For starters, it is difficult to imagine I have been at The Scale Factory for six months already, how time flies!
From my initial interactions with the team through to my onboarding and during probation, I felt a real sense of camaraderie and support, which was certainly one of the main reasons I knew then I had made the right decision to join the team.
I embarked on a journey of learning and at times, this was tough, but my determination to learn about the industry, aligned with the support I received from my line manager and team, made it much easier.
Projects in Tech
It is great to look back now and know I have led a team through many different projects in these first 6 months and I believe I made a difference in some cases, putting to test my people and leadership skills, as well as my years of experience in client-facing roles.
Stepping into a ‘virtual room’ with not much context on the tech side of things and being able to add clarity and unpick project risks, while driving efficiency and commercials was a daunting task. But like all things in life seeing ‘what good looks like’ displayed in my manager and colleagues has paved the way for me to do the same and feel empowered to continue to help my team and clients.
I have to say that the interesting part of all this is that our clients are like any other clients, in any other industry; they come to us with a problem, and sometimes they have no idea of what the solution will look like; they rely on our expertise and professionalism to have problems resolved, or in most cases, just show them the way, which is very gratifying.
Our business is changing
Another area I very much enjoy in my role is business-change; taking part in some incredible internal projects, supporting the implementation of policies and driving business and culture change.
It is very self-affirming to be able to contribute to the growth of The Scale Factory in such a meaningful way. My people leadership muscles have certainly been flexed and I sometimes surprise myself when I put across all those years of people and business leadership in the work we are churning out. And more importantly, the work is super collaborative and the praise I receive from my colleagues and senior management is a huge motivator.
Apart from the general leadership duties, I have also been involved in a series of Leadership Skills workshops aimed at developing and embedding key leadership skills within the team. These have opened up a conversation about what it means to be a leader at The Scale Factory, which I found extremely rewarding. The workshop ignites various types of conversations, which not only highlights how open we are as a business, but also puts into perspective the amount of skills and experience we have available here. We are empowered to speak, to be heard and to contribute to success, which is so refreshing.
We are all working towards a very ambitious expansion plan and I am confident that all the work we are doing is a solid foundation for us to continue building on.
The Technology Sector & Working Remotely
As a Project Manager, we have to have an understanding of the AWS environment and work towards some certification, which was super exciting.
Applying my business knowledge to cloud economics was also great. I guess this is because as humans we normally focus on doing something and not necessarily documenting our journeys, so pulling this knowledge and applying it in a different setting is a great way to do it and more, I got a couple of AWS Certification badges to put on my bio as well as LinkedIn.
Now, let us talk about the elephant in the room: working remotely. Coming from a big Latin family where I was always surrounded by people plus adding this to a career which was built while surrounded by people all the time the prospect of remote working was scary, but I have to say I feel great as I do not feel disconnected from my team at all.
I think this is due to the great pieces of software we use to keep in touch and to collaborate, but also the great personalities we have in this business. We are a close-knit team and we have a number of regular catch-ups with the team and one-to-ones, ah and we even have happy hours virtually (and yes, you can enjoy a glass of wine then!)
But as a business, we also invest in coworking opportunities and whenever I can I jump on a train or a plane to other parts of the UK (soon to Europe) to meet, socialise and work with my team and colleagues, which is so much fun!
What a first 6 months these have been! I remain super-excited about my role. Here is a big thanks for the support my manager and my team have offered me, which has enabled me to be involved in some amazing projects, for which I am very grateful.
What do you think?
Finally, would you not enjoy working in such a diverse team? We are in the search for Consultants with skills in AWS infrastructure.
And one last thing, we have recently been recognised by AWS as Partner of the Year as a business with deep experience in helping clients design and build SaaS and cloud-native solutions, aha that you were not expecting, right?
Interested in joining our team? We’re friendly and inclusive, so if you have the skills and experience, I hope you would consider applying regardless of your age, gender, sexuality, race or physical ability. The Scale Factory is hiring.
This blog is written exclusively by The Scale Factory team. We do not accept external contributions.
