Two years ago, I met the Managing Director of ThoughtLab. I asked him what it was like to work there and what his role as managing director consisted of. He laughed and said, “I wear many hats.” At first I thought, ‘I didn’t ask you about your hat collection,’ but then remembered the idiom and was intrigued by his response. I proceeded to shamelessly ask if they were hiring to which he responded they were not. Whatever, I don’t look that good in hats anyway.
Fast forward to April of this year. I was living in San Diego working three jobs, not having any luck finding one full time job. I figured I should probably make my way back home to Salt Lake and test my luck there. Working that much didn't leave any time to play at the beach, plus I had already eaten every carne asada and fish taco in sight.
As I was packing up my room at the last minute I received a message from the guy with all the hats wishing me a Happy Birthday and asking if I was really moving home. I said, “I am! Tomorrow!” His reply: “Need a job?” In my head I’m thinking ‘Be cool, Lizzy. But instead replied “YES! I do! Totally!” Anyway, here I am 5 months later quickly expanding my collection of hats while working for one of the fastest growing tech companies in Salt Lake.
Here’s a glimpse into my experience working at the lab…
My first day of work I walked into the office and was greeted by a man with a mohawk. It turns out he’s the CEO and the original man behind the lab. I thought to myself… ‘ThoughtLab, you and I are going to get along just fine.’ To be honest though, I was a little intimidated by the silence in the office. Everybody had headphones in and no one was talking. They were just plugging away at their computers, equipped with three to four monitors each.
My third day at work, over half of the employees got up to leave around noon and didn't return for quite some time. Turns out they were playing Dungeons and Dragons in a vacant room in the downstairs of the building. I never thought I’d end up playing with them but after getting to know the team a little better and realizing how fun it could be, I decided to play. Now, once a week with 8 of the other team members I play D&D as a 4 foot 2 inch 47 year old wizard.
We do other fun stuff like Go-Kart racing (where I won a trophy for being the slowest one on the track), team lunches at some of the best spots in town, happy hours and even dinners and concerts.
I've also come to the realization that the office definitely isn't always quiet, and when the office is chatty, the remarks out of everyone's mouths are typically pure gold. In my short time working at the lab I've seen the company expand like crazy. More and more characters have been added to the mix and each person seems to possess a different and wide set of skills. Through this, I've broadened my horizons and learned things I probably wouldn't be able to anywhere else. We make a pretty awesome team with an ever expanding collection of hats.
We’ve got big things in the works over here at ThoughtLab, so follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with what we’re doing.
