My Job at Adobe - Ambassador, Arms Dealer, Mercenary, Reporter
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Published
Saturday, December 16, 2006
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4:33 PM
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It has been 6 months since I joined Adobe as a full time employee. I was asked during a recent customer visit what I do for Adobe, honestly, it is somewhere between Ambassador, Arms Dealer, Mercenary, and Reporter for the growing world of Flex.
Ambassador (less diplomatic immunity) - Developers and companies ask me to help them work with Adobe. I set-up meetings, communicate needs, set-up deals, and generally help developers deliver. In this role, I find I am removing barriers and helping developers succeed. I also spend a great deal of time talking with developers and understanding their perspective.
Arms Dealer - I represent Flex towards developers and arm them to win. I work to start/close sales from a technical perspective (I stay out of negotiations) and help customers understand the technology in depth. Many times this means writing code, teaching Flex, or helping projects get past a key issue. This role is more about making sure developers know the features and how to use them successfully.
Mercenary - I am a developer and I write code to solve problems. Occasionally I am asked to solve a key problem holding a customer back. I was consulting in Flex/Flash long before joining Adobe. Having been in the trenches, I understand the development process and project strategies for success with Flash/Flex. I love solving problems and it is easily the most rewarding part of my work.
Reporter - I blog externally about Flex but I also blog internally about Flex. I provide feedback from the customer perspective to management and engineering. When I return from customer visits I send out a report to let others understand the customer perspective. I get to see the amazing things that developers are creating with Flex and report these to influence product direction.
Adobe is an amazing place to work because of the people. What is fascinating to me, is that everyone internally is very passionate about their work, and that energy is obvious when you enter the 601 Townsend in San Francisco. Joining Adobe was a big change for me as it was the first time in my career where I was not Founder/CEO/CTO. Learning to work within a very large company (5500+) takes some getting used to. Regardless, I am having a blast working here and it was a very good choice for me personally. Between the friends internally/externally and the new customers I meet daily, it is a great job and I wouldn't trade it.
That is my job at Adobe in a nutshell! It is a bit crazy, the email never ends, I am always coding, but after a long day, the beers with the team at Mars are worth their weight in gold. I look forward to helping more developers in the coming year ahead.
If you are interested in a killer job at Adobe, look no further!
Ted :)
Hey Ted, I joined a couple months ago and I have to say I concur whole-heartedly. Great company ...and amazes me how much charity work goes on as well! Cheers!
Hey Ted, you do a great job. Thanks for all the help so far.
Ted, I just want to ditto the other comments. You have been a GREAT help to me in learning Flex.
Here, here, Ted. It is because of your work in blogging about Flex that my company hopped on board and starting building Mapwing.com. I was talking with some other members of the Mapwing team the other day and everyone agreed that we never would have been able to build our virtual tour creation app without the Flex platform. Thanks so much and keep it up!
Your one of Adobes biggest assets bro
Campbell.
I'd like to add to your roles... "Chief Ajax Hostage Negotiator". Seriously, Macradobe's hiring of you tops the acquisition of Drumbeat, bundling Generator with Flash and converting Homesite into Dreamweaver! In other words, the availability of your knowledge and expertise to all of us adds more value to Adobe and the Flex 2 product offering than anything else, ever!
Six months...wow, it passed so fast...