Today was the first day of my next career. I have to admit, it was a strange feeling that I haven’t had in a long time. Everyone knows those first day jitters, be it in a new school or job. Just those butterflies about what’s new and different.
New faces, new places.
But everyone I met was exceptionally friendly. I think I will fit in just fine. I did bring 4 dozen Krispy Kremes to bribe my way to a leg up in people’s minds. You gotta do what ya gotta do.
Of course, my first day didn’t exactly come off without a hitch due to a combination of issues.
Apparently a developer left the company yesterday, and he had a desk by the windows. Thus, there was a seniority rule in effect for anyone who wanted to sit there.  All this shifting could cause a cascade of desk moves, so exactly where I would sit was up in the air.
But the bigger issue was that the PC they ordered for me was on backorder. It was supposed to arrive today, but somehow got delayed until tomorrow.  So, I had nothing to work on, nor anywhere to do it… but everything should come together tomorrow.
Basically, my day went like this. I got there about 8:45 after making the Krispy Kreme run and after a quick loop around the office, it was time to get down to all the paperwork. Who doesn’t love paperwork anyway? After getting that all finished, I met with some of the tech people for a bit. Then, Mike, the tech manager, pretty much said that I could bug out if I wanted to, since there wasn’t much for me to do. I figured I might as well, since I didn’t want to keep anyone else from their work by entertaining me. So, I left about 10:30 with plans to return at 3pm for the tech team meeting.
That meeting took all of 30 minutes, so all in all I “worked” just over 2 hours today… and that was STILL more than I had to do at HP.
Tomorrow, I’m heading in at noon (as they need to have time to receive and setup my PC).  Whew… all this work is really taxing!
A few more post HP thoughts.
I have to say, it is now quite strange to drive past HP and realize that I no longer work there. Just a very odd feeling. Also, another odd feeling was to be technically unemployed for an entire weekend. I mean, the last time that happened was in 1994 when I was laid off from the law firm runner position before I started delivering pizzas for Pizza Hut. Thats a long time. I suppose, technically it is only the second time since I started working at the age of 16 to not currently be employed, and that was when I quit Nu Look Car Wash in the last few months of my senior year to be able to enjoy those festivities. Of course, I started working immediately after graduation.
I have to admit, I feel a bit odd about not working today or tomorrow morning, despite the fact that this is no fault of my own. Damn this pesky work ethic!
Anyway, I’m off and running in Wirestone’s corral. Granted, I didn’t exactly shoot from the gates at top speed, but I will get there soon enough.