Thanks for contributing Kumar and Kris.
Day 1 – what to expect
Desktop access
Depending on where you are working you may or may not have access to a computer. Some places have a bureaucracy in place to ensure you can’t access desktops and email for at least a week or two. Having said that, large organisations are getting better at this sort of thing and certainly smaller organisations are able to set you up pretty quickly.
See if there is anything you can do to help get yourself set up online. It shows that you are motivated and pro-active.
It will also give you an early taste of the organisation’s culture. Is it very bureaucratic? Is it highly service focused? Do people expect you to just wait and follow the processes or to actively take ownership of the issue?
Pens and paper
Stationary is also one of those quirky things. You’ll probably be pointed at a person and to they are the gatekeepers of the stationary. Go make friends with them. They are probably the gatekeepers of other important things like colour printers, cab charges and AV equipment.
Walk away from the meeting with a notepad and pen. From now on keep your notepad with you and take notes whenever you met with someone. You’ll want to record their name and what their role is in the organisation.
Learn the Org chart
Actually, while you are talking to the gatekeeper it might be a good idea to grab a copy of the local organisational chart. That way as you meet people and collect names you can place them into the organisation. I know a guy who always keeps an org chart in the back page of his notebook and after years at his current employer is still using it.
Getting the Project Background
The next thing to do is get the background documentation from the project manager. You’ll possibly send much of the next day or two going over this. Read it through chronologically first to see the evolution of the project. Then go back and extract what will be relevant to your role. For example who are the key stakeholders and what are their day to day responsibilities? How will your project affect them?
Meet the team
Everyone is probably busy and won’t have too much time for you, but everyone will also be happy to be interrupted for questions and a short conversation. The trick here is to have something to converse about. One useful topic is “who are you and how will I be working with you?” That way they get to talk about themselves and you also learn about the team and its structure.
Lunch
Find someone and arrange lunch with them. It doesn’t really matter who. Different people can give you different experiences. A peer can give you some local tips on how to get by, a project manager can give you some informal insight into the project’s politics and the stationary gatekeeper may just be a nice person to hang out with. Joining someone for lunch on the first day helps you integrate socially into the new team. It makes life easier and les stressful for you in the context of the unfamiliar.
That’s probably enough for the first day. It will probably be a pretty quiet one with lots of reading.
I’m looking forward to hearing experiences from others out there also.
Craig