Not lost, just undiscovered.

It’s been just about a month in this new position and I think I’m doing well. I am still in the process of being trained – a sort of ‘train as you go’ system.

For the most part, my duties are:

• reviewing, editing and publishing technical e-support documents (as per the company’s style guidelines)
• undertaking administrative duties for the content management system
• dealing with customer feedback on documents
• fixing style violations that come in through an automated style checker

As well, I participate in team meetings in which information management issues come up. I find those challenges interesting to think about and I would like to get more involved in finding solutions for those problems.

The work is interesting. I get a sense of challenge from trying to understand what authors are trying to say, finding missing documents and authors, and evaluating feedback. I am also constantly considering issues of clarity, findability, and those information management problems.

Plus, I enjoy editing work. Editing technical documents is slightly different than other documents because I have to figure out what the author is actually talking about. If I don’t know the product, fix, or tool, then it takes extra long. It’s all a learning experience.

Obviously the work I am doing is quite different from what I did the last time around. Last time I was working on corporate and employee communications – writing, editing and formatting various documents and media, organizing events, etc.  This time, I am able to combine both my communication skills and my interest in computer science.  It is a chance to determine, yet again, what possibilities I have with my previous experience and education.

I’m already thinking about what I will write in my term reports when they come along (and I’m already dreading them).

Another big difference from my last placement is that most of my current team is situated across the United States. The team is considered to be a remote team and we communicate through phone calls, conference calls, instant messenger, e-mails and sometimes we combine phone calls and desktop sharing to work together on projects. I’m not sure if I will ever meet the people I work with every day.

This is definitely a learning experience because I have to learn how to communicate through technology to my team. I will write a separate blog post about the challenges and the benefits of having a remote team and working with technology to collaborate.

Of course, I cannot believe that a month has already passed. I only have three more months to get up to speed, make some good contributions to the team, and show my worth.

I plan to blog about my progress, so stay tuned.

In about two weeks I head back to London, Ontario to go back to school.

I can’t believe that my internship is almost over and that 16 months can go by so quickly. I did a lot over these months and grew quite a bit. I can definitely say that my life is different today compared to how it was a year ago, and I’m happy about that.

Expect more blog posts from me once I return to school. I’m living alone this year and will be focusing on so many different things, I’m sure I’ll be sharing my random thoughts.

But in the not-so-distant future, expect a blog about my cruise experience. I’m heading on a Carnival cruise from Miami to the Bahamas soon and I can’t wait

For those who don’t know already, I’m going to Japan in March for a huge work event. I am also going to be able to travel around and explore certain parts of the country.

So, over the past week or so I have been reading all sorts of guides and websites in order to figure out what I want to do there, as well as to learn more about the Japanese culture.

What I can’t wait to experience is this so-called “culture shock” that everyone says they experience when visiting Japan. This is the result of seeing the traditional Japanese culture almost side-by-side with the modern “only-in-Japan” flare.

Think Geisha, then Buddhist monks, and then Harajuku girls. Right.

I keep reading about how both streams of culture co-exist peacefully and I can’t wait to see this for myself.

Today I was reading about the custom of bowing, and how far low you bow and for how long depends on who you are, who you are bowing to, etc.

Apparently, since the Japanese know that foreigners tend to shake hands when they meet, during business meetings they try to do the same. But, because of habit, they still tend to bow slightly at the same time.

The author of the article said that the best example she had seen that demonstrated that this tradition was now a habit, was when she walked past someone who was bowing while saying hello on the phone, even though the person on the other end could not see the polite gesture.

This image both charmed and amused me at the same time.

Everyone likes to feel special.

You can’t deny that fact. I’ve known it for a very long time now and I know that I enjoy making people feel special – especially my friends.

It’s also a very good marketing tactic. Back when I used to run JoshHartnett.net, I tapped into the reality that a lot of people like to see their name up in the “spotlight”. So, in order to get people to help me out and find content for the site, I had to figure out a way to make people feel special. I needed to find a way to make them really see how much I appreciated their work and I had to give them something in return. It worked out like this: whenever people sent me something, after confirming with the agent that the news was legit, I would post it on the news page. And beneath every news entry I would include a “special thanks to” followed by the names and links of the wonderful people who helped me out. This worked like a charm and I had some very loyal contributors. Ultimately, it helped build my “a site for the fans, by the fans” credibility.

We are hosting a huge dinner party during the conference next week and have invited 300+ people. Over the past little while, I have been going through various lists and sending out reminders asking people to reply by a certain date so that we can finalize our seating arrangements. I explained to a co-worker (another student) that while it’s tediuous and time-consuming, I am going through and sending individual e-mails. I personalize the salutation of every e-mail but send the same generic body text, and have done this for about a hundred or so people. I explained to her that people like to feel special and by doing this I was sure to make people think: “wow, they really want me to come. I should really reply and let them know since they actually remember who I am…”

She just gave me an odd look and didn’t understand.

Then today, I got an e-mail back from someone and it made my day. The text was as follows (with a few edits for privacy reasons):

Hi Uma,

I’ve been ignoring [my boss]’s emails about the dinner because I assumed that she was using a generic, rather than targetted, mailing list. From your mail, it would appear that’s not the case.

I regret that I will not be able to attend the dinner. But please pass on my best wishes to [my boss] and the rest of the attendees, and I hope the dinner is a rousing success.

Cheers

It’s kind of like how people say you should take the time to write to that author who touched you with their book, especially if they aren’t really famous. Or if someone drew a really funny comic in a newspaper – let them know that you fell off your chair laughing.

People like to be acknowledged. Try it some time. You’ll make someone’s day.

Edit: I realized after writing this that I could have just used a script, or some built-in Word features, to automate the process. Too late now…