Industry in Summary (so far)

Ruthless
"So," I concluded, finally resting my hands on the desk instead of flapping them as if I was being swarmed by a friendly yet flappy bunch of ladybugs, "I like her. I don't mind working with her, but there are some definite problems."

"I'll take care of it," Adam said after shaking his head at the person in question.

"I don't know that she'll share your view of the situation," I told him. When he raised an eyebrow at me behind the closed door of his office, I shrugged. "I just think it's going to be hard to convince her to back off."

"I don't have to convince her of anything," he explained, still looking surprised. "I'll tell her boss and he'll reign her in. I'm not talking to her at all."

"Oh," I replied, wishing for a moment that I was nicer and didn't find all this power so thrilling.

Manipulative
"Do you get the feeling my questions are annoying him?" I read the words written in the corner of her of notebook and nodded my honest response. But I leaned in to whisper that mine appeared to be bugging him too. One interesting facet of working for a Big Company is that I'm powerful by association. If you're trying to sell us something, it turns out that you have to win me over, at least for the purposes of the meeting today. But that appeared to get lost in translation somehow.

"Wait," I said later in the same meeting. "You're saying you have no interest in that area?" I clarified when he blew off one of my concerns. The leader of their group nodded and I watched the rest of his team look uncomfortable.

"Is that a problem, Katie?" Adam asked from his seat located a couple chairs away. I leaned back to meet his eyes, shrugged, then nodded. He nodded back and wrote something down. And attitudes toward me changed.

"Would you find value in adding this feature?" I asked after a moment and felt satisfied when heads bobbed across the table. Got it, I decided. Hold my line and recruit support. I can do that.

Redundant
"So you'll need to include this in your presentation," one woman said, trying to be encouraging.

"I think the presentation in question is already written. It predates me." I said, smiling.

"No," someone else agreed with her, not me. "But it should look like this."

So we discussed and reviewed and I thought, rather mildly, that I'd seen all these slides before. Then I went to a meeting this morning and saw some of them again. Then I went to another meeting to hear people reiterate what had been sent in email. For a place with signs all over speaking of efficiency and minimizing waste, there is a huge deal of effort duplicated (or triplicated or quadruplicated).

"Too many cooks," Adam sighed when I asked him about the presentation the women had discussed.

"It's sweet," I argued. "People are trying to help me."

"We'll have to beat some of that polite Midwestern attitude out of you," he teased. "It's a pain in the ass." And he's right - it is. But I'll figure it out.

Unimpressed
"Huh," one man replied when told how many papers were published from one spin-off company. "What about patents? Trade secrets?" And I smiled. I got email this morning that regretted to inform me that my paper was rejected. I stared at it for a moment, wondering at the sensation. I didn't feel like a failure! It was a bit disappointing, sure, and now I'll have to find another journal, but that world has limited power to hurt me now. It's like I've evolved beyond it! (Or escaped from it - semantics.)

I've traded publications and grants and tenure review for, well, this. Politics and meetings and evaluation rather than creation. And it's very different - I don't know that everyone would be happy here. But I'm nearly euphoric at times. Yes, it's overwhelming in certain moments. There are annoyances and frustrations and wastes of time.

But I feel like I'm starting to contribute. I'm asking good questions. I'm making sense of the business structure, meeting some great people. I'm working on interesting projects and learning a tremendous amount. It's exciting and fun and happy. (So far.)