Blog 9 – Adjusting.
January 30, 2020
I’ve decided to blog Friday nights so they’ll be larger blogs to fill up a week worth of fun. Starting here: Monday 10am. I was sat in the waiting area and I didn’t really know what to feel; I was a little nervous and a little giddy- unsure of what was going to happen. My new Boss greeted me and I was shown around the place. Kitchen, vending machines and those traditional ‘tech firm’ things like the pool table and the Ping Pong table that have made their way across the pond from Silicon Valley. I was introduced to my future work colleagues and the tour concluded with my desk. A brand new laptop going up to two monitors and a corner window seat looking down a busy Glasgow below- is this the life? It is. It’s my life now, and I can’t complain. I had my first meeting with my boss and she explained the plan of action. The next 5 weeks will be divided week by week into different topics, similar to FDM, where I would learn and practise new skills to complete tasks, slowly building up so I would eventually take on responsibilities within the firm- exciting stuff! I then had the unfortunate task of breaking the news to her that this lovely training plan would be heavily interrupted by doctors appointments and later, surgery. Annoying but fine. And then my week really began. I think the lack of research will heavily impact this statement but: it is vastly underrepresented how massive the ‘adjustment period’ is. Maybe it’s because I’m coming into an associate level, but there is so much to learn first about how the firm operates before you even think about learning about what you’ll actually be doing. There’s an entire process that you’ll be slipping into, going between software and websites and people – so many things that you wouldn’t even think about. To grasp this further, at University you may have something like:
- Receive your assignment
- Write it on word
- Save it to your computer
- Send it to your lecturer
- Upload it to TurnItIn
- Receive your results in eVision
Which if you were to flowchart the software and websites you’d be using it would be: In Person > Word > MacOS > OutLook > TurnItIn > eVision This process has always been quite similar throughout my life. These are the types of software that I’ve used since I was very young- I’m pretty sure I had a Hotmail account before I had a phone. Then, all of a sudden, you have to start again- a new process where each step is replaced with a completely different ’things’ only some of which you’ve actually heard of, let alone used: Jira > P4V > MS SQL Server > Self-Service > M-Space All this is to say, when you get your first job, however much you think you’ll be doing on your first week, it’s probably not that much. So as you can tell, a lot of my week has been learning this process and meeting members of my team while doing so. They say University is the last time you will be around people of a similar age and while that is true I’d say being in a tech firm definitely (and thankfully) knocks off a few decades. They’re all pretty nice, a little quiet, but a lovely bunch. A little research task a day and that’s pretty much me for the old 9-to-5. I was handed my first assignment on Thursday- some simple queries to a database. It was fun- I was engrossed in my little project and the time flew by. This, of course, is an overall summarisation that I came to- the actual process did contain large frustration, swearing and my Boss giving me the wrong dates making the whole thing literally impossible. Regardless, I’m looking forward to what next week brings. As for the knee…not great. I was contacted by the Captains of Alba where I will update him on my lack of playing at trials. I’m adjusting to a new schedule, things should be better on the ‘precovery’ next week, although maybe a little late. Annoying for now, but things will improve after I adjust.