{"id":6917,"date":"2010-01-28T23:17:50","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T23:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/my-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet\/"},"modified":"2010-01-28T23:17:50","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T23:17:50","slug":"my-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/planetology\/my-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet.php","title":{"rendered":"My Experience as a Newbie at The Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"profile\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/63466_rrobson.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Robson\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\">Smack dab in the middle of downtown Houston&rsquo;s theater district sits the somewhat ambiguous &ndash; and intriguing &ndash; structure we call The Planet HQ. Just walking into the place is an awe-inspiring undertaking. It&rsquo;s an old conference center that has been completely renovated with offices, conference rooms and catwalks. At this very moment, if I look to the right I see a neon blue-lit Ferris wheel spinning at the Aquarium restaurant complex across the road, and I can&rsquo;t help but feel a little intimidated by the environment.<\/p><p>I recently joined The Planet as a Sr. Technical Support Specialist, so part of the intimidation might be the &ldquo;new job&rdquo; aspect. The place looks nice and the people seem great, so there has to be a catch. I&rsquo;ve been around the block in the IT industry&rsquo;s call centers and their ilk, and my honest expectation was to be hurled into the important, but somewhat soul-sucking, role of being a nameless cog in a corporate machine. That isn&rsquo;t the case at all here.<\/p><p>I&rsquo;m amazed by the depth of effort each of The Planet&rsquo;s departments puts into interconnectivity. Yes, I answer phones, take care of customer concerns and work on servers, but what makes the real difference is the fact that everyone &ndash; and I mean everyone &ndash; has the opportunity to participate in the inner workings of The Planet as a whole.<\/p><p>My primary focus is helping our customers get the results they want, and at the same time, I have the opportunity to research, develop and contribute to every aspect of The Planet&rsquo;s business. If I think something could be done better and have an idea on how to fix it, I won&rsquo;t be dropping a card into a bottomless suggestion box &hellip; I&rsquo;ll be contacting the person in charge &ndash; even up to the CEO &ndash; and presenting it myself. From what I&rsquo;ve witnessed, those recommendations are taken seriously. Employees are empowered to make their jobs better and make customers happier. That&rsquo;s unlike anything I&rsquo;ve ever seen before.<\/p><p>I&rsquo;m still pretty new here, and the natural intimidation I felt when I first walked into this building hasn&rsquo;t completely worn off. But as I start to feel a little more comfortable, I can&rsquo;t help but be proud that I have the opportunity to work with a company that treats its employees the way The Planet does. Not only does the environment give me the enthusiasm to do what needs to be done, but I honestly believe this approach will take the company to the top. If you ask me, that&rsquo;s the kind of company I want to be a part of.<\/p><p>This may all sound like a PR spiel, but I can&rsquo;t think of any other way to be more honest about my impressions as a first-month employee entering the fray. In the coming months, I hope to elaborate more on some of the actual operations happening here and talk about some of the services we&rsquo;re building and providing. There&rsquo;s definitely some exciting stuff in the works, and I&rsquo;m looking forward to diving in head-first and giving you all a sneak peek.<\/p><p>-Ryan<\/p><div><h4>Related Posts:<\/h4><ul><li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.theplanet.com\/2008\/02\/07\/the-dawn-of-a-new-day\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Dawn of a New Day<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.theplanet.com\/2007\/07\/17\/the-other-story-%E2%80%A6\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The other story &hellip;<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.theplanet.com\/2007\/07\/24\/geek-clarification-and-data-center-technicians\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Geek Clarification and Data Center Technicians<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.theplanet.com\/2008\/01\/10\/upgraded-the-planets-hq2\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Upgraded: The Planet's HQ2<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.theplanet.com\/2007\/08\/09\/ready-oooook\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Ready? OooooK!<\/a><\/li><li>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/ajaydsouza.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/contextual-related-posts\/\">Contextual Related Posts<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><p>\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stumbleupon.com\/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theplanet.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fmy-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet%2F&amp;title=My%20Experience%20as%20a%20Newbie%20at%20The%20Planet\" title=\"StumbleUpon\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/63466_stumbleupon.png\" alt=\"StumbleUpon\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br>\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=My%20Experience%20as%20a%20Newbie%20at%20The%20Planet%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theplanet.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fmy-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet%2F\" title=\"Twitter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/63466_twitter.png\" alt=\"Twitter\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br>\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dzone.com\/links\/add.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theplanet.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fmy-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet%2F&amp;title=My%20Experience%20as%20a%20Newbie%20at%20The%20Planet\" title=\"DZone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/63466_dzone.png\" alt=\"DZone\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br>\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?phase=2&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theplanet.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fmy-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet%2F&amp;title=My%20Experience%20as%20a%20Newbie%20at%20The%20Planet&amp;bodytext=Smack%20dab%20in%20the%20middle%20of%20downtown%20Houston%27s%20theater%20district%20sits%20the%20somewhat%20ambiguous%20%E2%80%93%20and%20intriguing%20%E2%80%93%20structure%20we%20call%20The%20Planet%20HQ.%20Just%20walking%20into%20the%20place%20is%20an%20awe-inspiring%20undertaking.%20It%27s%20an%20old%20conference%20center%20that%20has%20bee\" title=\"Digg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/63466_digg.png\" alt=\"Digg\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br>\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theplanet.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fmy-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet%2F&amp;title=My%20Experience%20as%20a%20Newbie%20at%20The%20Planet&amp;notes=Smack%20dab%20in%20the%20middle%20of%20downtown%20Houston%27s%20theater%20district%20sits%20the%20somewhat%20ambiguous%20%E2%80%93%20and%20intriguing%20%E2%80%93%20structure%20we%20call%20The%20Planet%20HQ.%20Just%20walking%20into%20the%20place%20is%20an%20awe-inspiring%20undertaking.%20It%27s%20an%20old%20conference%20center%20that%20has%20bee\" title=\"del.icio.us\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/5b24d_delicious.png\" alt=\"del.icio.us\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br>\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/faves?add=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theplanet.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fmy-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet%2F\" title=\"Technorati\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/5b24d_technorati.png\" alt=\"Technorati\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smack dab in the middle of downtown Houston&rsquo;s theater district sits the somewhat ambiguous &ndash; and intriguing &ndash; structure we call The Planet HQ. Just walking into the place is an awe-inspiring undertaking. It&rsquo;s an old conference center that has &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/planetology\/my-experience-as-a-newbie-at-the-planet.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-planetology"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}