New Job in the Privacy Industry at OneTrust
Lots of changes afoot in my professional life. This past February, I joined the ranks of many folks in the Great Resignation and made a career shift. With my new role, I'm working for OneTrust -- a company that creates software to help other companies manage their privacy and regulatory compliance. It's been a total shock to the system --> completely new vocabulary, new verticals, everything. To say I'm feeling impostor syndrome would be an understatement, but I welcome the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and learn something new.
Starting a New Job
It's been almost 8 years since I've had a "first day" at a new job. A few notes on what I've found useful:
- Read The First 90 Days -- it's a bit boring, but the content is a great reminder that much of your time when you first start the job should be to listen. Understand the culture, understand the important players, understand the problem you've been hired to solve.
- If certifications are required, start studying ASAP. The longer you're there, the deeper into the weeds you get and the less time you'll have for studying. Start as soon as you can. I also found it helped to set a date for my certification exams as it kept me motivated to study.
- Find opportunities to take on small tasks early. You'll meet new people, gain positive reputation and trust through quick wins, and add value while you on-board.
- Attend as many meetings as you can, but only as a listener. Planning sessions, triage sessions, anything. Be a fly on the wall, take note of struggles, technology problems, and personal interactions. This goes back to #1 in that you'll learn a lot by listening.
What Am I Doing?
In my new role, there's a number of small projects that we get to work on. However, one of the main focuses of the role is technical enablement for partners and customers. In this capacity, the team I'm on creates Hands-On Labs. Basically, we support, run, and develop content for OneTrust Hands-On Labs (or HOLs). This means developing a step-by-step walkthrough on how to achieve a common end-result using OneTrust software. Each HOL delivers a blank instance of OneTrust's SaaS product and an accompanying manual that demonstrates all the button-clicks and explanations.
I particularly enjoy this part of my job, as I love the opportunity to teach people how to accomplish an end-goal. Also, it's fun to watch how HOLs evolve from "what is this thing?" to "high-demand sales tool". In both my current role and previous role, this seemed to occur because of two reasons. First, HOLs allow prospects and customers to see how the product can solve a particular problem. Second, HOLs can become "playgrounds" for trying new ideas and testing something new (like a workflow, process, etc).
I expect that over time, as my knowledge of the product and Privacy industry increases, I'll be working on more technical content as well (similar to what I did for VMware TechZone). I'm already working on a possible website to use for hosting that.
** more to come **
Curious?
If you're thinking about starting down the path of a job in the Privacy space, feel free to reach out. Always happy to talk shop!