First Day

I've had lots of first days. Tons of first days at school. Dozens of first days at camp. First day of rush/recruitment. First days volunteering at the ASPCA. And today was the 7th time I have been faced with my "first day on the job".

It has to be the loneliest position you can be in. All of my other examples of first days, I had fellow first dayers going through the same thing with me. But all but one of my first days on the job, I have been the only "new kid on the block".

It is so nerve-wrecking! What to wear? What do I bring? What will I be doing? What are the people like? Am I going to fit in? Am I going to like it? What will my workspace be like? What are they expecting out of me?

Miraculously I woke up on my own at 6:30, but decided to snooze a few extra minutes and ended up getting in the shower at 7:15. With all my old jobs, I timed my getting ready routine to the commercial breaks in the Today show. It is like I am permanently programmed to know that when they go to their commercial/local news break just before 8 am I should be heading out the door. So this left me plenty of time to eat breakfast at home instead of in the car and take my time letting Cam out since I didn't have to be there until 9. I LOVE the 9 am start time! It is just perfect!

I got to the office about 8:45 because I didn't want to be late my first day. But when I pulled up in the parking lot I seriously thought they were closed. There were no lights on and no cars in the parking lot. So I sat in my car a few minutes and at 8:55 I decided to venture in.

The door was unlocked, but there appeared to be no one there. Finally a girl came up front and gave me a kind of confused look. I told her who I was there for and that today was my first day. She asked if I had come in the front door and I said yes. She asked if the alarm was going off when I came in and I told her no. She explained that somehow the alarm had been set off by the front door and the police might be on there way so she had to go let them know everything was ok and told me she would send someone out for me.

When a girl from the team I was working on came out, she introduced herself and she said they were confused because they thought I was staring on Tuesday. I told her I had confirmed with S that she wanted me to start at 9 am on July 6th. She said she had to run to the bank really quick and told me she would send J out to get me.

So needless to say it was kind of a rocky start.

J finally came out and gave me a quick tour and showed me my workspace and I started to feel more at ease. He told me that the office manager was on vacation today so S was probably going to bring me along on her home inspection when she got in.

So the rest of the morning I spent going to the home inspection appointment with S. I learned a lot just riding with her and listening to her phone calls (her phone rings a lot!) and also just observing the home inspection and the clients (home buyers can be very particular). She told me stories of some of her clients absurd requests and what neighborhoods she dominated and other general information about her business.

After lunch we sat down and discussed a lot of marketing ideas. What they've done in the past and things they want to try etc. I read over all the marketing materials, looked online at some of the competition, and started to put together a mail plan and a list of marketing pieces that need to be created/updated.

So far everyone is super nice. The office seems a little disorganized and chaotic, but exciting. I feel a little overwhelmed because it wasn't your typical meet with HR (there is no HR) and go over policies and procedures (not sure if there are any) and fill out tons of forms (not one form in sight). So it kind of feels surreal. Am I really working here? What is expected of me?

But tomorrow I will meet the office manager so that should answer some of those questions I have in the back of my head. So far so good. Could this possibly be the one? Will I actually get to mark off #3 on my list and truly love this job?? I guess only time will tell!