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01/02/2006: "First Day Jitters"

As I started this blog halfway through the KTP project we need to take a trip into the past where we will find a younger, more naive me.
I turned up for my first day at AppSwing all bright eyed and bushy tailed. I don't think anyone can fully prepare for their first experience at work after being in academia since childhood. I have done my fair share of summer jobs but they didn't seem to take it out of me like my first week at AppSwing. Maybe it was because they were not as mentally taxing, or maybe it was because they were more physically demanding so I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, rather than thinking about what needs to be done tomorrow (this is no longer a problem, I sleep like a log). What ever it was by the end of the first week at AppSwing I was walking around like a zombie.
I am by nature a shy person, although I found out I may over compensate for this as Neil Thompson (CTO of AppSwing) mentioned that I strutted into the interview and came across as very sure of myself (I think his actual words were arrogant). This self assured persona is only skin deep unfortunately, I walked into the office on my first day and saw all these new faces look up at me; I just wanted to walk back out. I managed to control the flee or fight impulse and settled down at my new desk and got stuck into familiarising myself with what I will be doing for the next two years. Neil and the rest of the team gave me a lot of support, my first week was quite well planed before I got there so I was eased into my project and working life nice and slowly.
I think the hardest part to get used to was the meetings and reviews. For university projects, you just get on with your work, do some planning at the beginning and then just get stuck in, write a document at the end if you really have to. You are the designer, manager, programmer, tester, and generally the end user.
When working in a company this is not good enough, everything needs to be discussed and agreed before anything is coded. Documentation needs to be written and you need to have everything you do reviewed to make sure there are no mistakes. This has almost become second nature now but to start with it was very alien.
I feel I have settled into the team nicely, and get on with everyone here. AppSwing is a really nice place to work.