Leading Trump - Pradeep U.N. & his Blog about Nothing. : Life and Working at Microsoft

Honey My Team Messed up my Office on my Birthday (While I was out)

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 22:35:00 GMT

If you are away from your office for a while at Microsoft - then dont expect it to remain intact by the time you are back.

While I was out for MGX 2006 (Microsoft Global Exchange - Akin to the global sales-Kick off meeting at the ending of every fiscal and beginning of the next) and TechReady3 (Akin to the Technical Kickoff for the field) - I also had my Birthday.

So yes - this time my birthday was in Orlando while I was running around from one conference room to another in the Orlando convention center while living out of one of the Disneyworld resorts (Port Orleans-Riverside).

But this post is not about MGX or TechReady (there will be some more posts that I will be doing which will detail about those two events). Pictures they say speak a thousand words - I will let the following tell their tale:

In case you havent figured it out yet - I Am a Steelers Fan and the Cleveland Browns get along just as great with the Steelers just as great as the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams get along with each other on the field.

SIX ppl have been already identified to have had a hand in the trashing of my mess:

Rew Adams from Editorial (chief orchestrator), Kathleen Holmes from Communications, Nancy Apthorp our Exec Admin, Angelle Pruitt from Product Management, Allison Awasthi, Eric Knutsen from Program Management.

So if you are out for more than a week - and happen to have a bday during that period. Make sure you make a call to the facilities management to book a cleaning date. Mine is later this wk.

Meetings with Microsoft Recruiters and Bloggers!!

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 02:07:00 GMT

Less than a month ago I had the opportunity to catch up with Jenna Adorno and she blogged about it too at Jobsblog which really was more a lunch to get to know the new face behind the Jobsblog than anything. Jenna shared her true passion for recruiting and her opinions about where she would like to take it towards and ofcourse various other odds and ends. I had previously had lunch with Gretchen when she was still with MS. What I have noticed in these meetings is that its always fun to know the evangelists of Microsoft. As a common trait they are smart, outspoken, go-getters and extremely fun :)

A week after that I got to meet Maria Curry who is a recruiter working for Heather Hamilton who was more excited about my involvement with The Seattle Business School Alliance and how it could be leveraged some quality talent. What a great idea. Infact we even discussed on how we could leverage the SBSA to get the Seattle chapter leaders of the various bschools to have their alums touchbase with Microsoft recruiters. In fact for the recent Career networking event at Redmond we tried to leverage the Tepper alumni as a testing bed to see if this idea works and maybe try it with other alumni networks with other bschools soon.

Hate Meetings? Mr. Levitt: your going to have trouble if you joined Microsoft :)

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:39:00 GMT

The New York Times the other day talked about the problem with business meetings about too much time being spent in meetings per week. The Average as you can see from the graphic on the left is 4.34 hrs spent per week and about 2.28 hrs for Males and Females respectively.

Steve Levitt a prominent economist of our times writes .... "..Personally, I hate meetings. .One reason I left my job at the N.Y. Times after 5 years was because, as much as I admired and enjoyed many of the people in the back-to-back-to-back meetings, it was too hard to get any actual work done. I would sometimes look around, watch 20 talented and well-compensated people spending an hour batting around ideas, perhaps 2% of which would come to fruition, and mourn the loss of 20 man-hours and what could have been accomplished individually during that time …"

Well Steve, thats going to be tough in corporate Microsoft for sure. My average meeting hrs this week was about 24 hrs for the 5 day work week. But then again I'm sure a bestselling author wouldnt really care to be a Product Manager anyway :)

H1B Visas and Microsoft Recruiting.

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 02:44:00 GMT

"So Does Microsoft sponsor H1B visas!?" Aaah - how many times have I heard that question asked of me.

Jenna Adorno (the JobsBlog headhoncho) now that Gretchen is out doing her thang at JobSyntax has a small little write up on this issue .. and for everything else there is mastercard she implies.

Being an immigrant myself let me share some of the information I have so far, given that I have been through this process in once before in a different country and started this with another company in the US.

