My Past 2 Weeks

So it's been nearly 2 weeks since I last posted on here. It's a bit disappointing but there's a good reason: I have finally been given the responsibility I have been looking for HALLELUJAH. And now I have this responsibility, how do I feel? The answer is simple: tired, drained, confused....but loving it. It's safe to say that it is hardly the most exciting work, but it impacts the project I am working on in a serious way. If I do the work well, my profile is raised and people will see that I can be a dependable staff member. If I do things bad...well let's not go there for now!

So what is this work I have been doing I hear you ask? Well, our project has just gone live in one of the EU countries and people are needed to track any problems that arise. We have a 'war room' set up in the office and we are bombarded left, right and center by things not working as they should. Our job is to prioritize these problems, work out what needs to be done and who needs to work on it and ultimately, we are responsible for seeing these problems go away. My official job title for this role is: High Priority Ticket Chaser. In layman's terms, this means headless chicken running around making sure everyone is doing their job's correctly. Like I said, not the most exciting job in the world.

However, what I have I learnt from this? Let's put it this way, I have learnt more about how a project is run in these 2 weeks than the past year of my time in the company.

The main lesson to take away from this, especially if you are thinking of or currently in a graduate job, is to get yourself dropped in the deep end. You will be amazed to see how well you can do and how much you can pick up when you are given lots of responsibility with little training. It beats me then as to why there are so many formal training courses in the world when real-life experience is free...