Time for a change

As my last week at SEEK drew to a close, I was in the process of drafting one of those ‘farewell’ emails people send on their last day of work.

Before I knew it, the email length blew up, so I decided to say goodbye in picture form instead.

So here goes.

During my time at SEEK, I…

…was part of an amazing team of talented and passionate designers and researchers

…collaborated with people across SEEK on some great products

…worked on some really cool stuff

…tested products I designed out in the real world

..had a faux holiday named after me (thanks Pete & Tristan)

Merry Vedmas!

Archived version of the original Vedmas site

My colleague Tristan actually bought vedmas[dot]com at the time, but the domain has since expired and been bought by a squatter (good luck selling it).

The holiday even had it’s own jingle

…had a t-shirt with my face worn by an alarmingly large number of people in the office

What’s more alarming is that some people tell me they still use the t-shirt as their pyjamas

…had a rap song written about me (thanks Mimi, Dan & Vee)

…worked with some real characters

OK, the fourth one is an *actual* cartoon character

…had been blamed for hacking numerous email accounts, actually hacked by others

That’s Rob, hacking a colleague’s email and subsequently blaming me for it

…cleaned up the Hackathon awards for a product that shows which showers and toilets are free

…was part of some epic Nerf gun battles, including this execution

…had been caricatured, twice (thanks Scotty!)

My head is big, but not that big

…and had lots of fun along the way

No one does trivia like SEEK!

So, what’s next?

All good things do come to an end, and the time has come for a new challenge.

I’ve joined the design team at Zendesk, a company whose products and design pedigree I have huge respect for. I can’t wait to get started and I’m sure it will be an experience I reflect on as fondly as I do on my time at SEEK.

Over the time I spent at SEEK, I’ve learnt that in addition to solving meaningful real-world problems, company culture and people you work with are a huge part of being happy at work. Since we spend so much of our time at work, being happy at work is pretty important.

What I’ve seen of Zendesk so far, both product and culture wise, makes me very excited about the next step in my career.

And finally…

Not to be outdone by my colleague Mimi who wrote that rap song, here is a little song I prepared for SEEK, buried at the end of this post because I’m a little shy 😊