Assertion: If I had to bet my immigration status and therefore my career on any company, I would pick Microsoft hands down. Why? Following are my five reasons

a) The Immigration status and deadlines that are current now are being lobbyed strong at DC by most companies who are worth their salt (the ones that know that great talent is not ethnicity or nationality bound).

b) Microsoft is defnitely on the top of the list of the loudest voices in that lobbying fact.

c) SteveB and BillG included have been said to have made trips to DC to lobby for this - so there is strong support from the very-top for our employees who need visas and green cards. As an immigrant I get a sounder sleep every night knowing this.

d) The lawyers here are awesome. This is NOT lipservice, but they actually know of yahoogroups and msn groups of "informal societies" that share information that is worthy of knowing. They can actually talk about issues that in other firms I have seen the immigrants know but the lawyers have no clue about. And yes - they do have time for you and dont charge you by the hr - the company takes care of that for you.

e) Microsoft has its offices all over the world. So in other words if you are really good and worth your mettle - there are workarounds to get you working for MS. Maybe working at Redmond might take a while, but hey field-experience is valuable before you move to redmond. Brightside to everything :). So if you have a family and are planning on a move there are always great negotiation levers, the more talented/important you are, the better the leverage (no Duh!)

All this positive stories aside - have I heard of any failed stories so far? Ofcourse, here is one.

My friend from Philly He is Ukranian and I know is a super-well qualified MS FTE waiting to happen. He did get a Hire at Microsoft at Redmond but we couldnt proceed with his employment because of visa complications. The lawyers did realize this before he was asked to move and couldnt proceed with his offer. The truth is if we couldnt straighten his visa issues for him, it would take a super-human effort to do that by any other firms. And usually when you do get an offer - the lawyers do evaluate your chances of getting your visa and residenship.

And usually they are on the mark with their evaluation. So as much as I cringe in saying this its true for our MS folks - "Trust the lawyers" :)

Vista and my Laptop - Where Love and Hate Collide.

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 05:28:00 GMT

Chalk this one on my list of Stupid things to do.

Given that Office 2003 on XP was running as fast Daffy Duck on a marathon - what was I thinking when I decided to upgrade to Office 12 on Vista at that. The pointed Fingers are aimed at a certain Felipe Oyanadel who had a pretty elaborate methodology to install that on a similar machine (his) which was the same except for a few cycles of Ghz more on his CPU. I am such a sucker for sucess stories, cool interfaces and superfast graphics that I Spent my weekend at work trying to "upgrade".

Quickly learning my mistake I went back to a fresh XP installation and tried Office 12 on it - much better performance - but outlook is chewing up my 2GB Pst files like it was a mouldy toothed ogre chewing on raw steak. All this aside - the interface was cool and I cant wait to get a new machine to upgrade to this next release. Its supercool yes. My machine is just not ready for it yet. Bummer.

Lesson Learnt: When older software is slow on current hardware, do not move to newer software on same hardware. And you'd think thats a no-duh axiom. No wonder its on my list of Stupid things to do.

Get a XBox360 while U apply for a job with Office Server Group!

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:11:00 GMT

Talk about real-time info....

Office Server Recruiting Reception

Wednesday, June 14, 2006, Building 31 Cafeteria 5-7PM

This event is for external candidates and Microsofties.....bring your friends (or their resumes)!

Please attend our Recruiting Reception and hear Kurt DelBene, Corp. VP of the Office Server Group, introduce Microsoft Office SharePoint Server -- including Search, Content Management Server, Project, and SharePoint Designer -- and hear how SharePoint makes our great Office products even better.

See trade-show style demos of all the SharePoint Server products and network with hiring managers for the openings we have in dev, test and PM.

External candidates welcome.

Food and drinks will be provided. Every resume submitted is entered into a raffle for some cool prizes, including XBOX/360s

Visa Beta 2 - Bit Torrents bends the line between official and unofficial...

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 01:15:00 GMT

Before u read any further - do realise this post is more a reflection with interest and NOT an endorsement, support or remark of any kind.

Last week's update when we opened up Vista Beta2 Download came with a usage warning on June 9th that high demand could cripple wait & Download times. Not sure if the demand was underestimated or there was a truly serious constraint on infrastructure decisions but bottomline - download usage was high (No that did not tip the stockprice up - well not yet atleast) and download times were horrible.

A torrent site that came up soon on the web (Like thatz a surprise) now offers an "unofficial mirroring with official validation" with its BitTorrent download for Vista Beta 2. In their own words they say .....

