Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Working Stiffs Unite

So if you're like me after my senior year, you haven't ever really worked a "real" job before. What the hell is going on? Can I check my email? What is acceptable and what will get me fired?

Here is a handy list based on my measly 6+ months of working in the "real world" that might be of use to all you c/o 2005.


  1. When in doubt, go formal. Use 'Ms' and 'Mister,' wear a jacket, shake hands and nod often. At least for a couple of days til you get a gist of the subtleties of your work environment. Which leads to the next tip
  2. Observe and Read Social Cues. Watch your co-workers. Who looks like they fit in, and who seems awkward or underdressed? Who is received well, and who is glossed over?
  3. Big Picture: often when you start working, you are assigned small bits of different projects until you and the company are ready to start you on your own. It's easy to lose sight of what you're contributing to. Asking questions about why what you're doing is important and how it relates to the overall goals not only keeps you better informed, but shows you taking initiative and investing time in understanding.
  4. Repeat Back Your Assignment More often than you'd think, a superior will walk into your office and ask you to complete something, or to make changes to something you've already created. Before you dive in, stop for a moment. By repeating back what you think they just asked it ensures that you didn't misunderstand their instructions.
  5. Take Responsibility When you're new, it's not only possible but also very likely you will make mistakes. Sometimes it's a big deal, sometimes it isn't. Don't defend yourself: take responsibility, apologize, ask what to do in the future to avoid these problems. This is related to my next point
  6. Take Notes When you are new, you can get literally dozens of useful facts every day. Sadly, most of them don't get absorbed because you are nervous, overwhelmed, confused, etc. Write it down - even if you don't use it right away you never know when you're going to use it.
  7. Get A Calendar Usually your company will release a calendar every once in a while with important dates on it. USE IT. Keep track of when people will be away from the office, deadlines for projects, and other pertinent and time sensitive information. This can prevent walking into your boss' empty office or someone breathing down your neck about hurrying for the 5 pm Fed Ex drop off.
  8. Don't Forget To Eat Breakfast and lunch have to fuel you until you get home. It is increasingly difficult to concentrate and execute quality work when you are distracted and weak. Don't eat Fritos out of the vending machine either - try to eat at least one healthy meal per day so you're getting the nutrients your brain needs to survive.
  9. Go To Bed Days of napping between classes and sleeping in til noon are over. Boo hoo. Deal with it. Be smart and get your necessary hours of sleep so you don't crash at work.
  10. Try To Be Yourself It's easy to feel like you need to put on a persona at work - you did it for your interviews, after all. When all is said and done, you can't spend 8 hours/day pretending (or maybe you can, but it's exhausting, in which case I suggest you really take #9 very seriously). In the end, they hired you - best to give them what they want.

*Thanks to g00dhunter

Thursday, June 02, 2005

All The Regrets You Can Forget

This beautiful weather and so-close-to-done-with-school taste in the air has been haunting me since Monday. When I step outside at 11:30 pm, the warm night greets me and the smells of summer vacation comes wafting. (Summer vacation, of course, smelling like fresh cut lawns and dry grass cooling and night blooming jasmine). Whenever I experience it, I have this ache in my heart, a sense of longing... but I don't even know to what I can attribute these pangs of nostalgia.

The most ridiculous part (or most interesting, to put a positive spin on it) is that I have come to realize I am remembering something that I don't think is real. Apparently I am not the first person to come across this idea.
Nostalgia for what we have lost is more bearable than nostalgia for what we have never had.... -Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
Braff (again) also illustrates what we're talking about

Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.
Sam: I still feel at home in my house.
Andrew Largeman: You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist.

I will misquote unspoken novel by Bank again
"What was so great about the past?" I demanded, preparing to cite women voting and civil rights as counter-examples to what my grandmother was going to say.
She thought for a moment.
"The lamplighter used to carry a little stool around with him," she said finally.
I patted her arm. I understood.
I think I am taking the last weeks of spring quarter of college of four years and mashing them up into a memory of something only wonderful. Here is what didn't make the cut:
  • anything high school or earlier
  • packing
  • moving
  • finals
  • sweating in unconditioned rooms
  • inedible dorm food
  • shitty, extraordinarily painful break ups
  • dread over lack of job freshman year
  • sophomore year mild depression
  • 20 unit hell my junior year, including
  • -the hardest class I ever took
  • -40 page proposal for my honors thesis
  • dread over lack of job senior year

Here is what I do remember:

  1. Giddy, head over heels brand new crush thinking of you every waking moment
  2. Sunbathing
  3. Waving my hands in the air like I just don't care
  4. Getting accepted for archaeology digs
  5. The relief of finishing
  6. The prospect of a fresh new summer of experiences

At the end of junior year, my RA gave me her old couch. I had to be out of the building by noon, so I pushed it to the sidewalk. A tall and strong navy hopeful ex owed me a favor and was going to drive it across campus to where Bang would keep it over the summer and put it in her room for me. It must have been at least 90 degrees because I was wearing shorts, a tank top and flip flops, which are not really moving clothes. Bang and I sat on the couch, waiting for him to pull up in his Explorer Sport. It was too hot to talk, so we sat in the silence of an empty campus and thought. I had finished my work, I was off to Sicily for an amazing archaeological experience, I had a whole extra year to decide what to do with myself before graduation (the faintest glimmer in the far distance). We lounged on a broken-in loveseat in the shade of an emerald green sapling , without a care in the world other than moving a piece of furniture.

I think that's what I miss most.