it's been a great day!

I had an awesome day. I had a meeting this morning with one of our largest customers. I've been working on a database for them since January. A database is never a completed project, what with the data entry and the tweaking of queries and reports, but it seemed like I would never get to a point where my customer was happy with it at all.

Well, one day last month, I finally presented the database to the company. It seemed to have gone over really well, and I was asked if I would be willing to come back when certain people got back from vacation, and do an actual presentation of the database. I did that this morning.

I thought I would be presenting it to two or three people. When I first got to the customer's place of business, I talked to the head of the purchasing department, and he gave me a few ideas about some changes he wants. Then he took me to a conference room, which was no big deal, I knew we needed to use a projector. However, people kept showing up. In the end, there was about 12 people present--all of the purchasing department, and the entire IT department. I actually sat at the head of the table and did my thing.

The really cool part?? The customer is actually using my database as a catalyst to get the IT department to make some changes to their quote system. When everything is in place? They are going to make the rest of their suppliers use my database, or one very similar to it, for pricing/quoting anything and everything that the customer purchases.

Is that not the coolest thing? I know that I got used in a slight way, I mean, for something like this, the customer should have actually outsourced the project and should have been charged mega-money. I know this, I understand this. However, seeing as how this was my first database ever, I feel this has given me some very valuable experience in database building and administration. My plant manager does not understand how valuable this has made me as an employee. My boss, however, will be in town tomorrow and I shall have a talk with him about everything.

I love going over and visiting with this customer. I actually feel like they respect me, and that is totally awesome. I get treated as an equal, and they listen to the answers I have to their questions. It might sound stupid to some people, but I've had a really rough time the last two years, and this makes me feel so confident about myself and my abilities. And hey, if worse comes to worse and I piss the wrong person off, I know that I can always get a job with this customer, or anywhere else, as long as I set my mind to it.

It's been a great day. And what makes it even better is the fact that it's one day closer to Friday.