This is not a crack, this is not a hack, this is not software piracy - it's unofficial mirroring with official validation. You can get a Windows Vista Beta 2 product key for free through Microsoft, as the OS won't install without one.

Yes this does bend the lines of official and unofficial. And I am a sucker for business-debates. So now comes the question of software assurance and trust. How would I trust what I download from this site to not have any "naughty" code? Will code downloaded from this site be supported by MS? Based on the documentation this site does sound to be from a very positive evangelist with very noble intentions - but legal ramifications in cases of exception are still valid. But this makes for one very interesting business case :)

The Tepper Students @ Microsoft Day was a Success. Detailed Report here.

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 17:37:00 GMT

Back in March, I had hosted on behalf of Microsoft and the WWESS Recruiting committee (this is was much before the last reorg ofcourse) The Annual Tepper Students @ Microsoft Day and thanx to my extended 2-part blog-hiatus the update is coming now! Oh well better late than never.

Summary: It was a great success, everyone acknowledged the pioneering idea of this from the various angles - Microsoft/Recruiting/Hiring Managers/Tepper or for that matter any university and got great value all around. There were several internship interviews as a consequence of this event, and one offer made and accepted to a Tepper Student. Yes - Mike Kuentz now works here at Redmond.

About 10 students (7 were interested in the Shadowing opportunity) showed up from The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh - and met with the several ppl form Microsoft. They met over 22 MS employees in various positions and capacities (Some of them met more because of the networking through shadow sessions). With nearly 1:2.5 student:MS Employee touch this was the BIGGEST Networking session ever for students! The students met: GMs, Directors, Product Unit Managers, MBA recruiters, Program Managers, Product Managers, Marketing managers, Release managers around the campus and shadowed 7 Microsoft Managers 1:1 around campus in various departments.

Here are some quotes from the students on their overall experiences :

"Overall it was the best company visit I have ever done. The combination of panel, networking, and job shadow sessions made it a tremendously positive learning experience. There is no doubt that one can really make an informed (career-related) decision on Microsoft after going through this experience. " - Tatat Yuniarto [Tepper/MBA Class of 2007]
"Having some of the alumni come in to informally talk over breakfast was a great idea that helped relax people and set the pace for the day. - Mike Kuentz - Tepper MBA Student [Current Intern at Microsoft]
"I want to congratulate you on putting so many hiring managers together in one session. It does talk very highly about Tepper at MS. This was a great opportunity to sell myself" - Enrique Garduno - Tepper MBA Class of 2007

Categorized feedback on the events? Sure - Right below

Breakfast Session with CMU Alums (sponsored by WWESS Recruiting Team) Thank you - Eve Psalti

"This session was a very good introduction to MSFT from the point of view of a Product Manager. It also gave me a broad perspective of MSFT and all of the opportunities that exist".

Featured Speakers: Larry Waldman, CMU Alum (MS Office), Adam Cooper, CMU Alum (MS Office), Jenny Lo (Windows Communications)

MBA Recruiting @ Microsoft - Perspectives by a MBA Recruiter

“I felt that the MBA recruiter (Dina Lewallen) did a tremendous job of outlining not only the hiring process, but a lot of the question about the culture at Microsoft."

Featured Speaker: Dina Lewallen, (MBA Recruiting)

Meet Microsoft Hiring Managers Session

“I found this to be a really great session. The speakers were experienced hiring managers hailing from diverse groups within Microsoft. Besides learning about what they do, we also learnt about the qualities that they are looking for from aspiring Microsoftees: ability to execute, value proposition, passion, and so on.”

Panelists:

Michael Smith, Tepper Alum (OBA),
Jack Tang (MS Office – IWAG),
Gary Cohen (Windows),
Kate Hughes (Services),
Raju Malhotra (Services),
Cathy Hsieh (Licensing)

Lunch with CMU Alums (Sponsored by XBox ProductGroup) Thank YOU - Paolo Malabuyo

"I thought the people who attended this session, and the structure of the session, were excellent. I would prefer to start the day like this, and have a check-up over lunch.”

