My 180 in Life: Torre & Remoter
Hey, I’m Josephine. And I’m going on a year-long journey to create a library all about remote work.
I used to work in an in-house post-production studio in Toronto, ON. I had a team that I considered my family. It was exactly what I had not expected- a good, stable job out of University. I was force-fed stories about how hard it is to get a job in the ever-so saturated media industry, so I was excited to “beat the odds.”
Eventually, I started thinking about change. But I didn’t even approach any means of a full-blown execution. Instead, Torre’s Remoter Ambassador gig fell in my lap (more like, in my inbox from an e-mail newsletter I was following) so I decided to give it a shot. “Travel and create content about remote work? This seems too good to be real, so it can’t be real anyway, so why not?”
But as a lot of my friends have said, when it rains in life, it pours. I was offered the position in September 2019, accepted it, quit my job and made the transition within the month.
My first stop (before going to my in-person onboarding in San Francisco) was to attend the 2019 HR Tech Conference in Las Vegas. I spent 3 days diving into a world unknown, learning abbreviations (CRM, LMS, ATS, etc.) and seeing what the world of human resources technology has to offer in this day and age.
I hopped over to San Francisco and met Alexander Torrenegra (CEO of Torre) and Andrés Cajiao (Chief Growth Officer of Torre). We worked together for a couple of days. I was invited over for a delicious meal at Alex’s place with Andrés and his family. I was given an official company sweater by Andrés. It’s the honeymoon phase of a new job, but this was nothing I had ever experienced before.
That week, I started my transition into remote work. On top of small details like struggling to remember that I had to consider differing timezones, it’s been 3 years since I’ve immersed myself in a start-up environment, albeit remote. I almost forgot how fast-paced everything is, and found myself working long hours & forgetting to take breaks/do necessary human activities (like eat and shower). Almost reverting back to student life. Perhaps I just confessed to being a really gross student.
Although this is an extreme example, I do feel very motivated and excited about all the work I’m doing/will do. What do you mean, it’s up to me to try these things and see what works? I actually get a say in this? Now that makes work fulfilling.
So now, the Remoter Project. The Remoter Project is my (adopted) baby, passed down from Andrés to me. It’s my focus for the next 11 months to create content and put us on the map as leaders in building & scaling remote-first teams. I’ll introduce this more in my next post, which will come very soon.
I’m now a month and a half into my new role. I spent the first week of November in Montreal, and I’m finishing this post as the plane descends upon Mexico City. I’m excited to get off this plane, as everyone has been coughing non-stop and I, for one, am over it.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with the Remoter Project, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at j@remoter.com.
