My First Week

I've officially been at my new job for a full week. The transition has been harder than I expected. The first three days in particular were very difficult and I found myself constantly doubting if I made the right decision. I can admit it, I even cried a little bit on Wednesday night.

Looking back I now understand why the first three days were so hard:

• I changed careers. Because I am still in education I didn't really think this job was a change in careers. Instead, I felt as if it was a shift in focus, but now I understand it really was a career change. I went from working at a university to a small for-profit company. I'm learning a new culture and language of being at a corporation and trying to let go of all the knowledge of university work, culture and life.
• I went from being really good at my job to knowing nothing. I was at my previous job for over five years and had become kind of a go-to person. I knew who handled what and how to get things done. I'm starting all over. Not only do I have to figure out the basics of a new job, but I have to learn the software that I am eventually going to support. I went from being a super productive person to not being able to do any actual work. I've spent my first week just learning as much as possible, and while that has been good I hate that there is very little actual work that I can do. 
• It is more technical then I thought it would be. I did not expect the job to be as technical as it is turning out to be. I have always been really good with technology, but I don't have a technical background. In fact, I was an English major. Everything is new and different and I don't have a background in the technology so I feel as if I am drinking from a fire hose. 
• I don't really have a boss. My team doesn't have a manager at the moment so I'm reporting to the president. It is looking very unlikely that I will get to sit down with him. I was hoping to have someone to sit down with to help me figure out what is expected of me in these first few weeks while I learn the software. While everyone in the company and on my team is super nice and helpful, I do feel a bit lost. I'm probably feeling it more so because my previous boss was amazing and I miss working with her every day. In a perfect world my first week would have been more in line with this. To be fair, my colleagues are great and are trying, but sometimes you just need direct guidance from a boss.  

Things got a bit better on Thursday:

• I got some training on the system. I finally got some real training on one of the systems and was able to go into the demo site to play around. I learn best by doing. I spent the first three days reading all the support manuals, and it was a relief to finally be able to use the system and play around. After playing around in the system for two days I already feel that eventually I'll know how to do my job.
• I sat down with a senior member of the team. This was particularly helpful as she helped explain some of the culture and politics of the company. I also left that meeting feeling like I had someone who I could ask questions about the company that were not specific to my job.
• I found out a person in the same position as me does not have a tech background either. This was a huge revelation that made me feel 100 times better. If he could become comfortable with everything I have a chance. 

So it is going okay. I like to think that I'm pretty good at change, but this has been harder than I expected. I said I wanted a new challenge and now I have plenty.