New City, New Job

New at Vinyl

Almost 3 weeks after returning to Korea, I think I am finally finding some semblance of being settled. I started work at Vinyl, a 120-person strong “web agency” located in the heart of Seoul. Vinyl’s a well-established and according to some accounts (mostly internal), is the leading web agency in Korea. Most of the work at Vinyl is domestic, but they were the firm responsible for designing the interface for the Helio phones sold in the US.

I’ve been hired to head the User Research department, which mean, build it up from scratch, staff it, and find opportunities to make it productive and profitable. Pretty much do what I did at my last job at Forum One. Hopefully it won’t take 6 years this time around.

Yesterday was my first day, and like any typical disoriented new hire: I sat around all day setting up my computer, going through HR stuff, meeting people and wondering if anyone’s going to come by to take me to lunch or if I’ll have to spend the first day pitifully eating by myself. I was rescued at the last minute.

One thing that is a little unsettling: when one of the senior managers introduced me to the staff, he chuckled and said that he can finally retire the title of “the oldest person” at the company. Ugh.