I promise I'll put these back.
I'm sorry.
Can we cut back on the bubbles, please?
Oof!
[BOX RATTLES]
Do you want to know what it’s like
to work another job,
but not sure where to start?
Well, you leave that part up to me.
I'm going all across the country, meeting all sorts of people,
doing all types of jobs,
so you can find out what they're all about.
I'm Aaron Burriss,
and welcome to Job Hoppers.
[MUSIC: Job, Job Hoppers!]
Richmond, Virginia.
Le Capital!
I'm here today to meet with Emma.
Her house is all the way over there.
She is a delivery manager at CarMax.
And once again, I have no idea what that means.
- Hi, Aaron. - Emma!
- Hi! - Hello, Hello.
- So nice to see you. - Nice to meet you.
- I brought you a coffee.
You lead the way! - Why’d you have to scare me like that?
How long have you lived here?
- I have lived here for six years now,
which is crazy!
Wait, you're married?
I am married.
I have detective skills, and I saw your ring.
- It’s a beautiful ring - Cause I’m married too.
[EMMA LAUGHS]
I know you are, and she's beautiful.
- How do you know that about me?
I creeped you on Youtube, are you kidding?
So what are we doing today?
Are we going to the office?
Going to a home office?
What are we doing? - Absolutely.
We are going to go to CarMax Midtown later today.
And you were going to shadow me, and my job.
CarMax!
- CarMax Midtown! Welcome, Aaron.
I'm official.
I'm official!
And we've got plenty of co-working space.
It's sort of a pick your own adventure desk.
- This is huge! - Isn’t this huge?
Not a lot of people know how much work goes behind
selling used cars, and being the number one used car retailer.
[AARON HUMMING]
So, where are the cars?
- I don't have any real cars for you today.
I have tiny cars for you to see, though.
- Oh! See,
this is where I wanted to go.
When do we go to this?
Wheee!
- All right!
- All right. - Now we’re back at my desk.
- So, what's next?
I mean, you are a delivery manager. - Mm-hmm.
- What does that mean?
- That process where you enter CarMax.com/checkout,
we own that process.
In my position, I'm a software delivery manager.
Basically, I work with different groups of people to make sure that we are
delivering software or releasing software to our ecosystem
in which the customer gets to interface with in a positive fashion.
And those people are?
- The Checkout Team.
I also have our Backend Data Teams that work on these projects.
I also have our Product org, and then of course
our Engineering and Technology.
Aah, see?
You're good at explaining stuff to a five year old.
[MUSIC: Job, Job Hoppers!]
So what do we start? Like,
What's your routine?
How do we get some awesome person in a car?
Typically, my first meeting of the day is a meeting called Stand Up
and in Stand Up,
the team members all go through what they did yesterday,
what they're going to do that day,
and any issues that they might need help with.
So, we typically work off of a board for our team members
to look and see what each other are working on.
So, I keep an eye on all of these cards to make sure
“Hey, are we ready to release to production?”
“Are we ready to actually push the software out?”
- So many chairs...
- Let’s go to ChairMax!
- Hmm...
No.
Emma!
I found it.
I'm not sure if I was supposed to do this,
but I took a quick little look
into the project management,
and I saw “agile” popping all up.
Is that like in regards to agility, like being able to do backflips?
Can you do a backflip?
- I can't do a backflip. - Okay.
- So, agile is a way of thinking about project management.
So if you think about when you're building a house, typically
you need electricity put in before you install a light fixture, right?
- Yeah.
- That is technically called waterfall project management.
So, something has to happen before the next thing can start.
With agile, we're working on all the things all at once,
- Yeah. - I get why you call it agile.
You can all go home.
I will stay here and take care of CarMax.
- Let's say we're good on the backlog.
I would move this to ‘In Progress’.
- Okay. - And then once I'm done with it,
I would just simply move it to the ‘Complete’ column.
- Oh! - So it's sort of
“Build your own taste” for however you want to execute on your team.
- Now that you said taste, organization makes me hungry.
Can we go get lunch?
- Absolutely.
- Really? - Let's go.
- Yes! - Yes!
Can you push me again, please?
- Of course.
- Okay, no need to be aggressive.
Oh, there's bubbles.
[EMMAS GASPS]
[COUGH]
I think I ate a bubble!
How long have you been at CarMax?
- Almost a year and a half.
And I have a promotion under my belt already, which is fantastic.
- Whoo! - Yes!
- So, before, - Yes?
What did you do?
I was a chemist before, actually.
I knew I needed a change.
I didn't love the environment that I was being put in.
And so I did the Google Career Certificate, amongst other things,
and decided to carve my own path, and move over to technology.
How many jobs did you apply for before getting CarMax,
after getting your degree.. a year ago, or two years ago?
Almost two years ago, it was a lot of jobs.
I lost count.
