Hard to believe that my first week at my new employer has gone by, so quickly. The first three days involved an introduction and training, whose purpose was to get familiarized with the company, its organization, policies etc. Lots of presentations, talks by the directors and managers, that kind of thing. It was also an opportunity to get to know my fellow colleagues, as well as the newcomers. My initial impressions are positive, but of course those are always superficial and based on gut-feeling. I was pleased to discover that the company was better organized and professional than I had expected. Everything was done nicely and we had an informal introduction. I had expected more junior, inexperienced folks just out of school, but there were enough older consultant like myself (though I was the oldest in the group by at least a couple of years -- but not the baldest). Seems that there is lots of room for more growing into leadership type roles, so that could be a definite possibility for me. After having survived the three days of sitting alot and listening the whole time, I talked in more detail with my new boss, the so-called "Unit Manager" of the department called Supporting Processes. The company mainly does projects in the world of e-business, and if you are more interested in a complete definition, then I refer you to a previous entry in this Blogger. My supervisor seems like an okay person, friendly enough, but also driven with enthusiasm for what he does -- though, as he admits, a bit on the workaholic side. My position has not yet crystallized, but I have the flexibility to define that myself. Right now it is not going that well in the telecom market, which means projects will more than likely be in other areas for now. In two years it could be different. A sorry twist for my career as my expertise lies in the mobile telecommunications area. Oh well. I spent the last two days of the week getting familiar with the department, where the coffee and Xerox machines are, meeting the people, looking through the company Intranet for information. Also I had to enter all my information in a knowledge database, a sort of resume made up of freehand text as well as specific keywords which can be looked up. That way they can match you better to potential customers and your own personal preferences, eg. type of work, maximum driving time, etc. But that was very boring work -- I already had alot in electronic form at home thanks to all the places I have been applying to, however it had to be translated to Dutch, yuk. In comparison to CMG which is very international, this company is geared more towards the Dutch market, but they are looking into the possibilities of expansion -- first within Europe and then worldwide. If I were to compare CMG with IQUIP, I would say that CMG did more of the technical and engineering work, say the hands and feet for installing and fine-tuning computer systems, whereas IQUIP is more of a pure advice and consultation bureau where its employees use their knowledge and specific skills creatively to help customers redefine company processes and infrastructure. Following me? During the training, alot of attention was given to customer relations, listening and understanding. So far so good I would say.
