First Day
Ok, I have to make this a brief entry seeing as I’m already up way too late (adjusting to getting up early really sucks), but I felt pretty obliged to update after my first day on the job after all the diary build-up.
Overall, the first day was something of a mix – it was pretty exhausting and stressful for me, especially going on such little sleep. My first assignment was to a bank audit team, and if you’re wondering to yourself “Hmm, I wonder what a bank audit team does,” don’t worry, I’m still wondering the exact same thing! I was given absolutely no training on how to do anything and I’m mostly being asked to do tasks while being told to “ask questions, we’re here to help you,” but the problem is I know nothing about what I’m doing, so what I really need isn’t questions answered – I need to be walked through the entire process and then maybe on the next audit I will actually be able to do productive work. And, seriously, this isn’t me being self-deprecating, I could easily do the stuff, I just need someone to legitimately show me how to do it first, not just throw it all at me and say “Ok, let us know if you have questions!” Everyone has to be taught. I don’t know anything about bank audits (and there’s no reason they should assume that I would).
I don’t want to be too sour on the job though, because there were aspects of it I liked. I interacted with a lot of people at the bank we were auditing and I should definitely get to know my fellow auditors very well. Also, even though I definitely had no clue what I was doing, the workers at the bank we were auditing didn’t know that, so they were amusingly nervous dealing with me and hoping that they answered all my questions right. It was right funny, all these bank workers trying to meet my commands and asking me “Is this document satisfactory?!” when I’m clueless to what I’m even asking them or what the document they’re giving me even means!
Still, I admit, there is definitely a certain satisfaction in doing something real – something that isn’t just hypothetical academic work. The problem is that it counts more if I’m screwing it up.
Matt, I think that with every new job there is similar frustration. I don’t know many people who were walked through tasks. You’re doing fine, I promise. Though since my only job was at a used bookstore I’m not sure if my thoughts count. xoxoxoxoxoxoxox
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Matty darling! I’m sad that I didn’t get to chat with you today, my computer was driving me nuts so I turned it off for a little while, only to come back and find that you’d written an entry in my absence and surely would have been available for chatting. Le sigh. I think you should speak up when you need to know how to do something, or else you’re going to get yourself in a mess one of these days. ^_^
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I completely understand your feelings. Teaching at the school I am at is much the same…they expect you to know how to do all the paperwork without any explination or guidance. How do you ask a question when you don’t know where to even begin? Good luck with everything, you will do wonderful once you have guidance I’m sure.
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ah..yes. Good luck with that.
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Oh, Matt. I’m hoping we can talk about this over the phone. 400 characters is too frustrating to try to talk about this here. Love you!
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Apparently that’s just how it is these days. No actual training except by doing and obviously you’ll get it eventually. Because even if they train you, it’s all going to be different when it gets to be the actual work anyway and you’ll have to “relearn” all that on the job anyway… ~I’ll be
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What I mean is, we do register training on a computer at Belk and even if you ace all that, the real life aspect of the exact same training is totally foreign. Anyway, just ask stuff along the way like, “Why are we doing this?” or “Why is that paper important?” or whatever and pick up little hints as you go. Yay Real World! ~I’ll be
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I can’t believe they just threw you into a situation like that. I mean, some training would have been pretty helpful, it seems. I hope things get better, and you are intelligent, so I’m sure you’ll pick up on it quickly. Good luck!
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That’s how I felt at my first internship when I interviewed personal shoppers at Saks and Nordstorms. The manager told me her shoppers were nervous because they had never spoken to a journalist before. Who me? I had no idea what I was doing and felt like I was playing dress up in my mom’s clothes.
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“Right funny” you Southern boys are too cute.
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