November 1, 2006 was my first day at DecisionWise, Inc. My job title was Assessment Project Manager, and though the title had changed with business strategy changes throughout my time at DW, I returned to the original title again to finish out my DW journey. I will be leaving DecisionWise to start a new job at the Counseling and Career Center at Brigham Young University in Provo, where my husband, Scott, is attending school.
Besides being incredibly excited about a change and new job, I am excited for the benefits that BYU offers. In the past few months I have been applying to master's programs for Public Health at BYU and U of U. My main areas of interest in public health revolve around research and social marketing. There are many health topics in society which intrigue me, like Women and Children health, population- based health, nutrition, group psychology, and epidemics. In finding the program at BYU, I discovered that the mission matched exactly what I had imagined myself doing. So I will be pursuing a career in Public Health and will start that pursuit by taking classes while working at BYU.
With my leave tomorrow, I have been reflecting over my time at DecisionWise and how working for the company has made an impact on my life. I would like to take a moment to record in blog some of my favorite DW memories:
1. My first day at work - I arrived around 9:00am to do paper work and afterward sat at my Very Own Desk. I shared an office room with Candice Blankinship, another project manager. I remember being so excited to learn new skills and absorb everything that was being taught to me. I also remember having the benefit of leaving early if all my work was done (which... I didn't have any work at that point) OR staying later if I wanted to get paid for the hours.
2. My second day at work - (Don't worry, I'm not going day by day.) I came to work on my second day all dressed-up, corporate-like, similar to my first day. However, unlike my first day, I came to the office and discovered that everyone else was in jeans and sweatshirts. I felt WAY out of place!
3. March Madness brackets - Every year DecisionWise had prizes for those who guessed the majority of winning college basketball teams correctly during March Madness. Not only was this a fun way to route for my favorite teams, it was also the first connection that Scott and I had when we were first flirting. You could basically say that we hooked-up because of the bracket.
4. The Elevator Speech contest - During one of our many business direction meetings, it was announced that the company would have a contest to see who could best describe the new service strategy in 30 seconds. The idea behind the short description was to imagine we were describing to a friend/ random stranger what we did at our job... with only had a grocery line's or elevator trip's worth-of-time. My essay won Most Creative!
4. Dallas - It was my first ever business trip. I visited, with a DW consultant, a client of mine in Texas for which I had done some intensive work. I had my own plush room in a hotel, adjacent to the financial company headquarters, and a daily stipend. I felt extremely corporate!
Probably my most favorite memories are ones that wouldn't make for great short stories. Mostly, I enjoyed the people I worked with: our office manager, Deb, and her fun personality, stories, and amazing catering skills; the consultants, Tracy, Juan, and Paul, and their jokes and wives with catering skills; Charles, our sales guru, and marketing co-conspirator; and all of the many project managers that I have worked with during my time at DecisionWise. Good times!
Congrats on the new job!!! YAY
ReplyDelete