Ian's first month at Meta

My name’s Ian, I’m currently 36 years old and I’ve recently been taken on by Meta as a Project Manager within the web development team.

Outside the work environment you can find me on a squash court or on the golf course as I’m well into my sports – I even coach squash and am a qualified sports injury massage therapist.

Back in the office, I take great pride in overseeing projects from start to finish and I’m buoyed by the prospect of working closely with Meta’s ever expanding client base.

In previous roles I’ve had the pleasure of working with some outstanding developers, designers and digital marketers from far and wide, and although still in the infancy of my Meta career, I’ve already witnessed some of the amazing talents and passion within this creative team, which makes me proud to say that I am now a part of.

Lockdown, a character-building experience

It goes without saying, that striving to improve and expand upon existing skillsets are key for personal development and success in any field. So, when I was placed on furlough at my previous workplace, I relished the opportunity to learn new skills.

Each week I found myself undertaking new projects at home, mostly having little or no pre-existing skills. My journey of self-development (or character-building) enabled me to experience various decorating tasks, gardening, fencing, electrics, plumbing, tiling, laying concrete, tree felling and plastering. The main thing I’m taking away from all of this is that I’ll never be a plasterer!

After 5 months on furlough I was extremely eager to get back into work and when Tim approached me with an opportunity to work at Meta (whilst warming down after a squash training session) I couldn’t wait to find out more. After a couple of telephone calls and video interviews, I was offered a role in the team and was over the moon!

My Meta story so far…

I was invited to the office a couple of weeks before my official start date so I could pick up equipment for my home workstation and meet a few members of the team.

I was given a heads-up about how laid back the atmosphere in the office was, but I did not anticipate seeing an Xbox set up along with a table football in a break-out room… a great way to relax or let off some steam.

My Meta initiation (unbeknown to me) was more like the episode of FRIENDS where Ross had to move a sofa upstairs. The challenge entailed moving a huge 86” screen up two flights of stairs into the boardroom – a good team building exercise… PIVOT!!!

When starting a new job, the feeling of excitement is often counteracted with apprehension and for me starting at Meta was no different. However, all these feelings were lifted as soon as I walked through the door, going straight into a meeting with the development team to discuss current workflows and processes – I was soon back in the flow of things!

You can check out what we do as a development team here.

Being taken out for lunch was also a nice touch, you can’t go wrong with a BK. After couple of weeks in the role I’ve already settled in and have met some great clients with some very interesting projects… I can’t wait to see them materialise and reach fruition.