Two things. First of all, news:
quote.yahoo.com
Looks like 3 stories came out at the end of the day, all about the same thing: a 15.2 million dollar Navy contract.
Second thing: I'd never heard of TRO Learning until today when I was faxing out resumes to a large list of companies my wife had compiled (I'm a self-employed computer consultant looking to become less *self*-employed for many reasons).
One of the resumes went to the local (Kansas City) office of TRO Learning.
They called me this morning and, after a lengthy conversation, I was asked in this afternoon for an interview.
I'll give you my impression from an investor's standpoint, combined with a few job-related comments.
First, I got the distinct impression that this is a company that is growing *very* rapidly. There is a substantial backlog of PLATO installs stacked up and I was interviewing for a "TES" position, which is essentially the person who goes out to client sites and gets everything up and running. Keeping in mind that I have only seen the surface, it was my impression that they barely had enough people to keep up with the demand, and that the resulting stress was causing too much turnover. I'd love to know just how much it costs to bring a TES up to speed, and what the turnover picture really is.
The growth is a double-edged sword. Of course, there's the increased revenue, but with it comes growing pains.
I was struck by the similarities to a previous job I'd taken. Primarily that it was almost out of hand and the best that anyone could expect was to keep their head above water, hoping that relief would come some day, but too swamped to *make* relief happen. Issues I could see on the surface were easily solved, but everybody appears to be too "up to their armpits in alligators" to be able to devote energy to draining the swamp.
I got the feeling that they are aware that they'll soon have to deal with it head-on. It's not what I'd call a terrible problem at present, but has the potential to become one, especially with business increasing. I've spent some time this evening writing down suggestions for dealing with some of these issues head-on so the job of the TES will be more predictable and less stressful, and the time between a client placing their order and getting up and running could be reduced, or at least not increased as things get more hectic.
It appears that the skill set required for this position is such that it isn't very easy to find people who not only have all of the required skills, but are willing to deal with this much stress and travel, and will work for the salary offered.
My overall take on the company is that they are indeed growing rapidly. Outside of the single aspect of the company I was shown for interviewing purposes, I can't speak for their ability to deal with this growth. The overall feel, was a familiar one of a company that was practically bursting at the seams with new growth, but had to be careful to not let the growth overwhelm them.
Personally, if I weren't 100% invested already, I'd be loading up on this one. It is an *exciting* company, and is working at a very high level of energy I like to see in companies whose stock I own.
If I go to work for them, I won't post here anymore. However, it doesn't look too likely at this point. While the pay does look good for a software-installation position, it's not quite what I'm used to as a programmer. Too bad, because it looks like a very exciting place to be at an exciting time. Even more so if I could be given the opportunity to help make the post-sales activities more efficient.
BTW, I alluded to a backlog of installs. It's important to point out that, though it appeared to be more of a backlog than I'd personally be comfortable with, it didn't appear to even be close to an amount that would endanger future sales. Looks like there's still quite a bit of room there. |
