This is my fourth week at my new job, and my second week in San Francisco for work. I realize it’s still early, but I still feel very positive about everything. I’ve been having a lot of meetings with different people and many one-on-ones with people across departments, and among the things that have struck me are how interested people are in me outside of work. What do I like to do? Where I am originally from? Do I have siblings? This seems like such a simple thing, but this wasn’t quite the case at my last company. I found a colleague who is a fellow Seven Sisters alum from Barnard. We discussed at length our experiences going to a women’s college and how it’s affected our lives and perceptions of the world. One colleague originally from Kentucky is also in a mixed marriage, and we talked about family dynamics around culture and color. Another colleague who loves travel and I bonded over our travel in Japan and how delicious the fish and tofu there are. The backgrounds here are so diverse; there are actually a lot of non-white people who work here, people who are not American passport holders or citizens, people who have lived around the world who have worked in industries ranging from education, consulting, finance, nonprofit, and even government. People are freaking smart here – really smart, and not just at their jobs. There’s a lot of perspective here and a desire for healthy and friendly debate. We have a Slack channel that is 100% devoted to discussing diversity issues, and there’s been a lot of healthy debate on it, which I’ve also contributed to. That was not the world I knew in my last job at all. And there’s a level of support and a true desire to support across departments that has been made very clear to me. This is all foreign to me, but it’s at the same time very reassuring. I kind of feel at home and like I can really accept being here, and that I will be accepted.

Tonight, our small new hire bootcamp team left the office a bit early at 5 to enjoy a happy hour together at a nearby bar. Our group of ten has been animated from day 1, and I’ve honestly enjoyed all of their company in some different way. The interaction across the group has been very positive, and it’s been fun to hear about everyone’s different experiences, from where they’ve grown up and lived to their quirks to their prior work experiences.

Two of the new hires on our team had previously worked at Adobe. Adobe is a company that is somewhat related to me because not only did I work for a company that got acquired by them, but I also spent a solid two months interviewing there for a Marketing Cloud position earlier this year. Adobe is oftentimes labeled pejoratively as a “frankencloud,” or a “company of acquisitions” that lacks innovation within itself, which is why it is forced to buy out other companies to then create the facade that it bringing the outside innovation in. What was so amusing to me was how much hatred these two previous Adobe employees had for the company. It was as though our new hire/sales bootcamp was becoming new hire/sales/Hate on Adobe bootcamp.

At the happy hour, they were interested in seeing what my experience interviewing there was like, especially since it was so recent, and both of them had left that company years ago. After interviewing with two internal recruiters and then the hiring manager, all the interviews that followed were easy. They asked basic questions regarding management experience, multitasking, and industry knowledge that any person even half interested in this type of role should know how to answer. But the most intriguing interview (from an over-drinks-conversation perspective) is the very last one I had, and that was with a guy who worked remotely from home, had been with the company for about two years, and clearly did not care at all about the Adobe interview process. He said to me from the get-go when he called that he thinks typical interview questions are bullshit, he doesn’t like that you tend to always have to reiterate the same story to every single person you interview 5-10 times, and he figured that since I had made it this far (and after reviewing my resume), he knew I probably had the aptitude for the job, so what questions could he answer for me that would cut through the crap. “The 8-10 interviews this company makes you go through is so stupid and senseless, and just a waste of time,” the interviewer said to me laughing. “I hate it, I don’t like it, but I went through it. So I know what you’re going through, and I feel for you.”

When was the last time you had an interview like that? He told me about all the politics, the lack of integration of the companies they acquired, but at the end of the day, he was there to do good work, provide for his family, and have a work-life balance. That’s all he cared about. All the other stuff didn’t matter to him.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that what most of us what — a comfortable salary, flexibility and work-life balance, and something at least a bit interesting to work on every day that prevents early onsets of Alzheimer’s?

A few days at this office, and now I’m convinced; you could probably live here if you wanted to.

The kitchens on every floor of this building are fully stocked with everything from multiple types of fruit to five types of milk to eight types of nuts to ten types of cereal to cold brew coffee and Mighty Leaf tea. The bathrooms have the works — toothpaste, floss picks, mouth wash, lotion, antibacterial gel, five different types of pads and tampons, to even dry shampoo. And then today, I discovered on the basement floor that there are even fully equipped and stocked showers. I could shower here if I wanted to.

There are computers, the Internet, phones, pool and ping pong tables, food, showers, and toilets. What else do you need?

It’s been two days in San Francisco for work, and I’m already exhausted. These have been the 12 most intensive and grueling first days on the job in my life. For once in a long time, I’m being forced to really think and use my brain at work, and I am still getting used to it. The last two days have ended with meetings with my manager, which have been very productive to the point of ending with being drilled on everything product related, big picture to little picture. Yesterday’s meeting ended at 6:45; today, I didn’t even leave the office until 7:15. While a bit daunting, it’s heartening to know that someone actually cares to invest the time in me to ensure I am grasping important concepts that will be pertinent to my job. It also keeps me on my toes. I even proved he was wrong when he thought I was wrong. That felt quite good. I’m getting this shit now.

And then tonight, I passed my first product certification exam. I’m still a ways to go before I am fully ramped up, but so far, the progress has been looking quite good. And, I’m getting fed very well… perhaps too well here.