“No two days are alike,” she says. “My responsibilities and priorities are pretty dynamic. What happens in a given day generally depends on meetings, the needs of clients, and whatever else needs to be done.”
Penrod, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is nestled in the city’s Historic Third Ward neighborhood. During normal times, Renee loves working in the area, as it is close to home and packed with great places to shop, get food, and socialize. “I can walk to work, which is really great,” she says. “I can always find something new to check out during the day, too. I love being right in the action.”
Given the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic however, Renee enjoys the flexibility to work safely from home.
Renee usually starts work between 8:30 and 9:00 in the morning, and begins her day with a Daily Standup with her team, now conducted via Google Hangouts: essentially, a brief check-in on the status of their projects and re-prioritization based on the discussion that particular day. “The beginning of the week tends to be a little heavier,” Renee explains. “I usually spend nine to ten hours a day near the beginning of the week and the end of the week is closer to seven or eight hours depending on the status of projects.”
It’s entirely possible for Renee to spend the majority of her day in meetings. She usually has to find a balance between meetings and completing tasks throughout the day. “I think that’s one of the biggest challenges of my job,” she explains. “There’s a lot of juggling different project tasks and it can be challenging to find time for everything. At the end of the day, your main goal is to complete everything on time to keep everyone happy.”
I’m definitely a problem-solver and I liked coming into a company that was looking for people like me.
As a Salesforce Consultant, Renee has the opportunity to travel around the US to build relationships with clients and work on projects face-to-face – currently, her client interactions are conducted remotely. Their destinations are diverse; Renee’s team has traveled to Austin, New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, and the occasional very small town. Normally, she travels with her Project Manager, but sometimes a Technical Architect will also join them.
Renee’s team manages projects both remote as well as onsite. For the onsite projects, there are three times during a project that the team may travel: Project Kick-Off, Middle of Project Touch-Base, and Onsite Training. During a Project Kick-Off, the team will take up to several days to talk through goals for the client’s project and establish why they want to work with Penrod and what they hope to gain. The Middle of Project Touch-Base is generally used for more intense working sessions. These sessions may include time to walk through open items and will occasionally include basic beginner “Train the Trainer” sessions. Finally, the team will wrap up a project with a fuller Onsite Training, where they discuss what they’ve built with the client and answer any questions about the project itself.
The trips aren’t strictly business related, however, the team always finds ways to entertain themselves when the work-day has ended. “For shorter trips, we’ll always check out the local restaurants and bars,” says Renee. “When we’ll be around longer, we do workout classes together and explore the area a little more, which is always a blast.
I love Penrod because of its team-driven culture.
Whether she’s working from home, the office, or remotely, Renee enjoys the problem-solving aspects of her work and finds the position incredibly rewarding. “I’m definitely a problem-solver and I liked coming into a company that was looking for people like me,” she says. She also enjoys interacting with different companies to learn about the specifics of what they do and how her team can help them.
On a larger scale, Renee appreciates the company’s unique culture and values. “I love Penrod because of its team-driven culture,” she explains. “Helping each other out is a huge rock for this company. We all genuinely want to be there for each other.”