Today marks four weeks at the new gig. Four weeks of growth and learning.
I knew this position would truly test me and force me to grow, but I didn’t realize it would start on day one.
The set of skills I came in to this position with were pretty vast and varied, which is why my boss felt I would be a perfect fit for this, and I was very confident in what I could do.
Right out the gate I was able to take on some major projects and shine bright like a diamond! Felt great to know that I wasn’t rusty with the development skills and that I could give strong input on social media marketing. I took over duties for two websites and our social media accounts in my first week.
Then they threw Illustrator at me. And I did not shine like a diamond! In fact I feel flat on my face with frustration and lack of knowledge.
But in that moment where I was thinking the worse, my boss and teammates all lifted me up! I was given logins to our online course account, I was given websites to help me with finding shortcuts and quick tip learning, and most importantly I was told by my boss that he knew from my interview that this was not a strength for me because I was honest when he asked me about it. He knew that I would pick it up. He told me to just keep learning and asking questions.
Crazy what positive support can do to the psyche! So different from the old gig…
This week I was asked to make some major edits to photos for our home page. I know Photoshop fairly well, but this was on some next level mastery. So I asked my teammate to show me how he does his masterful edits. He sat with me, showed me exactly what steps he takes and then said I did half of this, you do the rest and let me know if you need more help. BOOM! I followed his steps, changed them up to work for me and that photo that needed people, speakers and wires erased now resides on our homepage…along with about 10 other photos I have edited. Old skill made stronger!
In four weeks time I have grown by leaps and bounds in my skills, thought process and work ethic! And I am actually trying to be social with my co-workers. That may take a bit longer than learning Illustrator.
