And in time I'll become an expert with the product so this shouldn't be too hard. Aside from the crazy clients you may or may not get).
4. Stay current with major trends in security, privacy, and compliance to ensure value add to customers as well as sales and marketing (Interestingly enough, this is very interesting and exciting to me. Who knew Privacy and Security could be interesting?)
5. Master enough of hosting to handle any Level 1 hosting inquiries (Again, I'll need training on this and understanding of the systems. But in time, I feel confident this will not be an issue.)

 

Personal skills that the boss wants to see demonstrated - I love that he listed these out. In fact, in the email he said he reserves the right to add to these.

1. Exceptionally clear and consistent communication of project requirements to all parties (sales, ops, customers); this will require that I understand our product and its production processes like the back of my hand, and it will take time. Though their product is pretty easy to understand at an elementary level. The deep stuff will definitely take time.
2. Ability to make the "right" decisions quickly, where "right" balances customer satisfaction with profitability. At first, we'll  discuss how to make the right call, but he's really looking for someone who I can trust to make this call on their own, eventually.  This also shouldn't be a problem. Once I get the knowledge, and the confidence that I have the knowledge, making these decisions will come naturally to me. I hope.

 

So yah, I've got my work cut out for me, but it's not horrible. I'm game.