Written by: Omar Abdul-Rahman
Featured image by: Michael Lewars
My journey with PD began after I coincidentally re-connected with my friend Giang at a leadership program. As we conversed, I brought up my interest in the Marketing & Branding world. A few days later, he connected me with Kal, Lannie, and Sarah after which the hiring process began. The process consisted mostly of questionnaires, but not any ordinary ones. With every questionnaire I received I would go through the questions and then think to myself.. “what a strange company this is”. The strange vibes I felt from the company’s approach through their application process had me wanting more.
Day 1
Fast forward a couple of weeks and there I was, at Pixel Dreams, starting my day. From the moment I stepped into the office I sensed an enormous presence of positivity, and I tend to be good at assessing my surrounding energy. I was greeted by every person in the office, shown around, and then took part in our first MMM (Monday Morning Meeting) where Kal kicked off the year by discussing culture and inclusivity. MMM is one of the many healthy SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) we use around PD where we discuss the events of our weekends and what we look forward to as we commence our week.
First Month
I had a bit of a rough start during my first few weeks; having had minimal experience in management and leadership roles, and becoming a part of an incredibly fast paced team, full of leaders. The best way I can describe the feeling was being thrown into the deep end, able to survive, but unsure how. I felt out of space and experienced a loss in confidence. But being part of a team such as PD’s, I’m pleased to say that I was pulled out the rut in no time and from there, the only direction I have been going is up.
Day-to-day
The work we do is very fast paced and involves several phases between the start and end of a project. We have excellent team communication & collaboration and consist of a “group of leaders working up and down the chain of command to lead”, everyone has a voice and everyone’s voice is heard. We hold many SOPs in place to ensure everything runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
Our weeks start off with MMM, explained above, followed by a daily rhythm in which every team member writes out a list of all the tasks on their plate for the day before tackling them, both personal and professional – this helps the team keep us accountable to our goals.
During lunch, we all stop working and sit together for a home-cooked team lunch full of laughs, knowledge exchanges, and sometimes a TV episode or two – we then perform a quick team clean-up before getting back to the grind.
At the end of each day we hold a SCRUM meeting, where we all reconvene to discuss all the projects we’re working on and our status on each, this helps ensure that we are on track with our progress.
And at the end of every week we all look forward to FRIducation (Friday + Education), where we get to take part in expanding our minds through different activities. Finally, we seal the week by sharing things we have learned, relearned, and unlearned, then expressing who we are proud of and thankful for on the team, sometimes followed by a jibber, or two, or seven.
Some of the things I’ve learned
Throughout my internship I have learned and improved on an incredibly wide array of skills and abilities, from Project Management, properly cutting & mincing vegetables, prioritization & organization, stress management, training my design eye, data visualization, team collaboration & communication, leadership, business strategy, to even parenting – this list is but a fraction of everything I have learned and continue to learn everyday.
More importantly though, I learned about culture and its importance in building a successful team and a successful life. At Pixel Dreams, we pride ourselves for our culture – one full of laughs, family, trust, communication, extreme ownership, reading, raising intelligence + consciousness, inclusivity, and health – a culture full of life.
Last Thoughts
If different areas of life are seen as building blocks, I can proudly say that joining the PDT has been one of the most, if not the most, concrete and impactful blocks of mine thus far. I can gladly say that for the first time ever, I enjoy waking up and going to work everyday, and am part of a team that I am proud to call my family.
Are you looking for a workplace you can also call home?
Look no further.