While I have only been there for a grand total of four days, I must say that my experience at The Motley Fool to this point has been outstanding. When asked by a new person throughout the course of our training for an introduction, I have said every single day that The Fool is my favorite job ever. I think my fellow WDPers from Cohort 2 are becoming slightly annoyed with this sentiment, so I may only do it every week or so. However, there are a few things that have made my experience at The Fool worthwhile to this point and keeps me looking forward to the rest of this little program.

1. People: All of the people that I have met in my short time at TMF have been extremely pleasant. I think it must be against the rules or something to have a bad attitude. Everyone is friendly and willing to share their knowledge and experience, which bodes well for the rest of the program. These are the same people that will be helping us to discover and develop our writing voice, so it is great that everyone is willing to share their experiences. Finally, there is a diverse pool of employees at TMF, with varying backgrounds, which really helps create the culture, which leads me to my second point…

2. Fool Culture: TMF definitely is different from any other place that I have been, let alone worked. I feel over-dressed on a nearly daily basis with everyone walking around in shorts and flip flops. Granted, if I had a decent pair of shorts, I would probably be joining them, but it still is taking some getting used to. At my most recent job before this, wearing jeans was almost forbidden, and the few days that I didn’t have a collared shirt on were often looked down upon.

What people wear to work is a small part of the culture, however. TMF’s mission statement is “To Educate, Amuse, and Enrich,” and thus far, every one of the full-time employees I have met seem to have embraced this. Also, every single person here in Alexandria, from us temporary WDPers to the head honchos Tom and David Gardner, have the same size work space. No big fancy office for the CEO here. Add to that free snacks from Whole Foods, discounted vending machines, a game room, activities outside the office (like going to a DC United game this week) and so many other things, TMF truly is a wonderful place to be.

3. Writer’s Development Program: The last thing I want to touch on briefly is the actual reason for me being at TMF. While we are only four days in, I have learned more in four days about investing than I have over that past 18 months when I truly started caring about the market. I actually look forward to going to our classes, as all of our “instructors” have been knowledgeable, whether we are discussing the history of The Fool, the editorial process, or discussing business models that will help us down the road as contract writers. This all goes back numbers one and two, but every day there are moments where I stop and wonder when my dream will end.

Beyond what I am learning, I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the other five “Fools-in-training” from my cohort: Molly, Tamara, John, John, and Alex. As mentioned in number one above, we all come from different places and have had different experiences. We are from various places in the country, have done various things in our lives, and all happened upon TMF in different ways. I look forward to learning with and from these people over the next 24 weeks, and after that following them as we all publish super fancy articles on Fool.com.

The Motley Fool has been good to me so far, and even now, after a mere four days, I am sad that it will all end in December. However, I know that my relationship with TMF will last for as long as they will let me, as I truly enjoy everything about the place. I hope that I will continue to learn from the great people at TMF and that I will truly be able to “Educate, Amuse, and Enrich” for many years to come. This is really in line with what my personal mission statement is (though I can’t find reference to it here on this blog) and hopefully I will be able to do so.

Next blog will be the first in a series about me trying to lose some weight. Until then…