While the world is now beginning to show signs of opening up, when I joined 7 Communications it was during wave #2. With no end in sight to the stay-at-home orders, I joined my new team remotely. To this day, I have yet to meet my company teammates in person. Honestly not the way I ever would have imagined a new role, but it’s been great.After a rigorous but amazing interview process I was welcomed with holiday gifts last Christmas and stoked to join such a kind, talented and dynamic team. Although I initially had concerns about how remote working would impact my ability to hit the ground running at a new job, the 7 Communications team was super supportive and provided the right equipment and platforms to get the job done.My first week was productive, informative, and engaging. My teammates helped make the onboarding process proceed smoothly while I integrated and acclimatized to the virtual work environment and the company itself. I had virtual coffee chats with a few colleagues from other departments and it was nice to talk to them and find out what they were working on. It was all very surreal, and I quickly felt like a valued member of the team despite having met almost none of them in person. After going through training for the first few weeks, I  had a great feel for the company culture and processes.The introduction of the Slack platform greatly helped with collaboration, gaining insights from all levels of the company, sharing files and engaging with teammates. It’s hard to imagine working without it now! A real downside to working remotely is the lack of physical interaction — the office energy and banter that you can't replace from home. I have also come to accept that one’s personality or intent cannot always be conveyed in the same way over purely audio or video interactions. I do count myself fortunate that although I haven’t met most of my co-workers in person, I always feel valued and part of a greater whole.I expectantly await a time where we all can attend events, collaborate physically and have more meaningful face-to-face interactions but before that, remote working as a part of the 7 Communications Team has been a very rewarding and valuable experience. During my time at 7, my professional growth has been tremendous and I feel will only get better once we get to collaborate together.Until then, I will work remotely to shape success stories for our clients to add to this growing list.