Back in early 2006, I was one of those soon-to-be-graduates that, with plenty of time left in the semester, was already scrambling to find a job.  I didn’t want to worry about the job search post-finals, I wanted to move directly to San Francisco and sustain myself financially, and I wanted to reaaaally enjoy my final months at UC Berkeley knowing I had a job in the bag.

Perusing the Cal Career site, I found the Meltwater News posting for International Management Trainee.  International – I love that, I had studied in Spain, I speak Spanish, and I get a kick being around people with diverse backgrounds.  Management – yuuup, that’s sounding good too – one of my main criteria in the job search was to work with people, and be motivated by a team around me.  Trainee – thank ya ma’am – I was a fresh graduate and I needed to be learn-ed.  Sounded like a match.

At the time, I was looking to join an entrepreneurial start-up, take the management-consulting route, or go back to grad school for graphic design or curatorial studies.  Yes, my studies at Cal had helped define my erratic interests – a major in Political Economies of Industrial Societies (with a focus in International Business), and a minor in Art History.  Meltwater was one of the “business” routes I was considering.

I was still early in my job hunt so I applied to Meltwater News without too many expectations, taking the company’s entrepreneurial promise with a grain of salt. Hannah, a Swede with a British accent, called me for an initial phone interview and we carried a really engaging discussion - not what I expected from an interview call.  A few days later, I was invited to a group interview round down in Silicon Valley – I went in with the mindset that this was just going to be a practice interview, don’t get too excited by the possibility, man.

Across the table was a set of tall fresh-off-the-boat Scandinavians in trim cut suits and pointy shoes, here to run the first recruitment for Meltwater News in the US.  The interviews were informative and also demanding – an enjoyable challenge where I felt I had to step up and perform.  The company story and its promise sounded too good to be true, and I left the interviews exhilarated but also skeptical about how good the opportunity was made out to be.

When I was offered a job, I had the same sort of mixed reaction – first, literally avoiding an oncoming car as I ran into the street in victory (don’t ask me why I ran into oncoming traffic to celebrate), and then the internal question, “Wait, is this a real company?!!”

At that point in time, Meltwater News was truly in its infant stages in the States.  This recruitment class would help build a then non-existent US presence.  I went down to the office space twice while considering the offer to see if it was actually real.

Why did I decide to join the Meltwater News team?  Initially, I felt like it did come with a certain amount of risk, going with an unknown company without a proven track record in the US, but the flip side was that I could embrace this unknown and make an impact on Meltwater.  This was a very different opportunity than some of the other larger companies I was considering.  The fact that I could define my own career path if I proved successful was very enticing.

Ultimately, my decision came down to the people.  The people on the other side of that table in the interviews – I knew that I would have fun working here and, hell, it was my first real job.  Try it out, see how it goes.

Let’s. Do. This.

I dove in the deep end, and it’s been a roller coaster ever since. Keep yer eyes peeled for my second post – globetrottin’ on the Meltwater bus.

3 months in, a Fredagspils (Norwegianish for “Friday Beers”) with new team members:

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