One Year at Engauge

Time flies when your having fun. Actually, my one year at Engauge was two weeks ago but I'd been so busy that I hadn't even given myself a chance to sit back and reflect on the last year. A lot has happened since I moved to Atlanta a year ago. I moved 1,000 miles south to start a new job in a city that I've spent numerous Christmas holidays in seeing family but never dreamed I'd actually live in. I didn't know anybody in Atlanta but the folks at Engauge were my welcoming committee my first month in town.

I knew I'd learn a lot working in an environment but never dreamed of the knowledge dumping I'd receive from my co-workers on a daily basis. From simple things like brand voice and tone to the new startup technologies hitting the market, I think I learned and was pushed harder in my first few months at Engauge than I had in such a time span beforehand. There's a collaborative atmosphere in our office where we all help each other out and rely on each other's different strengths and expertises to make our work better. It's an office where a casual conversation with @juliacantor at the office leads to the creation of Board of Man, appearances on television and the creation of a Pinterest white paper that receives a lot of press. We've been named as one of the top 15 most inspiring workplaces by Mashable and have probably one of the nicest ping pong tables in the city of Atlanta.

We work hard but also play hard too. With the Engauge crew, I've been on kickball teams, bowling leagues and most recently part of one of the most fun yet bizarre 5ks I've been a part in in my 10+ years of running. My co-workers were also encouraging when I lost a close friend last May, got married in August and even when we adopted our first puppy this Christmas. There's definitely stressful times at work when deadlines are close to the wire or budgets for ideas get cut. However, those stressful times are much easier to work through when you genuinely like the people working around you.

It's been a blur of a first year and I've had many an evening where I've come home from work with my head spinning from the day's work. My guess is that if one year here goes by as quickly as it did, I must be enjoying what I do.