Is it becoming a habit of me to blog at the end of the month, just so that I can clock in at least one entry for that month? Speaks volume about the author doesn't it? Haha.
Rightfully speaking I should have put in more effort in recording down the events that happened this month, because this is one very important month in my life: graduation from university and transition into working life. Unfortunately, the entire month has been quite uneventful.
The first three days were spent attending an orientation program organized by the company. I was initially nervous about the teambuilding games that were to be held on the first day; they sounded like school orientation. Thankfully the games, professionally organized by a company, were way better than I thought.
The following two days were spent listening to two motivational speakers lecturing us on how to make the best out of our working lives. Frankly speaking, I was skeptical of such things. One speaker carried out an activity to make us remind ourselves our five greatest moments in our lives to make us more positive, and the result was meh. The speaker went around asking everyone how we felt after the activity. I managed to mutter a 'happy', which the speaker could immediately tell I wasn't because the pokerface expression was all over my face. The truth is I did not have enough sleep and I was tired.
The same speaker also got me to sit in front of the entire group to let everyone guess the colour I was thinking of, by looking at my body language. He guessed wrongly -.-
My take is that while body language might indeed give some clues away, there are many more factors that affect how a person behaves. Being in a group where I only know the members for three days, I was naturally more defensive towards expressing my thoughts, what's more when I know there are twenty pairs of eyes staring at me! But know me for a year or two and I don't think you need to read my body language to know what I am up to; I will probably have already told you myself ;)
Fourth day onwards, and I'm on my job officially.
Work has been okay I guess; been completing minor tasks while learning at the same time, things that I could and should have done while I was still in school. When I get stuck, I alternate between trying to figure it out for myself, or asking really dumb questions. Oh well.
My colleagues are all nice people, but I feel I haven't exactly gotten myself accepted into their clique yet. The main reason is probably because I am of a different nationality. While my Chinese isn't that bad, their accent and slang sometimes make it difficult for me to understand what they are saying. The fact that I am slow to warm up to strangers is not helping matters too.
My direct superior also did not really set any target or deadlines for me too, so I have no idea whether I'm doing ok, or too slow, or what. I appreciate the freedom, but given that I am in my three month probation period, it might help if I get some feedback.
I shall stop here for now, hopefully I can come back with more next week during that long holiday.