MS Employees Networking with students

Shawn Vij (Krannert Alum, Server & Tools),
Charles Anthe (Windows Small Biz Server),
Shirlene Lim (Dynamics CRM),
Deepa Vij (Tepper Alum, MSN AdCenter),
Glenn Pereira (Wharton Alum, Services),
Paolo Malabuyo (Xbox)

Shadow Event - Students Shadow MS Employes for 3 hrs around campus

“This was the best experience of my entire job-search time at Tepper. It gave me a chance to really “see” myself working at MS, interacting with other employees and helping to make key decisions. Far beyond my expectations, and it really boosted my perceived value of MS.”

MS Employees who allowed Students to shadow them through meetings & brainstorm sessions:

Larry Waldman	Program Mgr	Office: IW-PM Graphics
John Smithwick	Lead Prod Mgr	Office: IWAG Solution
Justin Kirby	Lead Mktg Mgr	Xbox Global Brand Strategy
Shan Haq	Prod Mgmt	Biz Talk Server Mktg
John Rodman	Product Planner	Xbox Planning & Design
Charles Anthe	Release Mgr	US Windows
Jack Tang	Snr Prod Mgr	Office: IWAG Solution

Tepper Q&A Alumni Panel

“This session allowed us to reflect on what we saw earlier in the day and ask any nagging questions. The diversity of the people on the panel made this a very valuable experience, because they could offer us many different perspectives on things.”

MS Employees Networking with students: Adam Cooper (Office Infopath), Charles Anthe (Windows Small business server), Stuti Shukla(Windows Server), Peter Johnson (Finance)

THANX & Acknowledgements

Apart from the people already mentioned above A long-over due thank you to the folks below who were behind the scenes and helped make this happen. Through email and sharing the news with their contacts and putting me in touch with wonderful people who helped me run this event even when I had never met them before ever J THANK YOU ALL.

Sponsorship: Paolo Malabuyo, Eve Psalti

Friends who helped through 6 degrees of seperation to setup the folks for Hiring Manager Panels and Shadow Engagements: Microsoft Community/Distribution Lists for: CMU Alumni, Tepper Alumni, MBA Mentors, MBA Jobs. Sanjeev Jain (GSBChicago), Ivan Joseph (GSBChicago), Renuka Agarwal(Wharton), Yaya Guo(UC Davis), Harini Gokul (Owen), Sassan Saedi (Kellogg)

Logistics and Support: Ann Gorman (For Survey results and student logistics), Samaara Zulfiqar (Microsoft Logistics)

Tepper Folks: Ann Gorman (Survey results and Ad-hoc help on the day), Steve Rakas (For coordination and making this happen), Ken Keeley (for support)

Legal: Pauline Price (Drafting the Non Disclosure Docs, making this event smooth and legal!)

MBA Recruiting: Dina Lewallen, Ian Rosi, Sharman Mailloux Sosa

Admins: Nancy Apthorp, Christy Fox, Lynn Curtis, Joan Yarkosky.

Ofcourse for everyone else who I forgot – I have to blame my bad memory than intentions. We will run this event again in 2007.

OneYear at Microsoft. What have I learnt so far?

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 01:35:00 GMT

May 31st was the 1st year anniversary of my tenure here at Microsoft. And what was a year and feels like five - there are 10 learnings that I can enlist:

Keep your boss happy. Keep your Admins happier.
Change is Constant because of Reorgs
In the Kingdom of Powerpoint - Whiteboarding is not really frowned upon
The concept of work-life balance is not an even-keeled one
Taxonomy debates is not fun and they happen all the time
Free Soda in the Kitchen is not as big a "benefit" as it was back in college
Think-tank session with Pizza dinners are better with wine
Free Breakfast is always accompanied by long meetings. In retrospect there is no such thing as a free breakfast
Cross Group Collaboration is a beautiful thing on paper
An average Meeting spawns 5 more meetings. If you do the math - you will realise why i have been out of this blog for so long despite intentions not to!

Am not sure how many of these are universal and how many are MS-Centric. But its time for me to run to one of those spawned meetings now. So....

Which is tougher: Precision Questioning or answering?

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:26:00 GMT

Vervago's PQA - Precision Questioning and Answering training is an artful application of science to get to the root of complex issues through simple questioning - where the rule is to respond to the unambiguous thoughtful question in a word, number or worst case - 1 sentence. This was one of the really cool training sessions I attended in Feb.

Ambiguous questions or "umbrella" questions require paragraph answers which offer no solution or action items. Precision questioning helps get to the root of all that.

