After eight years of other work in other places, I have returned to Aten Design Group as the resident Studio Manager. I have a bit of a different role this time, and while there’s plenty of new responsibilities, there’s a lot of work I’ve been able to jump right back into, too. The team has gotten bigger, Denver is awesome, and I’m excited to be back.
My first two weeks back at Aten (I’m brand new to Denver, too) were sort of a whirlwind; they included my first ever DrupalCon and a DrupalCon after party at our office. While manning the popcorn machine at our party — watching my new coworkers serve up cotton candy, cold drinks and nerdy conversational tidbits — I looked around and knew this was going to be a great place to work.
I love the environment at Aten! Our office space is open, industrial and equipped with ping-pong and foosball tables (neither of which I play historically, but I’m happy for the chance to learn!). Our team dynamics are what I’m most excited about; everyone works together on just about everything. From discussing approaches to new projects through general troubleshooting, collaborative effort and group involvement are the norm. And we hang out after hours, too — it’s as if we actually like each other.
As the Studio Manager I’ll be focusing on financial management, project scheduling, and general team support. There are a lot of things in a firm like ours that don’t necessarily fit into the design, development or client relations departments. I’m here to catch those things, keep them organized and allow the team to focus on what they do best. And maybe I can provide the occasional ego boost by losing at ping-pong (for now). My hope is to do whatever I can to keep making Aten an awesome place to work so every member of our team can get up in the morning and say, “Another day at the office ... SWEET.”