(I’m interrupting your regular tech tip programming with a quick love letter about my job – tech tips will be back on the next post!)
A couple of days ago, I read an article on how to avoid burnout in your job. It was filled with excellent suggestions, but this really caught my eye: “Write yourself fan mail”. The idea behind it was to believe in your success before you’ve tried; kind of a preemptive congratulations that envisions the best possible outcome of a project. The article got me thinking about all of the components required to make a project and a team successful. I started to look at what I do as an individual, as a team member, and what we strive for at Hawk Ridge Systems.
So I thought I’d write a little bit of fan mail myself. What do I love about my job? Here are 5 reasons why I do what I do, for the company I do it for.
Our Customers
What can I say about our customers at Hawk Ridge Systems? Plenty! These are some of the smartest, quirkiest, and most innovative people I’ve ever met. Our customers are inventing or improving on things that inspire me every day. They make rockets that launch out of the atmosphere, and cameras that catch the view on the way down. They’re developing life-saving technologies that help people walk and breathe. They simplify our daily lives with eco-friendly consumer products that promote responsible conservation. The vast array of things you can design and build using solutions from Hawk Ridge Systems astounds me; it means I get to know a diverse group of customers. That’s pretty cool in my book.
Our Engineering Team
If you told me when I was 18 that by the time I was in my thirties I’d be spending a lot of my time with a bunch of engineers, I’m not sure I would have believed you. But here I am, surrounded by engineers every day. And I like them! They’re enthusiastic, funny, forward thinkers. (And they’re not shy about telling me when I’m using terms like “forward thinker” too often.) If I have a question about how something works or what a phrase means, they take the time to help me – or direct me to the person that can. And they have all the cool gadgets! And they like a lot of the same weird stuff that I do! And some of them are even bigger nerds about music than me! (That’s not easy to do.) Whether I need clarification on a technical term, or just a suggestion for a good band to listen to on a rainy afternoon, they’re ready with an answer. (Sometimes without asking.)
Our Sales Team
I’m based in our headquarters in Orinda (Did you hear? We moved!) but I started life out at the Ridge in our Oakland office. We took up a large part of a converted school house; the teams were strewn across the building. Visiting the sales corral was like going to another planet – a planet full of guys that were always talking on the phone! Since I started on the front desk answering the main phone lines, I got to know the rest of the sales team in no time. It didn’t take long to figure out that this was a group of go-getters, determined to be the best – at work and outside of it. From jumping out of planes, to driving fast motorcycles, to DJing the party, this team never stops surprising me with their passion for work and play. (And sometimes they buy me lunch!)
What I Get to Do
I get to be creative. I get to think of solutions to problems. I get to connect dots, and think about new ways to make the lines. I get to be on the forefront of innovative technology, and I get to travel to interesting places. I get to connect and collaborate with brilliant people who have great ideas. I get to do it all with a Marketing team that is as passionate as I am about being really good at what we do. And I get to be a bridge and conduit between our engineers and sales teams – that’s a pretty incredible place to be. I’ve had the opportunity to work in a lot of departments at Hawk Ridge. Hands-down, the best thing about what I do is that I get to grow in my career and my breadth of knowledge.
The Challenge
Someone once said to me that you only have to be a little bit better than the next best to win the game. While that might be true, I’m a big fan of putting a lot of distance between me and #2. What does that mean? It means I’m always looking to make the next campaign better, the next message clearer, the next video more engaging – and it means I love the challenge. I love that I’m encouraged to go after creating and producing top-notch work, because that’s what everyone else I work with is doing, too.
Sometimes I get caught up in the silly details; it happens to everyone. When I do, I stop and remind myself – I’m lucky. Not only do I love what I do, I really like the people I work with – and it makes it all worthwhile.
Do you want to love where you work and what you do? Check out our career opportunities now.