My first large company contract as a Senior Front End Developer.. I was pumped!
The interview went surprisingly well I spoke about my strengths & what I saw as my biggest challenges ahead. I guess AKQA like my honestly & determination.
The first week.. Actually the first month be honest was the steepest learning curve I have ever put myself into. I thought I knew how to code.. Until I met the team! I felt like I was in the gym for the first time again meeting the athletes. They were so fast & discussed aspects to coding that I had never considered.
Every day I would write out a list of new coding techniques or functions. Then I would work into the night learning more about what I had written down for the day. I re organised my sleep cycles to ensure I would bring the best version of myself to work. I learned that from my house to work would take 13 minutes at 5am instead of 1 hour at 8am. i was that consistent with arriving to work early that I knew all the cleaners & maintenance staff by name.
AKQA could see my determination to deliver on expectations was high, unfortunately at the time my skills were not good enough. I remember so clearly my manger pulling me aside one day. I thought to myself, I'm gonna be fired.. They could see I was doing a lot & just spinning wheels to be quite frank.
However this is where AKQA are different!
Instead of getting rid of me, they saw the long term potential in me. They asked me what I was struggling to understand in the code base, they sat me next to the smartest people on the team & then pointed to resources that would bring me up to speed much faster.
Within weeks I was fully up to speed & instead of slowing down it was my turn to return the favour. I worked from 5:30am to 6:30pm everyday & giving everything I could to Golf Australia Project.
I built many components during this project & even though I gave so much, I still feel that AKQA gave back more that I could ever have ask form. I'm still eternally grateful to AKQA for giving me the opportunity to grow within their nurturing environment & culture.
At the end of my contract to my surprise the team extended it! I was blown away & really excited to continue working with AKQA, now on a new team for Australian Superworking on a completely new tech stack**.**