Job Trial Day

Fantasy said:

The anxiety is killing me already.

The key to managing the anxiety here is to accept that it will be a day full of new things with unexpecte stuff happening all along the way.

It will be a bit of a roller coaster ride if you are used to certainty so try to focus on taking this chaos and making in into something you can and will be able to manage.

Keep a notepad and pem with you - make notes of what you are told (capture the info so you don't have to recall it straight away and move onto the next thing to capture).

As for small talk, just be polite and say thank you when people do things for you. Have a handful of bits of info about yourself to tell othes if they ask (keep the brief because often they are only being nice and sometimes don't actually want to know, so keep it brief and if they want to know more they will ask).

Don't try to be like the others - start off as authentic as you are comfortable with and let that be part of your persona. It makes it much easier to keep that (lesser) mask on as time goes on.

If you feel things getting a bit much or don't know how to reply, just use the phrase "I'm new to this and it is a bit overwhelming - sorry I don't want to be rude but I'm not sure what to say". This will get you some sympathy and probably will also be told what the expected response to the question was.

Once you work out who will be working with you and who is important in the office, learn more about them, even if you don't care or even like them.  Make a sketch of the office layout and put their names on their desk locations along with their title and what they do.

Remember your boss is more important than your colleagues.

There you have it - you have notes to remind you of all the important stuff (which you can write up at the end of the day and save online in case you lose the writing pad), you will know who and where the important people are and you are able to be a bit more yourself.

Fantasy said:

The anxiety is killing me already.

The key to managing the anxiety here is to accept that it will be a day full of new things with unexpecte stuff happening all along the way.

It will be a bit of a roller coaster ride if you are used to certainty so try to focus on taking this chaos and making in into something you can and will be able to manage.

Keep a notepad and pem with you - make notes of what you are told (capture the info so you don't have to recall it straight away and move onto the next thing to capture).

As for small talk, just be polite and say thank you when people do things for you. Have a handful of bits of info about yourself to tell othes if they ask (keep the brief because often they are only being nice and sometimes don't actually want to know, so keep it brief and if they want to know more they will ask).

Don't try to be like the others - start off as authentic as you are comfortable with and let that be part of your persona. It makes it much easier to keep that (lesser) mask on as time goes on.

If you feel things getting a bit much or don't know how to reply, just use the phrase "I'm new to this and it is a bit overwhelming - sorry I don't want to be rude but I'm not sure what to say". This will get you some sympathy and probably will also be told what the expected response to the question was.

Once you work out who will be working with you and who is important in the office, learn more about them, even if you don't care or even like them.  Make a sketch of the office layout and put their names on their desk locations along with their title and what they do.

Remember your boss is more important than your colleagues.

There you have it - you have notes to remind you of all the important stuff (which you can write up at the end of the day and save online in case you lose the writing pad), you will know who and where the important people are and you are able to be a bit more yourself.

Thank you so much for compiling all of this. I've noted it all down and will try to check my phone notebook so I don't forget. 

I'm feeling more positive this evening so I'm hoping I'll do ok tomorrow.