This is a guest post by Sara Gonzalez
The ticket has been checked and on-boarding at Create the Bridge has finally commenced. Like a long journey from which one would arrive at a life changing conclusion, so has been my week-long introduction into company culture. I would like to confidently say that I expected everything that was coming my way, but found that I have much to learn.
Start up culture
The curve is steep, time moves at lightning fast speed and it’s all about
“getting shit done”
according to company co-founder and Developer Joshua Villarreal. Luis Treviño, Co –founder / Creative, later explained to me, referring to the company’s high expectations,
“The mountain is high so it’s best to just start climbing.”
Having come out of this one-week experience I can tell you that people in a start-up rarely ever only have one role. In order to be more efficient everyone needs to strive to be great at what they do and at the very least good at everything else.
Like a well-oiled machine, in order for things to run smoothly every part has to do it’s own job and the parts (skills/people) should be interchangeable. To put it into perspective, Nathan Villarreal, Co- founder and developer explained that people’s roles only depend on the time of day, meaning in the morning you may work as a sales man,
“always be selling”,
and by night you are in full on production mode, whether it’s designing, developing, writing, social media, or marketing, whatever needs to get done.
The pace and environment in the company are really optimized for efficiency and the catalyst for generating innovative ideas. At times you will find yourself working in long intervals of time but in between we break for the essentials: movies, candy, ice cream, naps, energy drinks and of course cat time.
Expectations are high and daily meetings keep you on your toes. Every member of the team is expected to continuously be adapting, learning & improving. If anything that’s one of the main reasons I loved what Bridge was doing.
Everyone takes on additional skills, people are not asked to settle to fit into their title. The team is set on doing what they must to help the company succeed,and feel the need to set and meet their own high expectations.
As you might have noticed I quoted some of the co-founders quite a bit. On boarding not only consisted of technical training, rather it was structured so that I receive advice in all areas including productivity, efficiency, selling, and even health.
Winning quote of the week in my book was
“When you’re in the shark tank you only have a taste for shark”.
While sharks might have a negative connotation and the expression might seem, well a bit, daunting, the idea of working with people who set their standards and expectation so high is also a means by which the team improves.
It plays on the idea that when you are surrounded by people who are continuously creating such a high standard and quality of work you feel the need to work even harder to get on their level. Each day builds on the success of yesterday.
If yesterday’s work was great, well today’s has to be better, faster, stronger. I kid but not really. The ideas that every one has the ability to become better, whether they take the time, make the effort and become the best at what they do is really only up to them. Intimidating much, well yeah, but I believe there is only opportunity being presented.
Communication
Every member of the team is encouraged to communicate openly, honestly and most importantly to be objective. Taking on an agile business structure, the founders believe it is imperative that everyone voices any concerns that affect that company. It is extremely important that everyone becomes comfortable with each other so that the line of communication is free of fear, judgment, and insecurities.
Time Management
The pace at which the company operates is an exhilarating experience; everyone feels an innate need to be at the top of their game. Body and mind are running at a hundred and ten percent. As one co-founders explained, no one is micro managing; everyone knows what they have to get done for the day and at the end if the company is winning and work is getting done well, success is soon to follow.
He went on to explain,
“you are given just enough rope to hang yourself.”
referring to the amount of freedom each member has. How we choose to spend our time is completely our own decision, but at the end of the day it’s all about what we each bring to the company and how well we each do our jobs to ensure that the company excels.
A word of advice to my students and anyone starting off in design: Strive to be more than a pixel pusher. Design is hard work, time consuming, late nights, frustrations, and you may even develop a love-hate relationship with your work but it’s sheer euphoria when you get it right. It's all about the high you get when your designs are recognized in the world and suddenly all the work you put in pays off.
All the frustrations and problems you ran into along the way just become war stories that are shared amongst your peers. So work hard, dedicate yourself to mastering your craft, be open to all opportunities, and also check your ego at every turn. Everyone has something to teach you and there is always room for improvement.
Never stop learning. A popular phrase among our team is
“if you stop you die”.
Always be looking into picking up new skills and growing as a designer.
I will end by saying that. I now have the opportunity to work with people who I can respect, are passionate about their work, love what they do and are dedicated and driven enough to lead a great company. I’m excited to be part of such a talented team and am looking forward to the journey ahead.
This is a guest post by Sara Gonzalez