First Day of Work- What are good signs? What are bad signs?

The new company I work for is much larger than my previous.  I'm sure the company isn't perfect, but from my impressions on the first day... I'd say it's a good place to work.

Why?

1. My manager walked me around the company showing me the layout, introducing me to everyone.  (This is in spite of the fact that he had walked me around the company during our interview 3 weeks ago.)
2. The company has a checklist for the manager to go through for new employee orientation, to make sure that the new employee has all the basics covered.
3. The entire company's process' and forms are available on an intra-website. 
4. My manager spent at least 1 or 2 hours going over the product road map with me.  He says that he will probably spend an entire morning in the near future to teach me their design philosphy.
5. The VP of software spent at least 30 minutes talking to me about the industry technology, their competitors, and showing me a tour of the company. (Yes, it was pretty much the same tour my manager took me on. But still, it shows that they want me to integrate and become comfortable as soon as possible.)
6. A few coworkers even made conversation with me or dropped by my cube to say "hi" and told me that the company had a very low turn-over rate.
7. IT seems to have a good inventory of all the software tools that engineering needs.

My last company was a nice place to work when I first started.  But in the last year or two, it had really gone down hill.  No one bothered to say "hi" to the new people because things were so unstable. For example: during the last round of restructuring, a process engineer (who had just been brought on 6 months ago) was let go.  And also, a lot of the installation CD's for the software tools were all missing which made building a new development system very difficult.

A few bad signs that I noticed, but am not too concerned about.

1. My manager complained that upper management never lets him properly develop software. Even in the most recent product, they want to just dump existing 15 year old code base onto the new platform.  Obviously that is not a good thing to do in the long run.  This is what my old company did... and it was very difficult maintaining that spaghetti logic.  It seems like it is a common problem anywhere in a marketing driven company.  I hope my manager is able to win the fight and get the product developed correctly.

All in all, I'm quite optimistic about my new company.

How I spent my week off

Like most moms, I have a laundry list of chores waiting to be done.  So imagine my glee when I scheduled myself a 1 week break between my old job and my new job.  I imagined myself working out like a fiend and maybe cooking up a feast, and of course practicing my android programming.  But I forgot that I only have 10 or so free hours before it's time for Aria to come home.  Here's what actually went down:

MON: The following chores were all accomplished using my bike for transportation!

• Gym! 
• Dropped off my pants to be hemmed. According to my friend, too-long pants that are rolled up are categorized as mommy pants and I refuse to wear mommy pants to my new job. 
• Checked out THREE discount clothing stores for clothes for my daughter. The hand-me-downs from her cousins are starting to run low. 
• Went to the super market to apply for a new membership card
• Cleaned the house
• Planted seeds of basil, parsley and lettuce mix.

TUE:

• Drop off hazardous waste (batteries, cfls, and other electronics) at the county hazardous waste facility.
• Return christmas gifts for store credit. 
• Met my mentor for lunch. 
• Cleaned the house 
• Went jogging

WED:

• Disneyland!  (We decided to get annual passes.)  The new Star Tours ride is AWESOME!  It was so good that it brought tears to my eyes.  And then my husband got motion sickness so we had to return home. We were only there for 4 hours.  But it's okay because we got annual passes and I see us going there with Aria on Sunday afternoons at least 20 more times in the future.
• Napped for 2 hours
• Washed the diapers (yes, we sometimes use cloth diapers)
• Picked stuff up from Costco
• Cleaned the house

THURS:

• Went jogging
• Picked up my hemmed pants
• Got the carpet cleaned using a groupon
• Had a lunch date with my husband at bluewater grill using a groupon
• Bought something for my brother. 
• Planted tomatoes and snow peas in my container garden
• Cleaned the house some more
• Laundry
• Cooked corned beef brisket and quinoa for my friends

FRI:

• Cleaned the house
• Took our very first family portraits using a groupon
• Filed our Taxes (almost done)
• Gave Aria a bath. It's awful of us, but we only give her a bath once or twice a week. She really doesn't get too dirty so I don't really see the point of it.

Well the weekend is finally here, I have 2 more days to enjoy before I start my new job. So what do I have to look forward to on Saturday and Sunday?

SAT:

• Choose out family portrait shots (ran late on Friday couldn't wait to choose the photos)
• Wedding at 2PM, Reception at 6PM

SUN:

• Church in the morning
• Church fundraiser for lunch
• Have dinner with ex-worker and fiancee

 Looking back at the list of things I've accomplished, I feel that I might have wasted my time.  Sure my house hasn't been this clean in 5 years, and a lot of my chores are done... but I am exhausted!  Isn't the point of time-off to relax?   My husband has also been pulled into my whirlwind of errand running and chore finishing.  He said to me: "I need a vacation from your days off."  

Well, I'm going to try my best to relax these next 2 days. I will not add anything else to my to-do list... except maybe to go the gym. But man... I need to prepare food for the rest of the week... and grocery shopping needs to be done.  And that big brick of frozen tilapia needs to be defrosted before I can make anything out of it.  Argh~  I'm so tired.  All I wanted to do on my week off was relax and I ended up being an errand running machine.

Work Advice from a Manager

I'm on a bit of a blogging spree, because I have a bit of free time and I wanted to reflect on what I've learned before I dive into my new job on Monday.

On my last day at work, I asked my manager if he could give me some advice for my next job.  (I'm a smart cookie, and I made sure to leave with all my bridges intact!)  This is what he told me:

1. Give more feedback to your manager. Don't wait for him to ask you for an update.  Update your manager immediately via email or a quick conversation.  Maybe even send him a weekly summary of what you have been working on.

2. Don't send out emails when you are angry. You don't want to develop a reputation as being a hot head. Just think of XX who has a reputation of being difficult. And now even though he is improving and is talented, he's having a very hard time moving up the ladder. No one wants to work with him

3. Keep taking classes from the university extensions program because that will build your resume

4. Be more proactive. Don't wait for the manager to assign you a project, seek work out.

I think it's very significant that both my manager and my coworker mentioned reputation. I never realized that reputation was that important. But now it seems like common sense!

Work Advice from a Friend

On my last day at work, a coworker/friend asked for a bit of time to give me some advice.  He is 60+, and used to be a psychiatrist.  Now he works as the QA of our company.  I respect him very much, and know that he would only tell me something to help me and not to hurt me.  So what did he tell me?

"I want to tell you this so that you can be successful at your next job. You can take it or leave it. But this is what I see.  
1. You are too friendly and talk too much and talk too loud. You need to be more defensive.  The more words you say, the more likely you will piss someone off.  
2.  Don't yawn in a meeting, it shows that you are not interested.
3.  Don't slouch in your chair... ever!  Even if your manager doesn't mind, the people walking by will see and think that you are goofing off.
4.  Don't curse at your computer when your code/project is not working.
5.  Protect your reputation by being more defensive.  Because if you keep a professional reputation, then people won't be bugged when you ask them questions or for help.  If your reputation is one of a goof, then people won't take you seriously and won't take your questions seriously."

When he said "defensive" he meant: keep a professional distance.

His advice is very valuable.  When you work at a company for a while, you get comfortable with everyone.  At this point it's too easy to expect people to give you the benefit of the doubt.  But you must ALWAYS put your best foot forward at work.  Other people may cut slack for Joe Schmoe, but they might not have the same perception of you.  So when you go to work, find a good role model.  Don't try to emulate the genius engineer who has terrible social skills.  Instead, emulate the coworker who is well respected, well liked, and gets his work done.