Lately a few of us have been blogging about starting to work here, or having been here since pretty much day 0, and since I’ve just celebrated my first anniversary as a Rally employee I thought I’d pitch in my tuppence.
While I wouldn’t change things for a minute, in hindsight it was kind of a [ ballsy | foolhardy | bloody daft ** delete as applicable ] move to take the job here. You see, I hadn’t actually set foot in Colorado prior to moving, nor did I really know anyone who lived here. In fact I had lived and worked outside the States for the best part of twenty years. I hadn’t even met anyone from Rally in person prior to my first day on the job, although I did have a bunch of long phone/video calls during the interview cycle that give me a feel for what to expect. Saying that, I really had no grasp on what to expect from an American job and was frankly terrified on the first drive in to work. Normally I’d cycle to work, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t get lost, turn up sweaty, be late because of a bit of glass in my tire or who knows what… Unsurprisingly, the rules of irony applied and the route to work that day was gridlocked (in Boulder terms – comparable to a light traffic day in a normal city) and I ended up late. I thought that was a less than stellar first impression, but it seemed this company was genuinely different to those I’d worked for in the past. People actually understood things didn’t always go according to plan and it was only A Big Deal to me. They got me settled in and shown around, set me up with a mentor and I felt welcomed into a big circle of friends. I was already enamored with the Colorado climate after only a few days in country, so this job was looking like the icing on the cake.
Things were looking even better when I discovered that people really do have mad foosball skills and it wasn’t just a clever selling point in a job description. After being humbled a few times, and sampling the wares from the kegerator I started to relax and remember some of the techniques I had picked up in a misspent youth and was able to score the odd goal.
Those first few weeks are mainly a blur, however I very clearly remember being somewhat awed by the calibre of people I was working with. While I’ve had the pleasure of working with some _very_ smart cats in my career, I had never worked with so many all at the same time. It must be a similar feeling for a boxer stepping up a weight class, or a baseball player being called up to the majors. For a long time I felt like the most stupid person in the room. I still am impressed by the team, but I do feel part of it and I no longer worry that I’ll fall completely by the wayside like I did at the beginning. If nothing else, the team is great at helping people learn and better themselves so I can only get better at what I do.
Just as I suspected from my first day, I love my job. I have a hard time leaving work at a decent hour and am always struggling with the work/life balance that’s one of our core company values. Sometimes I’m staying to work on a problem with a browser test, or I’ve been in a plethora of meetings and want to make some headway on some tasks while the office is quiet, other times I’m shooting the breeze with a colleague who I haven’t had much time to talk to during normal working hours. But I think that the main reason I find it hard to leave is because I’ve got a job that I’m happy to do. It doesn’t feel like work; I get to hang out with a great crowd, have fun and solve problems that interest me. Sure, it’s not all sweetness & light, rainbows & unicorns. Of course there are some conflicts and debates, but we all are able to contribute and be heard.
tl;dr – zOMG!!!!!!!!111 Best. Job. Evar.
p.s. Wayne, thanks for the title.
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