First Day At Office
“Change is the only constant’’ is what everyone says, but there are a few aspects of life that make you feel the same way always, like the tingling joy with the first rain after summers or, the smell of a new book or, the smile after listening to a Taylor Swift song. Similarly, there is one thing that has still not changed for me — the nerve-racking fear of a first day.
I am sure you remember the first day in your new school when you had to walk inside a classroom knowing that seventy pairs of eyes are staring at you, thinking about you, analyzing your every move, wondering what kind of a person you are — and you have to walk past all those people, to find a place to sit.
And the only thing that has changed in this scenario for me is, instead of school it has now become any new company that I join. Yes, I’m not a 16-year-old but a millennial IT professional.
But I am sure I’m not alone in feeling this way, and if you resonate with me, read on to know about my first day.
I recently switched to my current company, Knowledge Lens on 18th Oct 2021– I can distinctly remember the day, thanks to the butterflies which kept me very aware of every detail around me.
Well, like any responsible professional, I wanted to reach the office at least half an hour prior to the expected time, but it seemed like the universe woke up and decided, ‘life has been too boring for Pradnya, let’s add some spice.’ I couldn’t find a single mode of transportation, no Ola, no Uber, or bus in spite of me living in a very well-connected space.
I stood at the entrance of my society, with a confused face not knowing what to do next. New place, new job, new language and the possibility of being late on the very first day of office. Well, it’s no surprise that the next step was a state of panic for me.
Just when I was about to curse my luck for hanging me out to dry, I caught sight of a girl standing across from me, waving at me, with a big warm smile. She turned out to be my onboarding HR. My mind started to race at a thousand miles an hour as to how I could converse with her, but thankfully, she took care of that part. Miraculously, she was able to get us an auto-rickshaw, and even though the distance to cover was a little over 2km, it felt like we had been traveling for ages, probably due to the wave of nervousness that had hit me.
We finally reached and my HR made sure to walk with me till we were inside and introduce me to a couple of my to-be colleagues. This really helped me ease my mind. And the next thing that I saw soothed me a bit more. There were three more clueless, nervous faces like mine, sitting and scanning the floor. I sat down with them and we smiled at each other. I think things don’t seem so scary when you know there are others in the same boat as you.
The next part of the induction was to fill some forms and our senior HR made things so easy with her cool and calm tone, explaining everything, twice or thrice, without any hesitation or being annoyed as we did end up asking the same questions. It was exciting knowing about the KL family in this induction process and it was amazing to see the company’s tremendous growth over the last few years.
The process did not end here as the next step was to understand our responsibilities and the role we will be playing in this company; this was taken care of by our Lead. He walked us through the technical part and made sure everyone interacted actively and spoke about their interests in technology. Talking about my expectations gave me a strong feeling that this journey was going to be fun!
After all the formalities, I sat down to take it all in and looked around the office. I could see some of the people looking at us, probably recalling their experience of the first day. I noticed there were no individual cabins in the office giving it a free, open vibe which I loved.
Then I blinked.
It has now been almost two months since that day and now I enter the office with a big bright smile! The 2km distance to the office seems just a few steps away, thanks to the amazing company on the way.
Each day is full of surprises, be it in terms of learning or making new connections. And the best part is, the faces that I met on the first day are now a part of my journey, guiding me in my intellectual growth, making sure I’m comfortable with the new setting, and in turn helping me grow as an individual.
Yes, the first of anything can seem overwhelming, but all you need to remember is to get through it one day at a time. I’ll leave you with this quote:
Starting a new job can be nerve-racking, but it’s also exciting. You are embarking on a new future, positioning yourself to write a fresh story on a clean slate — Adena Friedman
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