Impossible Foods – Apprenticeship Week 1
After a short writing hiatus, I am now getting back into the routine of writing — I’ll be posting once a week, at minimum. I have recently completed the boot-camp portion of Praxis, the professional development program I am in, which means I found a job! I accepted an offer from Impossible Foods, a hyper-growth tech/food company based in Redwood City that manages the production and sale of plant-based meat in an effort to curb environmental catastrophe. In just the last week and a half, I —
- Moved almost 2000 miles across the country
- Found a comfortable and fairly affordable place to live
- Finished my first week of work with the Impossible team
Each week for the next 6 months I will be recapping my experience as an Inside Sales Representative for Impossible Foods, and also commenting on my time in the San Francisco area as a whole. I’m eager to firmly establish my place in this city, and most importantly, I’m incredibly excited for what’s in store for me with Impossible Foods.
My first week went by very quickly — each day was full of various meetings and trainings, and in my downtime, I sifted through the many resources I will use to get up to speed. There’s a healthy amount of information to learn about the work at Impossible Foods, and about the food industry in general. Without going into too much detail, it’s safe to say that the systems and processes involved are much more complex than I could have imagined, but I’m quickly getting a handle on it. I’ve also been working to get more familiar with the product, mostly regarding the science of the Impossible Burger. Considering my role is a fair mix of sales and customer service, I’m going to need to answer plenty of questions across a broad spectrum, and I want to be confident and accurate in each answer.
There’s also software that I’m learning for the role. Programs like Zendesk, Airtable, Salesforce, and more are integral parts of daily tasks done at Impossible Foods, and each one has it’s own nuanced workflow that takes a little practice to get comfortable with. I will be honest and say that at times, I felt a tiny bit overwhelmed this week. Luckily, the inside sales team (and Impossible as a whole) is made up of some of the most welcoming, understanding, and just genuinely helpful people I have ever worked with (especially fellow Praxians, Leah and Haley).
I’m joining the team at a really exciting time. The inside sales team is pretty new, basically still in its experimental form. What that means is, not only do I have a responsibility to master daily tasks, I am challenged to evaluate the process as a whole and see where improvement in efficiency can be made. To know that even as a beginner my perspective and opinions on how the team operates speaks again to how welcomed I’ve been, and I don’t take it for granted. Having a team that prioritizes communication leads me to believe that there is a lot we can achieve together.
For now, I am doing my best to lay a strong foundation for my time here at Impossible Foods. During (at the least) the next 6 months, I am going to eat, drink, and breathe Impossible — but I’m also excited to make the most out of the huge opportunity and adventure that I have embarked on as I make San Francisco and Redwood City feel like home. While I’ve achieved what I set out to achieve at the beginning of Praxis, I am fully aware that this is still just the beginning.