Takeaways from this were:

a) All execs at MS are PQ-trained or atleast talk that way in a deep-dive/review.

b) PQ-ing is absolutely required to breakdown complex problems that are multifaceted.

c) PQ requires a lot of practise and can be intimidating.

d) Cultural issues can ruin PQ. where a one qn one answer style is just downright rude!

Ofcourse one of the major issues with this is the inability of most ppl to follow precision answering and not going beyond the one word, one number (or related) and atmost one answering style of Precision answering that drives a successful PQA discussion.

Reason? PQA is about solving the problem without personal attachments. It is that simple. Highly recommend the training to anyone who has a chance to take it.

Exuberance and Bad typing Skills jus dont mix.

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 19:36:00 GMT

Context: Its a week to "Launch Date" as the entire team here is heads-down burning the midnite flourescent lamps (what with the oil prices these days). Along comes this idea of launching with some 'product-group style' fan-fare and having the Ship-It posters that our product groups have made legendary around the industry. Brilliant idea - you say?

Well historically at Services we do not really "Ship" services, we design the offerings and release them to the field - till SKUs [Productized offerings] came along. (Ofcourse I am over-simplifying here to the magnitude of calling a Lotus Elise jus a car - and No William: A rose might be just a rose - but this is a lotus...)

Whats with all this build-up, you ask?

Well - Samaara our exuberant admin sets up a meeting for us - for the day "To Discuss Shit-IT posters". Also included in the meeting was Jonathan Biard - the Release-criteria Gatekeeper of SKU-Dom. Irony!

Change and Life in the twilight zone...

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 19:30:00 GMT

A refocus of projects, priorities, expertise and teams happens very often in the corporate world. Microsoft is no different and I realised it was my turn when my boss walked over and said "It's Time". Well it wasnt exacty as dramatic as that, she did give me 2 wks to think over and let me know it was an option she strongly recommended I take and after 2 wks of talking to all the ppl involved - she was right - It was time!

So during the refocusing of projects and ramping up, henceforth referred to as the "Twilight Zone" (pls refrain from reading this note with music from any TV shows you might be familar with, puhleeze) there is an immense state of reflection, introspection and anxiety. The Twilight Zone in terms of learning can look like a Capitol Hill or K2, depending on how different the project you are being pulled from and the project you are being pulled to are. Also affecting the height of learning are building relationships the new stakeholders in the picture, understanding their positions, their concerns, the background for the project, the technical/business details and ofcourse the financial goals. Continuing with the analogy - its not so much about the mountain/hill itself that should be daunting but its about the person trying to climb it, the tools in hand, the mindset to want to go and willingness/expectation to fall down, shake down the debris and press on. And more importantly knowing all the camping sites on the way to the top and taking some time to camp, take some pictures and sending some home with a whispered hurraah. Ofcourse it is not a sole mountain climber routine - its a pack of 10 who are pulling eachother up and down with their expertise being a strength or a weakness at any given stage and that is a critical state of mind to understand. Last but not the least is to know if there is an option to pull out your cellphone - dial your "911" person and ask for Help. [In realistic circumstances - pls ask "Can you hear me now" and hope that Verizon did build a tower high enough for you to be heard]

Shaded and hidden behind the whole analogy ofcourse is the need for preparation. And that is currently the state that I am in - refusing to go anywhere near the mountain before I go get a funky GPS equipment [Strategic Focus] and some walkie-talkies [Communication] not to mention good flares [Marketing] to help as and when required to reach the summit.

The journey to the top starts once official communications are shared. Till then it shall remain analogy-time.... back in the twilight zone.

..I'd expect my presentation-coach to follow his own advice!

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 11:27:00 GMT

So my first "Ship" at Microsoft is in 2 wks - hence my relative absence from blogging. In 2 wks - The Microsoft Risk Assessment Program for Security will have been "SKU-ed" and released to the field. Enough of random rambling - on to the topic - my presentation-coach is does not follow his own advice.

These 2 days I am in internal-training for Presentation here at Redmond. The trainer a self-professed communication star who waxed poetic about his experience for over 12 yrs coaching Microsoft Executives consuming 95% of his total work time in 1:1s for about 40 different events every year to get credibility got nothing more than a raised eyebrow from me.

