Work. It’s a concept that has taken on a whole new meaning for me this week. Monday morning
I reported to my job for the first day of the rest of my life. After now having
made it through three days there, I’m fully enjoying myself. I am slightly
concerned on the making friends part of business but hopefully that will come
with time. Everyone always told me I would have no trouble making friends yet
in this environment, people are coming and going to different job sites. Thus,
meeting and working with the same people every day isn’t going to occur. That’s
okay though, it’s a new challenge in my life. Today I gave a couple other new
hires that started in June one of my Becker books to study. I guess I hoped it
would have sparked more conversation yet instead…nothing. So I ate lunch by
myself in the lunch room at a four person table. Depressing. Very.
I’m having dinner with my two mentors from the company next week so hopefully they can
shed some light on what I need to do to have a great career here!
In more positive news, the CPA exam is finished for the first round. Yes, I definitely
failed a couple sections but that’s okay. I know what I’m facing now and where
I need to study for the next round. Before you wonder/ask, I find out the
scores around the third week of September. I think the decision has been made
by me to withhold what sections I passed and failed until I have completed the
entire exam. It’s not that I don’t want to tell people but between the four
sections, I need a 75 on each one for a total of 300. They told us in grad
school that a 300 makes a CPA, a 400 makes a CPA, and so on. The final scores
of your exam do not matter, just whether you passed or failed.
Last night before I went to bed, this whole work thing became almost surreal. I mean, the
concept that this isn’t another internship, its my job, hasn’t settled in my
mind yet. I won’t be stopping in the middle of August to go back to school.
Vacations are nowhere on the horizon for a long, long time. Now, I’m not saying
that’s a bad thing, its just a mind adjustment after being in school for 5
years. After a couple of weeks, it will all be real. I’m sure it will also
become real when I do get to take a vacation for the first time and have my
company laptop along with me to complete work. I must insert here that I almost
just typed “homework” rather than “work”. I had to stop myself and think about
what the proper word really was to use in that sentence! J
Learning how to type on a PC rather than a keyboard has its own learning curve as well. And
as far as that goes, learning to use a PC again fulltime and switching back to
my iMac when I return home is quite interesting. I’m quite flexible when it
comes to the two however, so the transition for the most part has been easy.
All in all, I will survive. While the song is now stuck in my head thanks to writing that,
I had no pun intended. I’m a strong personality that loves new situations. I
just have to keep telling myself that it’s only been three days. Patience will
need to become a virtue of mine.
Day 4:
My goal was the upload this to my blog last night but that didn’t happen, thus I’ll just
add on to it. Today I met a couple of the girls that I’ll be working with on my
audit project. Whenever I meet people in this setting, I wonder how I’m coming off
to them. I mean, I have to be one of the most outgoing people I know yet I feel
myself holding back in newer situations. If I am making myself hold back this
much, I then begin to contemplate how people who are not friendly do new
situations. And then the conclusion rings in, no wonder accountants are known
as people who huddle in their cubicles.
For every day that I’ve been here, I’m the only constant person in these surrounding four
cubicles. A company such as the one that I’m in has random people at the home
office every day. We have a cube reservation system in place, it’s quite
efficient. But everything that is personal gets packed up at the end of every
day and thrown in my laptop carrier bag. Then when I get here the next morning,
my stuff gets thrown around all over again. This cycle makes me feel like a
modern day nomad. New experiences can’t complain too much.
Farah invited me to a happy hour in Chinatown with her company and I was planning on
going until I received an invite from my audit team to go out with them. Two
happy hour invitations on the same night?! This is more socializing then I’ve
had in months! Be still, thy heart of mine. Could it be? Could I actually be
making friends? I suppose this is the part where I realize that all the settings
have been sprung; it is now within my own actions that I further my socializing
experience along. Wish me luck tonight!
Day 5:
This log is turning into a journal almost and yet I have not actually blogged any of it.
For those of you that took the time to actually read this entire post, mad
props to you! I just made lunch plans with the other lady that I started with
to celebrate our first week being over. And last night I had crazy fun with my
new teammates. Therefore, today’s a little more uplifting in the social
department J
Yesterday for lunch I invited myself to a table that this lady was sitting at. She didn’t
seem to want to be disturbed but oh well for her, I desperately wanted to make
a new friend. After talking to her for the whole hour, I’m really glad I chose
her. She has been working at the company for 10 years and therefore had a lot
of insight to shed on this organization. It was also amazing to talk to someone
who still loved the company after working there for that long.
You know, mostly everyone I talk to does not have their Masters here in this company.
After talking to one of my co workers last night, she asked how old I was when
I made an old joke. I told her 23 and her mouth fell open. First of all she
told me that I don’t look that old, thank you thank you. And then she said that
she is also 23. The point of this? She has been working at the company for over
a year and interned here yet is the same age as myself. Sure I have more
education, but when proceeding to receive that education, I had an opportunity
cost of starting work earlier. Its one of those things that I wonder about, was
it really worth it all? In the future,
yes it will definitely be beneficial as I have that extra degree and
have already sat for my CPA, things that most of these people don’t have. Yet,
I gave up a lot by doing that. I wasn’t able to start with my recruiting class
in June and I’m one to two years older than all of them. The people that I
should be friends with have all been promoted to one or two positions up in the
company already at this point. Anyway, it’s been an interesting battle for my
mind to play out.
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