From Disappointing First Day At Work To Champion

Have you ever had a disappointing first day at work?

I have.

And I’d like to share my experience.

I thought I was going to get booted out after my first day at work.

A full-time remote job with a marketing agency.

Robert and I were newly recruited for a technical support role.

We had truckloads of training videos to watch and other materials to study before our first onboarding session.

And we had a whole week to do that.

The expectations were high, so fear began to creep in.

I had never done a full-time remote job before then.

So I told myself that the only way to impress was to give a good account of myself at the first meeting.

I then convinced myself to watch the videos twice and do a summary of everything I had learnt in a notebook.

It was tough doing all of that but I didn’t mind the stress.

I just wanted to impress.

So on the day of our first meeting, I took out my notebook and started going over everything I had jotted page by page.

Then something happened!

I slept off with the notebook on my chest.

What was supposed to be an innocent eye stretch became a 40-minute nap.

By the time I opened my eyes, they were already 20 minutes into the meeting.

It felt disappointing, to say the least.

But like an errant child who knows how to beg for mercy, I dragged myself into the zoom meeting.

You could bet that several thoughts were running through my mind as I joined.

Is this how I’d lose a job I worked so hard to get?

Will I be fired on my first day at work?

My manager was already waiting for me with a ready-made question.

“Why are you late, Hafiz?”

“What happened?”

Em. Em. I tried to gather my thoughts.

“I dozed off while preparing for this class. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again”

I didn’t even think of telling a lie.

Because, what’s the point?

Luckily for me, she somehow sensed the honesty in my reply.

“Okay, I’m willing to give you a second chance but just so you know, you already created a bad first impression.”

“But how are you going to prevent this from happening next time?”

Not sure how I responded, but I think I said something convincing enough to make her give me another chance.

“Fantastic! So let’s continue…”

“Here’s a recap of what we’ve done so far.”

She said…

After that event, I made a firm resolve not to make any silly mistake again.

I did my job diligently, followed her instructions and made some personal sacrifices for the team.

Months into the job, I was everybody’s favourite team member.

I was so good at the job that I got the free pass to recommend competent guys in my network.

We all gave a good account of ourselves.

Although we had a few skirmishes here and there, the experience was great overall.

Even now that I no longer work there, I still have a good relationship with my employers and old colleagues.

I’m also grateful to my manager for giving me a second chance.

That really motivated me to give my best.