The First Day on the Job
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 18,885
Likes: 33
From: Philly (Narberth)
Originally Posted by DrCloud,Jan 18 2006, 10:17 PM
.....
Listen a lot. Learn the organizational culture before shooting off your mouth. When people want an opinion, tread carefully and maintain the highest possible moral ground. At the same time, don't hesitate to chime in with technical knowledge that others seem to need help with (although do it gently).
And don't forget the new-guy honeymoon period. Milk it for all it's worth. The introductory clause "I'm still pretty new around here, so I probably don't know the whole story, but..." goes a long, long way.
Pehaps most important, watch out for people who try to use you to advance their hidden agendas. Precisely for the reason of that honeymoon clause above, you'll hear half stories that sound good but represent only a small part of the real deal. Don't make alliances until you are certain that you know the whole story.
Most of all, quit worrying about it and have some fun. You'll meet people and promptly forget their names -- for example, in the first big meeting I was in, everyone went around the table and introduced themselves. When they were finished, the first thing I said was "Is there going to be a test?" Everyone resonated with that, and any fallout from my forgetting someone's name was prevented. All sorts of things like this come up, and keeping things light helps a lot. HPH
Listen a lot. Learn the organizational culture before shooting off your mouth. When people want an opinion, tread carefully and maintain the highest possible moral ground. At the same time, don't hesitate to chime in with technical knowledge that others seem to need help with (although do it gently).
And don't forget the new-guy honeymoon period. Milk it for all it's worth. The introductory clause "I'm still pretty new around here, so I probably don't know the whole story, but..." goes a long, long way.
Pehaps most important, watch out for people who try to use you to advance their hidden agendas. Precisely for the reason of that honeymoon clause above, you'll hear half stories that sound good but represent only a small part of the real deal. Don't make alliances until you are certain that you know the whole story.
Most of all, quit worrying about it and have some fun. You'll meet people and promptly forget their names -- for example, in the first big meeting I was in, everyone went around the table and introduced themselves. When they were finished, the first thing I said was "Is there going to be a test?" Everyone resonated with that, and any fallout from my forgetting someone's name was prevented. All sorts of things like this come up, and keeping things light helps a lot. HPH
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 9,027
Likes: 0
From: Bowie
Originally Posted by paS2K,Jan 19 2006, 11:11 AM
These are great tips for anyone, Dr C....even Pre-vints
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 18,885
Likes: 33
From: Philly (Narberth)
Originally Posted by grannyrod,Jan 19 2006, 09:05 AM
.....You always land on your feet, no matter how big the pile. ....
.....And beware of folks who want to warn you about other folks.
[Although there was a big shake-up here about 15 months ago....so the naysayers are already gone 
)
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 18,885
Likes: 33
From: Philly (Narberth)
Originally Posted by grannyrod,Jan 19 2006, 12:14 PM
And where are you now? Surely you're not playing on here while at work in your new job already.
In my intro comments this morning, I already warned them of my sports car vice.....just kept the virtual community a secret
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 18,885
Likes: 33
From: Philly (Narberth)
OK, I am now going to (soon) log off....having been chastised by Senior Grannyrod 
Thanks to all for the 'well wishes' but I really also wanted to hear everyone else's 'first day' recollections....whether good or not so good
Thanks to all for the 'well wishes' but I really also wanted to hear everyone else's 'first day' recollections....whether good or not so good
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 9,027
Likes: 0
From: Bowie
Originally Posted by paS2K,Jan 19 2006, 11:16 AM
Granny, I hope that I have the right image....a pile of leaves and NOT a pile of.....
This is also excellent advice....but this has not happened in my first 1/2 day [Although there was a big shake-up here about 15 months ago....so the naysayers are already gone )
This is also excellent advice....but this has not happened in my first 1/2 day
[Although there was a big shake-up here about 15 months ago....so the naysayers are already gone )
Yeah buddy, you're addicted all right.
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 45,995
Likes: 5,473
From: Loveland, CO
It wasn't my first day, but on some days at my job as a Flight Test Engineer, working in data analysis, on the test flights of the Tomahawk cruisemissile, my more senior engineer guys, would tell me to get the "boilerplate" part of the "Quicklook" report done for the upcoming flights. That way we could just fill in each of the systems performance after the flight. I was 
when hearing this. I didn't know the cruisemissle had a boilerplate 
. I thought it must be part of the submarine that the missile was going to be launched from. I finally figured out "boilerplate" just meant the generic stuff that each report started with, like time of launch, where it was launched, what the missile's name was, etc.
when hearing this. I didn't know the cruisemissle had a boilerplate . I thought it must be part of the submarine that the missile was going to be launched from. I finally figured out "boilerplate" just meant the generic stuff that each report started with, like time of launch, where it was launched, what the missile's name was, etc.
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 18,885
Likes: 33
From: Philly (Narberth)
Originally Posted by Kyras,Jan 19 2006, 02:19 PM
......would tell me to get the "boilerplate" part of the "Quicklook" report done for the upcoming flights. .....
