I just got home. And I’m hungry. Thanks to my officemate’s nissin noodles from the land of the rising sun, I have something to eat hehehe.

Semi-extended work hours are here again. But I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m happy so far with one of my projects even if the pressure is high and I’ve been “lectured” several times because of my failure to balance things. 

I’m happy because I’m learning a lot of things as the project progresses. We need a vendor so I’m working with vendors now. There are at least 5 we are choosing from and while it was challenging to coordinate with everyone, I really had fun talking to all of them. My non-existent people skills (because I believe I am an introvert) are being tested but honed in the process.

I am also closely working with our Purchasing team. This is the first time I’m directly working with them and I’m glad because I’ll have a firsthand experience of their processes as a department. I am learning a lot from them. Yesterday afternoon, I met with them to get their inpputs on our vendor selection criteria. While most criteria should come from us because we know the requirements better, they recommended that I make sure that the weight of the cost will not defeat the selection process. In short, we shouldn’t be at a scenario wherein vendor A won even if vendor B has the better solution just because vendor A is cheaper. Makes sense. And so I need to play around with the weights to get the perfect balance.

They also requested that we involve them at the very beginning so that vendors are aware they are working with Purchasing team. Purchasing is supposed to haggle for pricing. And vendors know that Purchasing knows the industry standard pricing so for they will avoid pricing way above industry standards. At least that’s how I understood it.

I also work with leaders of other teams. And working with them gives me the opportunity to observe how leaders think, drive and decide on things.

To be honest, I am nervous whenever I need to work on this project simply because this is new to me. I’ve worked with vendors before but those were already selected. All we needed to do was continue with the nitty gritty details until successful implementation. 

But I’m still looking forward to more lessons learned along the way, while making it to the deadline. 

Time’s up. Noodles have cooled down a bit. Time to eat hihihi.

And so, goodnight or good morning and happy weekend or long weekend for those who are in the Philippines.