VR Moments at the Office

 As anyone who reads this blog can figure out, I'm heavily involved in developing a virtual reality (VR) training solution for my organization (see here and here). I'm new-ish at my organization. In a company where the average time at the organization in the double digits, someone who has been there about 1 year is a rarity. Truthfully, I'm surprised I was able to get a job with this group. That being said, I feel as though I have to constantly strive and achieve to prove that I'm worth keeping. 

The other day, Russell, my boss, came into my office while he was on the phone with someone else (this is not rare). What was rare was that he plopped a magazine on my desk and tapped his finger heavily on the cover without stopping his conversation. The cover of the magazine had a picture of someone taking a VR training, and the magazine was from the National Safety Council, the national organization for our industry (see the full magazine here). 

Why is this an interesting or funny moment? Russell was telling me that I should read the article in the magazine as it was in my wheel-house of VR development. We were walking into a meeting at that moment, and as soon as Russell got off the phone I asked, "Have you read that article?"

"No," Russell said. "I just saw the cover and thought you'd be interested."

I opened the magazine to the page about the article and let my finger linger on a page with a "pull quote." It isn't a very compelling pull quote, but the name under it was. Turns out I was a major contributor to the article. I was their primary source. 

Back in December or January, someone had called me for a long and extensive interview on what we were doing with VR and how VR might change the industry. I thought I did a pretty decent job with his questions, and apparently, I did. Russell's mandate for me has always been to provide proof that our organization is the pre-eminent industry training solution. Having an article about VR in the industry where I am the primary source certainly helps with that. 

Russell was initially proud and amazed, then that turned to slightly miffed. He was upset he didn't know about it and wanted to know why I hadn't told anyone or at least let the Marketing Dept know. Thankfully, I had. I had told our marketing team several weeks earlier. They had failed to do anything with it. So that miffed-ness was transferred to them, and Russell made sure to give the magazine to our CEO and this time when he plunked his heavy finger on the page, it was right under my name.