I would get interviews and it was,
“Well, you don't have the tech background.”
I knew my skills were transferable.
I just needed to be able to get into the door.
And it's so interesting,
you said that you brought skills that you had from your previous job,
- Mm-hmm.
- to the new job. - A lot of transferable skills, yeah.
Communication is a big one, especially interpersonal communication
and time management.
[AARON AND EMMA INHALE]
What was your biggest fears or difficulties starting off?
I feel like I walked in with a lot of imposter syndrome.
But honestly, I think the hardest part for me,
and I will always tell people this.
I went from having a bunch of connections
to knowing absolutely no one in technology.
- Starting at zero again?
- Yeah, starting at zero.
- Not going to lie,
I'm starting to fall in love with Richmond.
- I'm in full support of this.
We’re gonna move right there, right next door to this spot.
You know, I could do your job.
Oh, really?
- You think so?
Oh, I know so. - Let's see about that.
- Confidence, all up here. - I’ll be right back.
- I'm just going to take a little nap.
[AARON YAWNS]
[AARON SNORES]
- All right, Aaron. I'm back.
Oh, good.
I've devised a little game for you today,
if you're willing to play.
It's composed of a series of milestones.
These milestones are things that you have heard me talk about today,
the teams that I interact with, and the things that I do on a normal basis.
You need to find each of these milestones
that are hidden throughout CarMax Midtown,
and bring them back to me, and meet me at the podium.
And this is a stepping stone to me selling a car?
Selling an experience, but yes.
A car experience, same thing.
You said it! - It’s all the same thing.
Godspeed.
- You're not going to tell me anything?
- Nope. No hints.
[EMMA LAUGHS]
[AARON GROANS]
Brain, work!
Where am I supposed to g-
Checkout.
Checkout!
Excuse me.
- Oh, yes?
Emma has me on a quest,
and I need to find the checkout department.
- Oh, it's over that way. - This way,
thank you.
You are a good man.
I am looking for the-
Hmn...
Hold on,
back, Backend Data.
It’s back here.
Back here? - Yeah.
- You’re the man.
This way?
Oh! Hi, sorry. Wrong space!
Oh!
Yes!
Okay.
Alright, checkout, then..
Backend Data.
And then what was,
Oh! Product.
Product.
No!
[AARON GROANS]
I have to pee!
Okay.
[AARON SIGHS]
Can you hold this for a second? - Yeah, I gotcha.
[AARON GRUNTS]
- I'm looking for a technology team.
- Our engineering teams, and Technology? - Yes.
-Right over there.
- Thank you.
[BOX RUSTLES]
I got it.
Let’s do it!
Boxes, boxes, boxes!
This is isn't cheating, it's just me looking for boxes.
Coming through!
Project managed.
- Great job.
I'm proud of you.
But, you're still missing one.
[AARON SIGHS]
- No, I’m not. - Yeah, you are.
And I have it.
It's me. I'm the final piece.
That's because nothing gets delivered without going through me first.
So now, it's time to unbox all of your milestones,
and put them all together to make a car.
- A car? - I know.
- I actually get a car? - You get a car.
Okay, let’s do it.
Boom! - Look at you.
- There are directions.
- I don't need directions in life.
Okay.
You finished building the car.
Let's go deliver the experience now.
Go!
[CRASH]
[AARON INHALES]
Countdown, please.
- Three, two, one!
Nice.
[ENGINE SFX]
[CHEERING SFX]
You just delivered your first customer experience.
How does that feel? - I'm tired.
I take back what I said.
Your work takes a lot. Will you help me up please?
- Absolutely.
[AARON GRUNTS] - Thank you Emma!
[MUSIC: Job, Job Hoppers!]
For anyone interested in joining project management,
what piece of advice would you give them?
- I would honestly say make sure you use
all the resources that are available to you on the Internet,
including Google's Project Management Certificate.
I legitimately believe
that it brought me to CarMax today and helped me switch careers.
- Well, thank you so much for having me.
Today has been awesome.
This is my car, right? - Absolutely.
- Just making sure. - You can keep it.
- Okay!
- I have to go get back to work now.
- You don't want to keep playing?
- No, unfortunately, I can't. I'm sorry.
- That's fine.
Everyone always leaves me.
It's okay.
It's made for that. It's off road.
[AARON GRUNTS]
You know,
Emma's a powerhouse.
I mean, you could tell how much she loves doing what she does
just by listening to her.
If I were to take some of that Emma-ish charm
and just apply it to my own life,
I feel like things would be like,
like a lot easier.
But then again, that sounds really hard.
But, know what?
Job completed.
Time to hop on to the next.
[AARON EXHALES]
Why did I come up here again?
[AARON GRUNTS]
Just gonna do this..
We. Are.
[MUSIC: Job, Job Hoppers!]
Okay, where's the exit?