An exhausted man tries to smile for a photo during the first week of his new job…
Between my resume writing services and my video courses I have helped hundreds of people transition into new jobs… however, it had been 5+ years since I did anything like that myself…until now
...and let me tell you, this shit is hard.
If you’ve been following along for a while, you’ll know that I recently resigned from my stable, permanent, long-term job to take on a 6-month contract in a department across the hall from my old job (before leaving to take this business full-time… July 31st, baby!).
My old job was absolutely awesome and fun and full of great people, but after 5-years and a devastating missed promotion, it was well-past-time to move on.
On February 4th, I started my new job.
Process Evaluation and Service Delivery Analyst…
which is a cool job but it’s all very new and there are many unfamiliar feelings.
Don’t get me wrong, I love feeling feelings.
I love feeling nervous, out-of-place, and generally uncomfortable… it reminds me that I’m alive, and those feelings usually come when something awesome is happening (or is about to happen)…
P.S., on a related note… I’ve taken up musical improv and let me tell you… I am, what my retired-music-teacher-mother would call, “Not good at singing”… but I love that discomfort… and I’m getting good at rhyming… but that’s not why you’re here… hahaha sorry… let’s get back on topic :)
All that considered…
Now that I’m living this transition experience, I want to share what I’ve found as the hardest parts of transitioning jobs.
My hope is that if you’re going through something like this, or you’re scared about your own transition… you’ll at least know that you’re not alone.
We’re in this together :)
1. I Miss (Almost) Everything About My Old Job
The day I moved to the U.S. for grad school, I immediately became this uber-proud Canadian and started doing Canadian things I had never done before. I hung a flag in my residence room, I started following the Toronto Blue Jays religiously, and I would take every opportunity I could to blast my Canadian-only playlist to anyone who would listen.
It’s so funny how you leave somewhere you’re comfortable with and then suddenly you relate so strongly to how things used to be. What was once annoying becomes endearing and you miss the little things that you took for granted.
I miss a lot of little things…
Like at the end of the day at my old job, each of my colleagues had a designated sign-off for each other… kind of like a “verbal secret handshake”.
I miss annoying my cubicle neighbours by eating baby carrots at a volume that I thought was completely reasonable… ;)
I miss the smell of the kitchen. It wasn’t good… but it was home… the new kitchen is fine… but it doesn’t smell like home.
2. Learning is Hard / Self-Doubt is Exhausting
When you’re in a job for a long-ass time… you generally get pretty good at it. And I don’t mind bragging (I rarely do, hahaha), I got really damn good at my old job.
You had a question… I had an answer.
A problem came up… I knew how to solve it.
A decision had to be made… I’m your guy.
But now…
I know nothing.
I’m a total beginner. I don’t know names, I don’t know acronyms, I don’t know processes, I don’t know anything.
So all day… every day… I’m just asking people to explain stuff to me. I’m reading, I’m watching videos, and I’m eavesdropping a lot.
Luckily for me, my boss has designated these first few weeks as “listening time”. So I’m very grateful there is no pressure to deliver anything yet, but damn… it’s just so hard / different to go from having all the answers to having none at all.
3. Meeting People is Draining
I’m an extrovert. In fact, I’d call myself the extrovert’s extrovert. When I’m all out of energy after a long day, I usually want to find some people I like and just talk things out and chill.
But wow...
In the past 8 days, I’m sure I’ve met over 100 people and it has been draining.
What’s hard is that this energy I use to engage with these people is the same energy that drives me to excel and achieve things. So without that, I feel my wheels spinning a bit.
Even doing little things like writing this blog are hard. I’m sitting here on a Sunday afternoon, only able to write after literally doing nothing at all for my whole Saturday.
The good news is…
I don’t think I’ve got a ton more people to meet in the role.
The bad news is…
Now I have to interact with a bunch of people who “know” me but I can’t remember their names because I met so many people so close together.
That’s okay though, I'm still within the window of time where I can sheepishly ask, “Sorry, what was your name again?”… although that question alone takes up a lot of social energy.
Long story short… I’m tired.
4. My Precious Routine… Rest in Peace
Last week, for the first time since New Years, I fell short of my gym goal for the week. I also didn’t eat my healthy breakfast (bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and a hard boiled egg) that typically fuels my mornings.
I’m also dead when I get home because of the previously mentioned energy drainers, which annoys Ariana because I’m no fun at all.
I feel confident that this is temporary and I’ll settle in before too long, but it kind of sucks that during a time of uncertainty and transition, I can’t count on the things that used to keep me stable.
Patience young Langstaff… the routine shall return to it’s mighty glory.
Of course… there are lots of good parts too!
Every personality test I’ve ever taken has accused me of being overly positive… so let’s embrace that for a moment and share the 4 Best Parts of Starting a New Job to balance things out.
1. I’m being challenged again!
As I stated… I got really good at my old job. Perhaps too good. It all sort of became automatic. In the last week I’ve said the phrase, “I feel like my brain is turned back on” several times.
For that... I’m grateful :)
2. Salary bump, baby!
As with most career moves, a part of the motivation was financial. And because this job is a short contract, it’s all cash (as in, no money going into pension or benefits or union dues or anything) which is great for my current situation since I’m saving up cash so I can supplement my income temporarily when I go full-time entrepreneur (also, I’m enrolled in Ariana’s benefits so health-wise, I’m covered).
3. I’m diversifying my experience
Of all people, a Professional Resume Writer should know the value of adding a different job with new responsibilities to my experience. Although I’m not planning on leveraging this experience for a new job, the value of working with different people and having some new, analysis-and-process-focused experience under my belt will be immensely valuable.
4. I’m proud of myself!
You want to see the people you love succeed, learn, and grow. And I maintain a healthy level of love for myself, so mathematically speaking… how can I not be happy for myself?
When people would ask me what I was “up-to” in the past couple years, I would be excited to tell them about the Career Services business, but when the full-time job came up, I was using the word “still” with some disdain… “I’m still in the same job”, not very proud, you know?
Now… I feel great about what I do and I’m proud of myself :)
To Summarize…
The challenges are temporary… the benefits will help me for the rest of my career. All this stress will be well worth it in the end :)
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