Working Remotely at 19 Years Old — 1st Week Experience
Tags: Remote Working, Work Life Balance, Pandadoc, Experience, New Job

Photo by Goran Ivos on Unsplash

I’m Maddox.

I recently turned 19, quit my job working at Chick-Fil-A, and I began working remotely for PandaDoc, an SAS (Software As a Service) company.

Times are different and more and more people are working from home (in my case, my parents).

In this post, I’m going to be going to explain how my first week of training remotely went at PandaDoc and how I feel about it.

PandaDoc is a company with an interesting history and dynamic online culture. I only have good things to say about it and I’m really excited to be working there after working in fast food for so long. It’s a big change from what I’m used to.

The story behind how I got hired to PandaDoc is what I would consider unique. Let’s start with that.

How I Got Hired at PandaDoc

I’m apart of a college alternative program called Discover Praxis.

Praxis is known for challenging conventional educational paths (like college) by providing a direct and proven way to launch a young person’s career. I found that college wasn’t for me after graduating high school and I decided to try out Praxis, a cheaper, but more effective approach to launching one’s career.

The story of how I eventually decided to forgo college is a story for another post, but that’s the basic summary of what happened.

After I joined Discover Praxis I was introduced to a huge, flourishing community of young professionals. There were entrepreneurs, new hires, seasoned employees, and all sorts of other people. The community that Praxis provided created an environment that promoted a mindset of value creation that college couldn’t provide. After jumping headfirst into the Praxis program I began to learn faster than I ever have. To keep things short I’ll leave out the details.

Essentially after going through 3 months of intensive learning I was ready to start applying to jobs. PandaDoc was one of the first companies that I was introduced to apply to through Praxis. After applying to PandaDoc and going through the interviewing process I ended up landing a job there!

I was super excited to start a new season of my life. I started to get prepared for training.

The First Day of Training

Since everything is online, Zoom became the largest part of my browser history.

Photo by Romain Dancre on Unsplash

Training began with paperwork (taxes and such). This is expected with any new job. After the paperwork was completed I began learning about the company culture of PandaDoc.

Everything about the company of culture of PandaDoc was important to me. Here’s a list of all of the things about it:

Company Culture at PandaDoc

PandaDoc values learning, making an impact, having fun, and being empathetic

Everyone is team-orientated

Individuals are expected to be able to contribute to the success of the company

PandaDoc puts your economic success in high regard (no one gets left behind)

Everyone loves to talk and help each other even if everything is online

The company as a whole holds you as an employee in high regard. Every person who works alongside you is helpful and empathetic. I’m glad to be apart of such a positive environment in which I can work and be noticed.

These aren’t just any bogus corporate words either. Although everything is online I can still feel the vibe that PandaDoc is a good place to work. People I have interacted with so far at PandaDoc are all nice, genuine people who care about their work and others. The culture isn’t just a set of rules that were written out, it’s an attitude that every person I’ve met so far has expressed in their own unique way.

The culture of a workspace is something that I hold in high regard. PandaDoc provides a positive work environment that I can grow in. PandaDoc proved that during my first day of training.

The Rest of the Week

A lot happened over the course of 5 days. I can’t get into every detail, but I can tell you that learning everything about PandaDoc (company history and how things are run) was a lot of information to take in, in a week.

The trainers recognized this and were very empathetic in their teaching approach. They realized that we wouldn’t understand everything that was said right away and they always made sure to open the floor for any questions. The first week of “working” was mostly just completing learning assignments and consuming information on every aspect of the company.

It was intensive but well-paced. I have learned a lot about the company all within one week. The next week will dive more into the specifics of what I’ll be doing under my manager’s guidance.

Was this helpful?

If this post was helpful or interesting to anyone reading it don’t feel afraid to leave a comment anywhere on it. I’m always open to talking about my job here. But, I won’t be revealing any insider knowledge of how the company operates as that would be a breach of my NDA.