Keystone Light and Cheez-Its- The cornerstone of every nutritious dinner.
Yep, I am at home after a long day at work, and I’m working some more. Don’t read that as a complaint. It isn’t.
After working at a law firm for 6 years, I have been thrust into the angry belly of the unpredictable startup demon, who feasts on plans and order. At the law firm, I knew what was ahead of me from day to day. Now, when I arrive at work, I have no idea what fires will come up and what I will be doing for the duration of the day.
And I love that.
It’s really hard to describe if you’ve never been there. Things completely change without a moment’s notice. What you’re working on now could be negated by the end of the day. What you’ve planned for weeks may change dramatically. Your input actually goes into the final design of the “thing” your company is rushing to get out the door. You work with people in different time zones to accomplish loosely defined projects in inhuman timeframes. You write press releases for products that do not yet exist, quoting people you do not know, making promises that are completely at the mercy of change.
In other words, it is awesome.
I have always said that my favorite job of all time was working on a movie set. Complete chaos, people crying, people yelling at you, people asking you questions to which you have no answer, but at the end of the day, you look back and say “Holy shit. We actually did it.” Now, I’m not the kind of guy that simply follows the company line and is a cheerleader for whatever your company is doing. Never have been, never will be. But I have to admit that I’m pretty damned excited about this “thing” we’re going to release on the world. Will it catch on? Will people use it? Who knows. But for now, I have to think that things will work out.
One of the main things I love is the team mentality. I don’t mean that in the rah-rah, we all drink the Kool-Aid and work together kind of way. I mean it in the “okay, so I’m told we have to completely rebuild everything that the company has worked on for over 6 months, and we have one night to do it, so who’s going to help” kind of way. When people are in the middle of ten thousand things that they’re responsible for, but stop what they’re doing to help…….well, that’s new to me. And absolutely incredible.
What’s the point of this post? Well, I guess it’s that sometimes being incredibly stressed, being up against an impossible deadline, taking on the workload of three people and still doing your own job…..makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something. It’s nice to feel absolutely physically and mentally drained at the end of the day, but you’re still smiling asking “how in the hell did I land this gig?”
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I couldn’t agree more about loving the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants (no, I don’t think all of those hyphens were necessary) job atmosphere. It’s exactly what draws me to working at a school. No day is the same as the last and who knows when some 6th grader is going to hurl in front of the office door, making it impossible for a VIP tour group to leave. Excellent times, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.