The First Job

The much awaited day had finally arrived and Jacob was all set to join his first job in a well-known MNC. Jacob, a management graduate from a premier institute, had worked hard to bag this offer during campus placements. His dream was to make it big in a corporate career.

He was one of the two lucky students who were picked up from the batch. The profile, the brand and the package offered were all best in class. It was after multiple rounds of evaluation that he could make it.

Jacob, who was a management graduate in finance, wanted to make sure that his conduct, his appearance, his communication and his knowledge would be impactful enough to make a strong first impression. In fact, he desperately wanted to be perceived as one of the best management graduates hired by the company that year.

He made use of the interim period between the offer and the joining date to brush up his finance concepts, to further explore the profile that was offered to him, to get insights into company’s culture, to link up with some seniors in the company and prepare for the joining.

With a new suit, which he had purchased specially for this occasion and a new trimmed hairstyle, he reports to the workplace as per schedule.

The Revelation

On asking for the concerned recruiter at the reception, he is asked to wait for a while. Jacob, who was expecting someone to welcome him at the reception, is taken by surprise and gets impatient. He reiterates to the receptionist that he was asked to report at 9.30 am to which the person responded saying that he would have to kindly bear for a few minutes until the concerned authority can come over to meet him.

The recruiter arrives in a while, welcomes Jacob and asks him if he was able to reach the venue comfortably. To this, Jacob responds by saying that though he could reach comfortably on his own, he wished that the company had sent a cab to pick him up. The recruiter smiles and escorts him to the security desk for an ID card. The security guard hands over a temp ID card to Jacob who immediately reacts by asking why he was not being issued a permanent ID card. The security person tells him that as per the joining process, the permanent ID card can be prepared once his joining formalities and document submission formalities are completed. This exercise would take about a day and Jacob can come to the security desk to collect his permanent card tomorrow. He is also assured that then he can comfortably access company premises using the temp card which has been assigned to him. Jacob looks at the recruiter who returns a convincing smile.

Jacob is soon led to a meeting room where he would have a day-long induction with different functional heads. She also briefs him about his detailed on-boarding plan. He is given a copy of the induction plan along with details of the sessions and the respective speakers. He is told that during various orientation sessions, the functional heads would be giving him an overview of their respective functional area and would also be sharing expectations from him as a new joinee. She also takes him for a floor walk while introducing him to key employees and showing him various facilities like cafeteria, helpdesks, gym, etc. Jacob is extremely delighted and excited to see the office facilities and shows eagerness to see his work-desk but is requested to wait till the scheduled meet & greet session with his reporting manager tomorrow who would show him the work-desk.

During the orientation sessions, Jacob raises lot of queries some of which he had come prepared with and also tries making quite a few suggestions to the functional experts. He doesn’t miss an opportunity to use his management jargons and concepts to evaluate existing processes and policies; after all he is from a premium B-school and has to come across as somebody who knows the stuff. Anyways, the subject matter experts acknowledge the suggestions and comments made by Jacob, but advise him that it’s too early to assess things and that he should get a good grasp of how things practically work in a corporate eco-system before jumping into the suggestion mode. They request him to take out time to observe and absorb things while settling into the new system.

The recruiter joins Jacob for the lunch at the cafeteria. He seems to like the food but was expecting more variety and more cuisine options. Anyways.....yeh dil mange more ....

The Realization

The induction day comes to an end with Jacob now looking more composed and more grounded to reality. He is not cribbing about that one induction session, which got rescheduled for tomorrow nor is he cribbing about three of the sessions that started slightly late. He has understood in a subtle manner that he will take time to understand and adjust to the culture and the system of the new company and that he should approach things with a balanced outlook and a neutral perspective. And not to forget ‘the patience’ which he needs to exercise while dealing with surprises because expectations and reality are not always the same.