My First Project

I had an interesting first couple of days. First of all, I work in a building called the Perfume Palace . It's the home of MNF-I , and all of us here support Gen Petraeus. In fact, when Gen Petraeus briefed Congress, the charts and such he used were produced here.

Anyway, yesterday I heard some members of an outside agency were visiting our section. Not only was I invited to attend, but I was surprised to learn both how strategic their mission was and how little time some of them had doing it (all were seasoned intelligence professionals, but the intelligence cell they were working in had just stood up). Having only been here a few days, I nevertheless felt I was able to contribute, which is a far fry from my last job where I was treated like a doormat. During the meeting, we discussed an RFI (request for information) they sent us, which, due to the enormity of the work involved, occupied most of the meeting's allotted time. It involved doing some pretty in-depth Social Network Analysis, something with which I am familiar enough to recognize both how much work it would be and that I don't have the necessary skills to carry it out.

Well, it turns out I'm tasked with doing it. Luckily, we managed to pare it down to something more manageable in the meeting, but it's still quite a project. I'm not complaining, though. This is an opportunity to excel and show them what I can do.