90 days into the new gig

After seven years working for the same company (one that was bi-polar, slowly dying on the vine), I started a new gig at the end of April (a company that is growing lightning fast with maybe an ache or pain or two). The process to get here was long and arduous -- I had to fight a bit for it -- but I landed and I can honestly say I feel invigorated -- mainly because the role I am in now is the first of its kind, and I've long felt that I do best when I am allowed the opportunity to carve my own niche and find and manage work in my own way. Some people have said "I don't envy you, because you get all the problems and then the outcome of some of them are beyond your direct control." Truth is, I see myself as a translator. Not between actual languages but nuances of our own language. Engineers speak in one nuance, salespeople and customers and customer service reps speak in others. And each group has its own repository of information where they log their daily work - and I have access to all of it, a whiff of the omniscient narrator, perhaps, which is a rare position to be in. In some ways, I hope to be a diplomat, to help each group gain a better understanding of the others, and I am learning a ton in the process. Along the way the goal is to help people solve a problem or find a solution (depending on how you view the 1/2 glass). But it's also about managing relationships, helping shape expectations, and also rolling up my sleeves for a little grunt work which I don't mind. I feel lucky to have been given a lot of leeway to do my job as I see fit -- I do not have to spend a lot of time telling people what I'm doing, I can spend that time actually doing it. Although I am among the older side in age in this group, I am not made to feel that way. I don't know if that's because I don't come off as being that much older, or I'm just a late bloomer. I'm feeling this way because I just had my first quarterly review, and there were no negatives except that I may have to be nudged to say no to a few things in due course. I am also just happy to know that even in moments of self doubt, complacency and a fear of advancing age, I can still shake some shit up.