Starting a New Job - Again

by Helen

I think I should document the beginning of my professional life after business school. It’s easy
to forget that I once upon a time was in the working world already and am now back to it after a two year break. Having said that, it is hard to remember the feeling of being lost and overwhelmed that comes with starting a new job. It is humbling and exciting and traumatizing all at the same time.

For context, I am working at a “small” software company in Redmond. The last company I worked for grew from 10 to 30 people while I was there and many of us weren’t sure if it would survive the cultural shift (it did). I don’t remember how long it took me to ramp up, but it definitely
wasn’t immediate and the game changed with every client and project. While there I always felt that my work was important: it was helping somebody get elected to do good things for his/her country, district, and people.

So here are the top 10 things that are interesting/weird about the place I work:

1. Every Monday is a new employee orientation. While the company is mature, on the day when
   I started, 124 other people started with me.
2. When you get an email from anyone you don’t know, the first thing you do is look them up in the org chart.
3. You think of revenues and costs in at least millions.
4. 15 minutes is the minimum amount of time you need to travel across campus to get to a meeting, it could take up to 40 minutes on the shuttle.
5. During the month of October, the company focuses on employee giving with lots of events that happen during that month to encourage participation. I ran the 5k…with 2000 other people who work for the same company.