A healthy start

This week was my first working for RL Solutions, a software company which provides solutions for the healthcare sector. RL have their main office in Toronto, Canada (checkout the pictures on their careers site). I couldn’t find a bus that would travel that far each day, so (sensibly) I’ve joined the development team based in their Adelaide office.

I get the impression from the four interviews I had before being offered the position (including with Sanjay, the founder and CEO) that RL have definite ideas about the kind of people they want to hire (not just looking for technical expertise). One of the things that appealed to me was the approach RL is taking in creating a modern, mature, healthy, fun and social work environment. That seems to manifest itself in a number of ways (some just relevant to Toronto or Adelaide and some in common) and I think it’s a really positive thing.

My first few days have been spent getting to know the other Adelaide staff (helped in no small way by going out to lunch together on my first day), working through the company’s induction programme (they are pretty organised around this), and starting to familiarise myself with the application and codebase that I’ll be calling home.

I will also say it is nice to work in a modern building again – one where you don’t have nagging doubts that the lifts will deliver you to the floor you requested, and that (a bonus for occasional bike commuters) has shower facilities! I’m still in the CBD though, so no changes to my daily commute.

A nice surprise was the ‘welcome’ pack waiting on my desk on my first day – including a company-branded backpack.

It’s going to be an interesting time, especially learning a whole new business (hospitals etc.) – quite a contrast to my previous industry areas of commodity handling and higher education online teaching and learning. It might prove quite useful to be married to someone with a nursing background, not to mention that our family seem to be rather regular consumers of the health system!

I’m looking forward to it 😀