Jamf Blog
June 10, 2020 by Evan O'Malley

What I learned starting a job remotely during a pandemic

Starting a new job can be intimidating, especially during a global pandemic. Here’s how Jamf empowered me to work from home and how they can help you, too.

Starting a new job can be an intimidating or awkward experience but, in my opinion, these feelings are magnified when you’re learning the ropes from your makeshift home office in the middle of a global pandemic. When I first accepted my new position at Jamf, I was curious as to how this all would work.

Many offices, restaurants and other public buildings were officially shut to slow the spread of COVID-19 and like many of us during the last few months, I was new to the whole 100%-work-from-home life and didn’t know what to expect. With my workstation usually all set up at previous employers prior to my arrival on day one, I was not looking forward to (what I was certain would be) struggles getting my work hardware set up. After all, I’m less than confident in my IT skills and the thought of getting everything functioning on my own seemed like a daunting task.

Turns out there was no need to worry.

After selecting my Apple hardware, Jamf shipped shrink-wrapped devices directly to my doorstep. All I had to do was unpack my Apple devices and turn them on. While getting to know Jamf during my research and interview process, I kept stumbling upon messaging related to “there is no step three” – it was almost surreal to be truly living it.

On my Mac and iPhone, once I went through the normal set up procedure I would have as an Apple shopper, all of the apps I needed for work immediately downloaded. From unboxing the device to productive was a matter of minutes, and there was no IT or manager interaction required.

Single login to access everything? Yes, please.

As soon as everything was powered on and ready to go, I realized that now I’d have to get accounts made for all of this new software. In previous first weeks on the job, this meant starting countless tickets with IT in order to make sure I had proper access. Luckily this was a much different experience. On day one I had my single set of login credentials and was seamlessly and securely able to access accounts, products and software I needed. No more constantly having to log in repeatedly (with different credentials) to a handful of apps necessary for work, all I had to do was click the app I needed, and I was set.

Company VPN access was also necessary. How did I handle that?

Looking back at previous experiences, it was always hit and miss while accessing, connecting to and using things like VPN – which is often required to access internal resources from an external location. Plus, I’d have to figure out the correct credentials to do it, which wasn’t always easy. Again, I don’t know why I was so worried. After opening up Self Service, I began to browse and see countless resources and tools at my disposal, one of which was VPN. Ta-da! Instantly, everything I needed to get connected and get to work was presented.

How is this process so seamless?

As I was cruising through my device setup – keep in mind, I’m only an hour in on my first day and remote – it dawned on me that my thankfully painless process was all credit to Jamf and the solutions that we offer.

As I learned more about the product portfolio at Jamf, I realized that the seamless first experiences I had were thanks to the power of our solutions. When you get to see for yourself the painless process of onboarding with zero-touch deployment (made possible with Jamf Pro or Jamf Now) or when you save time from constantly having to sign into various apps (courtesy of Jamf Connect), you get to see how onboarding at any job can be and should be. Starting a new job entirely from home doesn’t need to feel like you’re helpless or on your own and instead, should always be an exciting new chapter started in confidence.

Through my onboarding, not only was time and effort saved for IT, but I felt confident that I could start this job while being fully remote, knowing I had all the tools I needed to make it happen. I felt more empowered than I had at any other new job because I was able to hit the ground running and dive into the tools, workflows and meetings without any technical hiccups. Even though I have yet to meet most of my colleagues in person, the fact that I can keep learning the ropes with minimal friction from ‘technical difficulties’ is pretty amazing.

If you’re looking to deliver this experience to employees on day one, and every day after that, check us out.

Evan O'Malley
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