These Old Bones

Today is technically meant to be a "wellness day" at work, where everyone just kind of doesn't show up for their mental health. But the world of customer support never sleeps and I did take Monday off for the anniversary, so today's an excellent chance to catch up on a few things and get myself set up for success next week.

I had applied for a Community Manager position earlier in the year and very nearly got in! Ultimately, they decided to go with someone who has more experience and I can't blame them for that. However, she was offered a position at Salesforce, which I also can't blame her for taking. It's Salesforce! They're huge, one of the best places in tech to work, and she gets to build something from the ground up herself. What's not to love?

So suddenly the position is open and momentum appears to be on my side. Since I'm already with the company, that significantly cuts down on the training time and I already have fairly well-established relationships with folks in the space. According to the outgoing CM, I have a really good way with words and an "authenticity" that can't really be trained. It's a lot of work, and a lot of it will be self-generated, but it's also likely that there'll only be two weeks of crunch-time for each program...which honestly isn't too bad.

I'm strongly considering it as a new opportunity. Learning how to shape communities and encourage buy-in from others is one of those things I've always wanted to do, and this is an excellent chance. It sounds like the executives are going to be putting more attention on the space in the next year or so, and it's a good way to increase visibility within the company. At the same time, it's something I could easily see myself being...miserable with. That much interaction with people, that consistently, can make me into a pretty grumpy dude. I don't like myself when my introvert batteries are drained but I have to deal with folks anyway.

There's the added wrinkle that another opportunity may come up sometime next year, and I've already been laying the groundwork for it. The recently-hired head of our Documentation/Help Center Support will be asking for head-count next year because he just needs folks to take on the day-to-day operations while he builds out the organization. Document writing and business communication is another skillset I've wanted to develop since forever, and it actually pulls me back from interacting with people in real-time. For an introvert like me, that's a really attractive prospect. Also, learning how to develop a consistent voice and give a lot of information concisely is a skillset every writer should have. I think it would objectively make me better at life.

I'm torn. Neither of these opportunities is a guarantee, but right now the Community Manager position feels like a sure thing. Help Center Guy looks pretty likely once that opens up, but you never know. They might find a killer applicant for the role, especially since we're in the Great Resignation. Or I might have blown my chance by not delivering help by deadlines that have already been set. Granted, it's not my fault -- Student Support has been surprisingly busy even though we've had few tickets. Still, I know that he's mildly frustrated with the lack of promised resources and that might carry over into a personal preference for someone a bit more proven.

Either way, I'm going to have to get better at time and project management to really excel in either position. That would be a good thing to develop now.

Here we are, in a new month -- starting the last quarter of the year. It's my favorite quarter, of course, and I think this is going to be a good fall/winter in general. I'd like to build off the small bit of momentum I've gained being productive and use the time to really cement good habits. But I'd also love to focus more on having fun, being a good friend, and encouraging other people. I want to be a better friend, not only to other people but to myself as well.

I think I've cracked the code on how to push myself without discouraging myself. Even when I don't get everything on my to-do list done, I'm happy with the work I've achieved and on days when I completely whiff without doing anything I try not to beat myself up over it too much. Some days the best you can do is not very much, and that's OK. Overall, productivity is trending in a positive direction. With time and patience, I can get to a level of consistency that I feel happy with.

One thing that's become clear to me over the last few months is the need to really focus on learning. At the day job, that means going for certifications that will make myself more attractive to folks -- in Customer Support, that means going for KCS certification; for Help Center, it means continuing my education with our specific chat-bot service while also boning up on the principles of that space; for Community Management, it means learning more about how the space is approached in general and how we can use best practices to improve and standardize our offering.

For writing, that really means sitting down and writing more -- but also reading more. I think I'd like most to get better at short stories, figuring out ways to pinpoint what I'm trying to do and then working towards that in the most efficient way. Reading short stories from writers who are celebrated in the space is an excellent way of doing that. Taking their lessons into deliberate practice is the way to apply what I've learned.

But I need to not get ahead of myself. Appreciating how far I've come and working on the next step only is what's gotten me this far. It's how I'll get further still.