Arash Emadi: One Year At ELITE

by Elite Digital
3 mins read
A man standing in front of a camera in a studio.

I joined the Elite Digital family a year ago and all I can say is that the past 365 days have been phenomenal.

This first year gave me more experience than my previous 5 years in the workforce. The reason? It’s simple, yet important – every day at Elite has its own unique challenges and problems and by overcoming each of these challenges you learn valuable lessons that are related to real-world problems; this can actually boost your knowledge and experience much more than theoretical problems.

I clearly remember the day I had my interview at Elite. I was very nervous as this would have been my second Canadian work experience and my first full-time Canadian work experience. That day I met Lee, Sharon, and TK, who had all worked at Elite for some time. The moment we started talking, most of my nervousness faded away and I felt like I was talking to new friends.

After a great chat and answering some challenging programming questions, I left the interview not being so optimistic about getting the job. But to my surprise, I received an email saying that I’ve been accepted and that I’ll start working within a couple of days. I was so happy and excited. I couldn’t wait to start my new job at Elite and that’s why those couple of days lasted longer than a week to me!

What surprised me more was the extremely welcoming culture of Elite. Within minutes of my acceptance email, I received an email from Rob, the company’s CEO and other leaders and members, all welcoming me to the “Elite Family”. This was very new and interesting to me. I used to believe employees only get to be friends with leaders after years of great work, but here I was seeing myself as the CEO’s friend and being called a member of the Elite family. This has been and most probably will remain my favourite thing about Elite Digital.

I joined Elite at a very busy period of the year. October, November, and December are usually the busiest months for us as we work on a lot of contests and other projects. I clearly remember thinking to myself “no way I’ll be asked to work on an important project…” let’s just say that I was very wrong… I started coding projects for huge clients since day one. This was very interesting to me. We had developers with a lot of experience and now I was working with them on the projects they were working on.

This gave me the courage I needed to overcome the imposter syndrome which was telling me I’m not good enough and that I’ll fail. This is a fact. No matter how much experience you have, you’ll keep on fighting with the imposter syndrome. This happens at all levels. You must not give up and keep believing in yourself. This is why a welcoming company is so critical. A company that trusts you and allows you to grow while looking after you and making sure you don’t fail. Elite is exactly what I just described.

Within a couple of weeks, I found myself helping newer developers with their questions. You see, Elite is a fast-growing company and while you may think you’re still a newbie after a couple of weeks, in most scenarios you’ll see that you’re now helping newer employees just as others helped you once you joined the company.

The journey has gotten more and more exciting as time goes by. I love my Elite family and my job. This is all you need to be happy even when facing tons of challenges. I have loved and enjoyed every day of work and I’m excited and ready for more.

Huge thanks to Rob, Sharon and Matthew for believing in me, trusting me with big projects and giving me the opportunity to learn and grow and also many thanks to Yousaf, TK and Mithun – my ‘dev’ bros!

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3 comments

Sharon Serebro October 11, 2018 - 2:47 pm

Dear Arash,
We are blessed daily with your amazing talent, your ability and willing to learn more and more.
Cannot believe a year has passed since finding you.
Cheers for another amazing year working together.

Thank you,
Sharon Serebro
Creative Director @ Elite Digital Agency

Arash Emadi October 11, 2018 - 2:51 pm

Thank you so much for your kind words, Sharon. It’s a joy to be working alongside you day by day. Here’s to an even better second year.

Marcello October 13, 2018 - 12:40 pm

Arash Emadi, thank you ever so for you post.Much thanks again.

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