I don't think I could want to work somewhere more than I do Shopify. As a lifelong entrepreneur with a pretty decent history of achieving moderate success in this industry, I just love everything about the company, it's aggressive nature, phenomenal team culture and of course the get shit done attitude. The store attached to this blog post isn't all made up. I actually do own a mill and it's operated by two German brothers who happen to be my best friends and business partners. One of them who's name is Martin and he's known as the GSD because he's a jack of all trades master at getting shit done. I know I'm sort of losing focus on what this post is about but there is a point here. I just feel like have so much in common with Shopify. We take pride in being aggressive, attempting things others would never think of and most importantly, we do whatever it takes to get shit done. None of us were industrial mechanics, machinists, fabricators or even carpenters and yet we figured out how to build a state of the art wood kiln out of a 40 foot insulated shipping container that runs entirely on firewood for heat and water to distribute it. We were one of the first companies in Canada to sell firewood online and we like to think we do it better than anyone. Next step: move our website and online sales over to Shopify in 2018.
So if you read my previous post, I was lucky enough to get the first interview and was it ever fun. I had the opportunity to tell my story to a really nice, fun and likeable guy named Robert. He was really easy to talk to. So we chatted about my career, how I got to this point, things I'm proud of and just life in general. It was a great chat. After about 45 minutes he let me know he'd like to push me onto the next round called the gauntlet so I signed up immediately for my next opportunity the following day at 3pm.
This might have been a mistake. At the time of the first interview I was fighting a cold but being the stubborn mule I am, i just told myself I could tough it out. As 3pm rolled around I was sweating, my nose was leaking like a sieve and just feeling like a bag of crap. "No going back now though" I told myself as I sipped on a fresh coffee eagerly anticipating the phone call from the next Shopify ninja who looked forward to putting me through an hour and a half of zero training customer service calls, chats and emails. I made it through and think I answered all the questions but wasn't all that great over the phone. The customer could hear the nerves in my voice. When I was at a loss for answers they could almost hear my frontal cortex shutting down as the stress increased and I stumbled to find the answer. This is a bummer for me as I have a big personality, consider myself to be very personal and really wanted to knock it out of the park. Once the hour and a half of baptism by fire came to and end the Shopify Builder let me know that I was probably being a bit too hard on myself and that I'd hear about what the next steps are shortly. Two days later I haven't heard anything but maybe tomorrow will bring some good news.
All in all this was such a cool, refreshing and great learning opportunity. In hindsight I wish I had have just owned up to the phone customer who could hear the fear in my voice and told him I simply didn't know the answer but would be totally happy to find it for him. It's one of those could have, should have, would have moments. Fingers crossed I get an opportunity to do better next time. Either way, I couldn't be more appreciative for the chance. Even if I don't get in this time around, I'll be trying again and again until they get sick of seeing my face and have no choice but to hire me. I have a feeling that I was meant to work here and have never been one to quit after the first try.
On a more postive note, I'm a huge fan of crypto currency and just read an awesome article about how Monero is making waves in effort to attract more users. They have signed up some huge musicians to start accepting Monero and done it in a way that if you buy music from them using this amazing currency, you get to save 15%! The best part? Guess who helped make it all happen? SHOPIFY!!!
Here is a link to the article -> https://www.coindesk.com/now-can-buy-mariah-carey-g-eazy-albums-monero/
Cheers and thanks for reading :)