I am writing this post on the airplane back from London after spending a week at Merkle’s newly acquired DBG office. It was a fantastic experience both from a project standpoint as well as from a cultural perspective.
Work:
It has been such an awesome week that I honestly don’t want to leave London. The roadmap we proposed to our first DMP client outside of the U.S., a global insurance company, was well received by the client. They really appreciated how we elevated the conversation from a technical implementation to one that was addressing their core business goals with practical business use cases. In their words, it was "brilliant" and "really good."
Teams:
The recognition from the client didn't come easy. It was 12 hours a day for a week’s hard work, which also gave us more time to experience the DBG office and interact with the local team there. The office is located on the top floor of an antique style building with great views of the city. Every morning when people gather in the kitchen to get their coffee, they usually asked me how different it is from the Columbia office, it often took me a second to realize that I am in a different office that is located on a different continent! It didn’t feel that I was far from home. Yes, our various teams here at Merkle are sometimes far away from each other geographically, but overall we are so close culturally — we are a team of smart, hard-working, and genuine people with great passion for our work!
People:
The feeling of connection peaked when my colleagues Karima Zmerli, Srini Krishnamurthy, and I had dinner together after a long day's work. We are from three different countries originally (Tunisia, India and China), working at three different Merkle offices in the U.S. and were gathering on the European continent. How fascinating it is! I am thankful that my job gives me the opportunity to learn from the top people in their fields (I mean “top” literally – I do not know anyone that knows more about DMP applications than Karima). What I cherish most is that people I meet from work share their real stories and give me genuine advice related to my career and also on life in general. It was those moments that gratitude and appreciation ran through me. What I have is not only "a good job." My job enriches my life by connecting me with so many interesting and genuine people.The weather was cold in London in March, but my experience was warm-hearted. The only thing I regret is that we couldn't join the DBG team for the Thirty Thursday event. So I guess I need to go again! And it will probably be in the brand new Merkle European office!
