How I Almost Lost My Company a Major Client
Mistake #1: Not knowing what I was signing up for
As an up-and-coming software engineer, it’s natural to be on the lookout for opportunities to prove oneself. We want to stand out and show that we can be relied upon as competent members of the team.
When I was approached by a more senior member in my department, asking if I’d be interested in working on a small one to two-day project, which they thought I’d be perfect for, I was intrigued, but tentative. My mission, if I chose to accept it, would be to record short video tutorials for a hotshot client currently making waves in the aerospace industry, by reading from a pre-written script while performing the actions it dictated on my computer.
At the time, I was still acclimating to my current project as well as the job as a whole, and the last thing I needed was more food on my plate. But “one to two days” did sound manageable, and the task wasn’t exactly rocket science. And so I agreed and a meeting was set up with the client to discuss further details.
Mistake #1: Not Knowing What I Was Signing Up for
It was instantly clear to me that my colleague had little to no idea what the project entailed. The “script” was little more than a sheet of bullet…
