First dayat JOB

coffeeking

Heah everyone,

Just wanted to share my first day at job with everyone.

Today was my first day as Jr. Information security officer.

This is a totally new experience for me, since I stepped into professional IT world for the first time today. Its exciting for me. I realized that I need to learn a lot, I mean a lot.

Didn't do any practical or hand on stuff today, neither will I be doing it for next few days. They had me go through a big file of company policies. A lot of it made sense because I had read a lot of that stuff preparing for Security+.

I can't wait to get some practical experience so that I can feel being useful.

What is you guy's take on this, is this how a typical first day in IT is?

nel

i think everyones first day is different regardless of the role. the one thing in common is that its a day where you are eased into the role to settle in and find your feet.

It sounds like a good opportunity, i hope all goes well and keep us updated and what you will be doing and what you will have to learn etc

liven

coffeeking wrote:

Heah everyone,

Just wanted to share my first day at job with everyone.

Today was my first day as Jr. Information security officer.

This is a totally new experience for me, since I stepped into professional IT world for the first time today. Its exciting for me. I realized that I need to learn a lot, I mean a lot.

Didn't do any practical or hand on stuff today, neither will I be doing it for next few days. They had me go through a big file of company policies. A lot of it made sense because I had read a lot of that stuff preparing for Security+.

I can't wait to get some practical experience so that I can feel being useful.

What is you guy's take on this, is this how a typical first day in IT is?

This seems pretty typical of a first day.

In my experience i have noticed that starting new jobs usually goes one of two directions:

1) slow introduction, lots of policy and some training about the company. A more gradual introduction into the company

OR most common

2) Dropped directly into the fire, hit the ground running, shoot first ask questions later...

They both have their plusses and minuses. But since it is your first IT gig it is better that your getting broke in slowly.

Just take lots of notes, ask questions and you will be fine.

empc4000xl

I have worked at 2 places. Both were military, but the same idea. Polices were covered and I signed a lot of paper work and watched videos. I met the people I would be working with and slowly about 2 weeks into I started learnign the job. Starting off with small task. Basiclly doing hardware like replacing tape drives ordering consumable parts. As time went on I got into bigger task like setting up group polcies for people coming in. Doing basic secrity work. So I would enjoy the 1st few weeks of getting a idea of what goes on and how do you plan on adding to that. I wouldn't be so quick to jump into the fire until you got a good observation of how they operate. THe other place I worked at was a military NOC. 4 days into it I was on the routers making changes and backing up the firewalls and DNS servers. So I think the enviorment plays a big part into it. Since NOC's are real time enviorments they get you going as fast as possible to take the load off other workers.

coffeeking

Thanks for input guys. Good to hear that I am not going though anything out of the ordinary. I want to learn everything right away, but understand that it is not possible and might not be the best thing to do. One of the co-workers told me that he spent two months sitting around not knowing what he actually had to do and now he seems to be an expert after couple of years into it.

liven

coffeeking wrote:

Thanks for input guys. Good to hear that I am not going though anything out of the ordinary. I want to learn everything right away, but understand that it is not possible and might not be the best thing to do. One of the co-workers told me that he spent two months sitting around not knowing what he actually had to do and now he seems to be an expert after couple of years into it.

I understand how you feel. I am the same way. And your wise to realize that it will take time no matter what job/situation your in.


Try to be the guy that doesn't ask the same question a million times. Seriously take notes when you learn something new and then you will not have to be a broken record (I learned that one the hard way).


Also realize that in time you will know a lot about this job. And some aspects will become auto pilot.


I have worked many places and several them got to that point for me. Sure there are always new things to learn. But one day your working and you just realize that you have the job your doing down. THis usually happens for me when I am no longer the FNG, and helping to break in a new guy. And it doesn't even have to be a massive amount of time, you will be surprised how much you will know in 6 months.

coffeeking

Heah everyone,

just wanted to update my post and get a few responses if possible.

The job is well, feels great, but so far I really have nothing to do. I spend most of my on the internet. There are people who are supposed to train me and assign me tasks but they haven't yet, eventhough I have been asking them to give me some work, may be they are just too bussy with their work.

But, does it sound typical for someone starting his IT career. I first thought I was going to be thrown a lot of stuff on, but then reading some of the posts I learned that it will take some time before I have my hands full. But, I am wondering if same is the case with everyone starting for the first time.

Please respond if you have been through this, any other pointers are appreciated as well.

UnixGuy

things in IT takes long time to learn, and experience need years to be gained.

your start is good.

And people will always be too busy to train you, so best way to use your time is to spend it reading work related stuff (such as security+ ). This will help you understand the jobs faster.

undomiel

It varies from job to job and situation to situation. At my current job I was thrown to the wolves when I started so it was either sink or swim. But I've seen other jobs where the situation is more controlled and better managed so you just get eased into your responsibilities.

HeroPsycho

At least try to volunteer to get involved in things. Even if they don't task you with stuff, it helps to ensure people don't get a false impression of you being lazy or you're not doing anything. Even if you just say, "hey, let me look at how you're doing X so I know how to do it later", get involved as much as possible.

Otherwise, sounds like things are going well for you. Keep it up!

jbaello

Browsing the internet, doesn't make a good impression, specially on your 1st day, show some initiatives, ask alot of questions on how things are etc. take notes, and if there is really nothing to ask or to do, study for security+, clean up the office, organize things, remember 1st impression lasts...

coffeeking

Thanks for the input guys.

Today, I was put on the departments activity list; it has the list of activities that our department is suppose to perform and different people have different things to do. The boss man put me on there, and held me responsible for some task that I already know how to do and on some I will get trained from other guys. It is still farily slow, but I think its better, since having too much of it all of a sudden wouldn't be good idea, looking at the fact that this is my very first IT job; which is one of the reasons I am being assigned the task a little slow.

One of my co-workers told me that I should take it easy since I won't have enough time to scratch my head later in a few months. So I am happy with the way I am being treated, the boss man is farily nice and understands.

About using the internet on first day, it actually didn't happen until 4-5 days after I had joined, since my PC wasn't ready until after I joined. First few days I spent reading the organizational policies and stuff, and that is what everone else does as long as the work is done. Since I don't have a lot to do yet, I probably spend a lot of time on the internet; it seems they are O.K with it.

I have reading the Cert stuff, trying to use my free time efficiently, but it is hard to do sometimes when you have people talking around you; or atleast I do.

I will be updating this post every now and then to share what I am going through.

Thanks for posting guys.