The first 10mins of the class started with listing with all the presentation faux-pas that the participants in the class hated:

Rambling
Talking to the slide
Trying to act super smart - when you are super duh
Showing scant respect to the audience
Being too casual
Not knowing the content
Trivializing the content or being shocked by content (someone else's slides)
Reading from the projector/laptop
Talking in a monotone
Fiddling with the clicker like it was a cat that required some attention
Making facial expressions that makes KingKong seem like a young Kevin Costner in comparison.... etc etc.

The trainer made every single mistake on this list always. Did he also follow any of the directions he gave on the "Should Dos" for good presentation? Nope. Not a single one. Makes you wonder... I can understand coaches neednt be players - but this is ridiculous! Arent Preachers supposed to practise?

The WORST presentation-training class I have ever taken in my life, yet. Yuck

Want to join Microsoft BMO? Meet us in Silicon Valley in Feb!!

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 01:20:00 GMT

Remember my old story of how I started my Microsoft career with the whole networking session in Feb 2005???

Well that event is BACK! Microsoft's Server Marketing BMO Group is having their Silicon Valley Networking Event at our MountainView, CA office.

Positions they are looking for are:

Marketing Manager

Group Marketing Manager

Server Platform Business Manager

Product Manager

Security Product Manager

Segment Business Performance Manager

Technical Sales Engagement Manager

From experience I know the Wine is not too bad, the food is okie, the company is awesome, and chance to meet the hiring managers to give them opportunity to hire you PRICELESS!! Decisions are done quick and You will have an all day interview the next day if you are a fit. Happened with me!!

Heather has more info on this here

Lisa Franklin talks about working at Worldwide Microsoft Services

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 03:43:00 GMT

Lisa Franklin is one of the few direct-MBA hires (Howard University) at WWESS and on the recuiting committee here. I asked her the following questions: What is your experience like? Was the ramp-up steep or not? Why pick to join Microsoft compared to other options from school?

You know what the problem is with pursuing your MBA…? It is very consuming. It interrupts your routine, it interrupts your life; however, you leave with a pretty definitive idea about what you would like to your professional future to entail. At least that’s how my experience went.

OK, well… maybe "problem" isn't the right word… How about "conundrum?"

I would be lying if I said that my ultimate goal was to always work for the leading software company in the world. In fact, I had always been conflicted in my professional life, because I felt that everything corporate was driven by numbers and less by people. Now the MBA in me, completely embraces the rationale behind this. I mean, I wouldn’t dare try to run a company or an organization and only use the accounts payable entries (would you?). Nonetheless, I wanted a balance and I historically had achieved that by volunteering in the evenings at local inner-city schools. Until now….

During the first semester of my second year in the MBA program, I had an on-campus interview with a very “lively” and “honest” Microsoft recruiter named Lindsey. She had pulled my resume from the Monstertrak database and wanted to chat with me further. As I said previously, I had never given much thought to working for Microsoft, but I wasn’t going to give up an opportunity to interview with them either!

Lindsey spoke less about the opportunities available at Microsoft and more about my background and passion. The weird thing is that I was actually tired of interviewing; at this point I already had three job offers post graduation. However, no one had ever asked me about my passion. You mean there were companies out there that actually cared! I was intrigued. This set the tone for my future interviews which included a visit to the Redmond campus. My interviews were culminated with the WWESS General Manager, Hardeep. His frankness, strategic approach, and clear interest in the career growth of his team sold me. Well, that and the fact that my recruiter called me at least once a day!

The transition: Now that I am here…what is it like……?

Well, the ramp-up was steep. I don’t think you can compare this experience with any other. Having been in other “corporate” environments, I had to unlearn some behaviors in addition to learning about the company and the industry. For instance: it’s okay to speak you mind in meetings you can even disagree with everyone in the room. In fact, it’s expected. Additionally, you can express your desire to do something different, or more challenging.

Don’t get me wrong….the learning process is still in full swing.

I have however thought about it a lot and I have concluded that I am afforded the opportunity to live my passion everyday. I can use work hours to volunteer for organizations that inspire me or I can take on projects that stretch my skill set. I can even write blogs if I choose.

Simply put, I have learned a lot from the individuals that I have come in contact with in my short sixth month stint. Would I trade the experience? Never do.

But……one bit of advice

The faint at heart, need not apply.

~ Lisa Franklin