My First Day at InsideSales.com

I figured I would type this all out so that I don't have to retell the story over and over again. So even if I talk to you in person I am going to refer you to this blog post if you ask me about my first day. Ok? Ok.

The first thing you have to know is that this company has way too many people for the amount of parking spots they had. I was lucky that I read the multiple emails that had been sent about parking, and I made sure that I showed up at least 10 minutes early. I got a really nice spot right in front of the building because of that. I think I am going to continue showing up 10 minutes early, because I really don't feel like walking forever to get to the building. That information isn't exactly relevant I was just kind of thinking out loud...but while type. So the loudness was from my fingers making typing noises...yeah.

Ok, so I walk into the building and a guy walking in asked if I had a badge to get in because he forgot his. I told him it was my first day so I didn't have one. Lucky for both of us the door was open. Apparently this is going to be an almost play by play of my day. That rhymed.

Once I was inside the building I was greeted by my recruiter Julie, and handed my new hire badge so that people know to treat you differently because they can see that you are new. I was then greeted with a handshake by Ron...I can't remember his last name, but that's ok it isn't relevant. Ron is also a new hire, and he is going to be an executive sales person, or something like that. I can't remember all of the job titles. An interesting side note however is that they call all of their employees accelerators. Every company has their quirks and that is one of theirs. I mean there is a reason, but I can't remember/don't care to tell why at this time.

Anyway, once everyone in the training group showed up we were given sparkling orange juice and we all toasted to welcome ourselves to the InsideSales.com community. I thought that the orange juice thing was kind of a risky move considering everyone had brushed their teeth at most 30 minutes before this. Everyone knows that OJ and toothpaste don't mix. -- Insert O.J. Simpson joke here --

Now that we had toasted our way into the company it was time to go to the training room where the 12 of us will spend the next 7 business days of our existence. As we were going up the stairs a weird thing began to happen. There were a bunch of random people clapping at us. It was like being part of a sports team that was running out onto the field except we were a bunch of new hires at a tech company, which everyone knows are generally anti-social, so clapping at all of us was probably a cause of a few anxiety attacks statistically speaking. Another funny thing that a kid, Ian, mentioned is that to get that together they probably went through the company and just asked people if they wanted to go stand by the stairs and clap at new hires early Monday morning. When you actually think about how some things are actually set up it can become weird thinking about what was actually done to make it happen. I could probably give another example, but I am not going to.

Once I finally made it to the room we were sat down, and basically introduced to all of the company's processes and procedures. Talked about benefits and just general need to know stuff. Then we were shown some information about how well connected this place seems to be. They have a lot of ties to Silicon Valley as well as some big names in the general tech industry. It is pretty exciting to see some of the names of people that are involved in this company as well as some huge names that are clients. I don't know if I am allowed to share any of that information, but it was a lot of pretty impressive stuff. I mean this company was given a $1 billion valuation. If anything I am going to learn a lot and be able to have some connections to some large names in the industry.

Once we were given the initial presentation we were given the tour of the building. Since there was a lot of team introductions I will just leave those out and highlight the things that I thought were aesthetically impressive.

Open Workspace
The first thing you would notice about this company is the open layout of the desks. Some people don't really like this layout, but after working in a cubicle I can personally say that I like the idea of an open work space. It is easier to communicate, and it doesn't feel like you are alone. So that is my 2 cents about an open work space.

Whiteboard Desks

This is something that I wish that I had at my last job. We had whiteboards, but they were really difficult to write on because of the angle, and because of that I rarely used it. Having your desk as a whiteboard makes it so that you have scratch paper everywhere essentially. I really loved it. Something that I have seen at other offices is actual whiteboard paint for a wall, or just using glass as a whiteboard. All of these work, and are pretty cool for an office.

Soda Machine

Have you been to a new Wendy's lately? If you haven't then you haven't seen the cool soda machines they have there, and you should probably google a picture of them. If you have then you know the ones that I am talking about. Well we have one of those at the office. Pretty much every flavor of soda that you could think of...except mountain dew :(, but oh well. It is probably for the best. I don't need to get diabetes, and if there was mountain dew I would have little control over myself.

After the tour we got to have lunch. They ordered Papa Johns and we got to eat with our respective managers. This was great for me, because I really wanted to see what my team was going to be like. My manager's name is Scott, and he was a very laid back guy. I don't think I could be any luckier with a manager. We had a great conversation, and got to talk about what the day to day of the team was like, and what kind of projects I will be working on. It sounds like my team is relatively young and gets a lot of freedom and flexibility with projects so that if we can find ways to make it better we can explore those ideas. Also, it sounds like there is a lot of opportunity for automation as well so that is another thing that I am excited about. Something worth mentioning is that we also have a data science team, which is something that I am very interested. I am pretty sure that they are implementing machine learning and neural networks which is something that is increasingly sparking my interest.

After lunch it was kind of a blur until the end of the day. We got a lesson on sales methodology as our company implements it and consults it. We talked a lot about data as well, because that is basically the way the company does business both internally and with clients. It was pretty amazing to see the way that they run things internally. The organization made me believe very much in the company as a whole. I can't speak in detail about they way that they use data to improve the way employees speak together and interact, but it is something I had never heard of. Something else that I really liked was that they continually reminded that they are of the mindset that they don't like to follow the crowd on a lot of things. They gave many examples of how not following the crowd and thinking outside of the box had given them a leg up on the competition. It is really exciting to me, because I like to think I am also the type of person that doesn't like to do things the conventional way.

Overall, I think I made a good decision in going to this company. I believe that I am going to have a lot of great opportunity and learn a ton! Also, if you are reading this and need a job I am told that since their investment rounds they are going to be hiring like crazy this year to meet client demand and growth predictions. So if you are looking for work let me know, and I can refer you.

Thanks for reading!