• I’m working with truly outstanding, top-of-the-line people, every day. When I started university, I was told I’d be lucky if 1/3 of my lecturers were superb, 1/3 were adequate, and 1/3 were awful. I think that ratio probably panned out over the years – some were better than others. At Joost, there’s just so much talent, everywhere, in all kinds of fields. I don’t know everyone in the company, so I’m sure there are Regular Joes hiding somewhere – but the ratio of brilliant:regular colleagues is pretty high.
• The job-spec is a springboard, not a box. One of the things that I loved about the IB was that the syllabus was meant to be a starting point, not an end. Only once in Joost have I come up against an “it’s not your job” barrier, and there were real, technical reasons for it.
• Flexibility is the reality, not some marketing blurb. I have a desk, in an office, on our office plan. There’s been a bit of movement recently, so I’m not exactly sure which one it is, but that’s not the point. When I go into the office, I head to where my team are, and I take over their couch. If anyone minds, they haven’t told me yet. I’m most comfortable working with the laptop in my lap, on either a low couch or a cushion on the floor – and that’s just fine. I get the odd “are you honestly comfortable there?”, but no one’s told me “you have to go sit at a desk”. Not once. This is an ultra-big-deal for me – flexibility has shaped my decisions for almost a decade, and it’s often seen as something one should “grow out of”, move on from. I chose the IB in part for its flexibility, I chose my degree almost entirely for its flexibility, and I have no intention of taking on a job where they tell me how to dress, what time to take my coffee break, or which way I should sit.
• There’s no “ism”s. I was asked a few tenuously-legal questions at interview, which did shake me up a bit. But despite that, Joost has an incredibly open and tolerant work environment. There’s fantastic diversity in the workforce – and yes, I think it makes the company better just by being that way. People from different backgrounds – culturally, politically, socially, technically – think differently, and that benefits Joost enormously.

I’m sure there’s more, but I’ll save them for another day. Too much cheer all at once could be dangerous

So why on earth am I working for Joost? I started a bit over a week ago, and it most assuredly wasn’t because I wanted to watch more TV. I initially thought I’d chosen a kinda lousy time to start – my very first week, and everyone’s trying to ship a new release! Not exactly conducive to teaching the newbie the ropes

Well, turns out that although everyone was busy, I work with an awesome group of people, and they’ve really made me feel at home. If anyone’s still reading from my summer-camp days, it’s a bit like CTYI all over again. The food is lousy (I still don’t want to know what’s in Bitterballen, and what’s with the complete lack of potatoes in the diet!? ), the people are great, and the work is intense but satisfying.

But even more unexpected – I’m actually starting to like TV! My attention-span is pretty short, so I’ve mostly been on the cartoons so far. One of the first shows I watched was Supermoine (if you click on the link, you’ll be able to download Joost if you haven’t already got it, and play the video) – ninja monks were definitely a good start…

I’ve really no idea what exists on TV, so the first time I was trying stuff out, I chose a search term more or less at random, and it paid off buckets. I searched for “happy”, and found the Happy Tree Friends channel. Awesome! Cutesy music, fluffy bunnies, and gruesome, gruesome deaths! I could really get to like this TV thing.

Anyway, Joost is now officially in public beta, no need for invites etc anymore. The UI is really, really pretty (yes, you know I’m a sucker for shiny) – and I’ve found the whole program (functionality, UI, content) to be a lot of fun to play with. So give it a go. And start with the Happy Tree Friends. You know you want to