The big news is that today, after three weeks of downtime at home, I returned to the ranks of the gainfully employed!

My new commute is slightly annoying, mostly because I’m based at Olympic Park (when I’d hoped to be based at Darling Harbour). So I have to take the train, and it costs twice as much as the bus. But the actual train ride itself is only 20 minutes, and I’m going against peak traffic in both directions so it’s easy and not crowded at all. I’m also getting a little bit of exercise on the 15 minute walk to/from the station. So really, it’s not that bad. I’ve just been spoiled working in the city for the last 4 years and essentially being able to walk to work.

The offices are pretty darn nice. I’m a little disappointed I don’t get to work at the new FUTURISTIC office, but this one is only slightly older and it’s still pretty schmick. And hey, last month I had 3 days at my old job with NO ELECTRICITY. Look on the bright side, right?

I spent my entire first day just “onboarding” – getting introduced to the team and the company, learning where the fire escapes are, setting up my passwords on everything, etc. Tomorrow I think I’ll be doing more of that, likely with a big helping of “elearning” as well. There are a lot of acronyms and processes to learn, but thankfully nobody seems to expect me to pick them all up instantly. My manager told me it took him a couple months to feel at home with everything. That was reassuring.

The culture shock is pretty big, but I don’t think it’s bad. I think it’s less about “corporate” stuffiness and more just about the fact that it’s a massive company. It’s literally hundreds of times larger than any place I’ve ever worked for. I spent like 20 minutes cumulatively today trying to figure out what actual department I’m in. (For the record, it’s Enterprise Services – which is basically internal I.T. – and then Implementation and Process Delivery. I think. I saw a lot of acronyms that I’m still deciphering.) Everybody has been friendly though, and nobody asked me to fill out a TPS report. (Yet.) My new clothes fit in just fine – though I’ll admit I was skeptical when I saw several people come through the lobby this morning dressed in jeans. (They weren’t on my floor though, which makes me think they may be the developers.)

Mostly I’m just trying to hang in there, stay positive, and not to give in to imposter syndrome. They hired me because they think I’ll be an asset, dammit! I told the Snook tonight: I need to stop thinking about it as a job, because a job is something you have to worry about messing up. Instead it feels more like starting college. I’m going to Corporate BA School, and I’m going to learn a lot of marketable skills that will give my career a massive boost, and the best part is that they actually pay me to go! So I’m lucky, and it’s all worked out so far, and nothing is ruined, and it’s all going to be good.

But they lock down the Internet pretty damn hard, so I doubt you’re going to get much blogging/tweeting from me during work hours for the foreseeable future!