Valuable Lessons From My First Week At My Job

Can I just say that the rainy season in Nigeria came with full force. I never used to check the weather app on my phones, but now I do so as many times as I can.

IT’S BEEN RAINING SINCE BEFORE I WOKE UP!

Anyway, for those who follow up on my blog posts know, I started a new job on the 3rd of July, and for those who don’t, you can catch up here.

It’s been a week of meeting new people, waking up early, going to bed without dinner (because i’m pretty tired), access to unlimited internet (whoop, whoop), and a whole lot of other things.

Thankfully, I have my own personal, beautiful, purple, touch screen, Windows 10, hp laptop given to me by the office. I hope i’ll be able to chip in a blog post from work once in a while.

In the first one week at my new job, I have learnt some pretty valuable lessons that I believe can be of use to others out there. I’ll be sharing these lessons with you, and I do hope you enjoy them.

First Impressions Matter –

It’s your first week at your new job, so you should know that you have to make a really good impression.

For the first two days at work, I came to work pretty early (I found a shorter, and less expensive route to work). Although, everyone else was coming by some minutes to 8am, or even past 8, I knew I just had to create a wonderful first impression (call me an eye service executive ∞, lol).

Apart from coming early to work, things you can do to create your wonderful first impression include: asking smart questions, giving useful suggestions, being polite to everyone (even the cleaner!), and a host of other things.

Dress The Way You Want to Be Addressed-

My office is one of those really cool places that can allow you wear denim pants and a t-shirt on Monday, so I can literally get away with dressing how I want.

But what I decided to do was to dress formally on Mondays through Wednesdays, then my Thursdays and Fridays will be for my denim pants, sandals, sleeveless tops (which i’ll probably regret because of the air-conditioner), t-shirts, and any other laid back outfit I choose to wear.

If you work in one of those places that you have to be suited up all through the week, then i’d advised you to dress the way you want to be addressed. Want to be addressed respectfully? Dress the part. Want to be addressed with disrespect and disdain? Dress like a skrep (Nigerian slang for ‘unruly’ or ‘unkept’).

Write Out Your Tasks for the Day and Work With Them-

Since I was doing most of the tasks I was assigned for the first time ever, I became swamped with too many things. I would start something, then cut into it with another task, and bring in something else later.

I don’t think I can properly explain how confused this left me to my readers.

I then decided to write down the tasks assigned me at the beginning of each work day and tackle each task one after the other.

This worked perfectly, and I now have my thoughts in one place unlike before when they were all over the place.

Observe Your Work Environment-

Whenever I get into a new place, I like to observe my environment. I do this by closely observing the attitude and behavior of each of my co-workers, seeing how the chain of command works, closely reading through company policies, asking questions when necessary and just being generally inquisitive.

This causes me to be pretty quiet during the first few days, but once I get the information I require, I adjust and airbrush the way I will act towards co-workers.

This will prevent people from seeing you finish (Nigerian slang for ‘taking you for granted’), and you’ll know how to handle situations that may arise.

Don’t Kill Yourself-

On Friday, I had to prepare a Powerpoint presentation on some new products for which we had an online training on Thursday.

Mind you, this product was from a very top pharmaceutical company in India, and the slides were to be distributed within the company and also to customers, so I knew I had to put in my 150% effort.

I WOULD LIKE TO ADD HERE THAT I DO NOT WORK REALLY WELL UNDER PRESSURE.

The frustrating thing was that the slides had to be ready before the close of work on Friday (5pm), and I was told to start preparing the slides at about 2pm.

That wasn’t a lot of time, because I was working on over 10 products and I had to go into detail on each of them.

So, i’m there with my temperature rising, and my head pounding when my team leader tells me “don’t kill yourself IQ, life is too short please”. 

So I pause and go downstairs to eat my fried rice, coleslaw, curry sauce and beef (we get free lunch on Fridays, and free breakfast every other day), and when I return upstairs to complete the slides, I discover that i’m much more relaxed and can think properly.

I got the slides done before 5!

The lesson here is that you should never let yourself get too occupied and ignore the fact that you have to look after yourself.

If you have time for office breaks, please do use them. Take time out for short rests. If you have to listen to music to calm your nerves, please do that.

Don’t kill yourself, life is too short!

So far, it’s  been just a week i’ve spent, and I must say that being exposed to new information and new challenges has been rewarding.

I’ve learnt so many things I had no idea about before, and i’ve been able to contribute to existing information.

Hopefully, at the end of the month, I will have a new, revised list of the valuable lessons I have learnt from my new job.

If you have any lesson(s) you wish to share with me, please do feel free to include them in the comment box below. I  would love to read them.

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

P.S: If you’re wondering about the featured image, I recently got a hang of hula-hooping, and I feel good.

 

With love ♥

Ihuoma.