Introducing Jack Stevens

Posted on 2020-06-02 12:00:00

Jack Stevens recently joined Pracedo as the new Commercial Manager. Jack’s on-boarding process has been completely remote while the country is in lockdown so we caught up with him to discuss how he’s found it.

How have you found your first few weeks at Pracedo?
I’ve found it really enjoyable. It’s been a different experience because I haven’t been able to meet everyone in person, but as soon as I joined my first company-wide call I was made to feel welcome, which I’ve loved. I’ve also found the training I’ve been given, even while working from home, has been amazing.

What’s it been like having a completely remote onboarding process?
I thought it was going to be quite difficult initially. When I first started I was a bit nervous despite the fact I’m not usually a nervous person but, I had all these questions going through my head like was I going to be able to pick stuff up? How was it going to work? Will I be able to understand everything?

Thankfully within the first week, I’d spoken to everyone and picked up a lot of what I needed to known. I’ve found the training sessions we’ve had really useful as well.

Is working remotely a new experience for you or something you’re used to?
In the past, I’ve had the option to work from home one day a week but I never actually did it, I just liked being in the office too much!

This experience of working from home has been great because it’s allowed me to come back to Brighton to spend time with my family which I haven’t been able to do in 10 years.

I’ve felt more focused when working and I’ve got more time to spend doing the things I love, like making the most of the nice weather and spending my lunchtimes exercising outside. This is quite different from running to find a gym for a quick session during my lunch break in London! I’ll definitely be more open to working from home in the future.

I’ll definitely be more open to working from home in the future.

How have you found not being able to see your new colleagues face to face?
There are some challenges to it because I’m starting a completely new role and I haven’t got to meet everyone in person and not everyone has been able to meet me face to face. I can be a bit of a character and very in your face so I’ve missed not be able to get that across during our calls.

At the same time, we do have evening calls every day where we play different games and we have a midweek quiz on a Wednesday which is good fun. Despite the fact we are doing this through Zoom I’ve still managed to get to know everyone and their humour which has made things a lot easier.

What’s been some of the highlights so far?
Winning my first deal was the biggest highlight for me. I never thought I’d get to say that in my first month I’d close my first deal, that was pretty incredible!

It just emphasises how good the training I’ve received has been and how quickly I’ve been brought up to speed on our processes. For me to take part in completely remote training and still manage to understand how the business works, the processes and then how we win deals all in the first month, it shows my training hasn’t been disrupted at all.

What are you looking forward to the most when we are back in the office?
I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone outside of work and catching up over a drink!