Wearing Many Hats

I wrote this post the week of my 10th anniversary in September 2015.

This week I celebrated my 10th anniversary at work for my current employer, Athletes In Action. In some ways, it’s gone so quick that 10 years doesn’t seem right. However, there have been some long and hard days along the way that have made me better by challenging me to keep pushing myself forward.

When I accepted the position in 2005 out of college, it was a much different role than it is today. I knew very minimal code at the time, and was primarily tasked to provide client support services (a.k.a, help desk). I also knew very little of the mission of the organization. Fast forward 10 years, and today I am a senior developer who not only know the business but have created or helped refine a lot of the systems and processes behind it. My role affords me to be a glue between departments and leaders across the organization. It’s a bigger role than I bargained for, yet I enjoy it and love the new challenges it provides all the time.

Being part of a two man IT department means I wear a lot of hats - help desk tech, developer, DBA, network engineer, and project manager (just to name a few). Sometimes I’ve have had too many on at the same time, and it was difficult to be effective. Other times I’d walk into a situation with the wrong hat on and was unable to serve the client’s needs. But ultimately I have grown in so many ways as a result of those experiences and can see how each one of those hats continues to fit better every day as I learn how to play the different roles I am asked to within the organization. Working as part of a small team has enabled me to learn and grow in ways, both in my knowledge and my professionalism, that I maybe wouldn’t have gotten to in a large enterprise and for that I am grateful.