So, it has now been a week since I started my new web development job. I’m pleased to say that I’m really enjoying it. 
It’s much more interesting (and less annoying!) than my old HR Reporting Analyst job. I’m really excited about all the new opportunities that are now open to me.
On Friday 19th February, I had a leaving party with my co-workers from my old job. I had my leaving drinks at a local bar called Number 12, and then after that some of us had a meal at The Spice Lounge Indian restaurant. I was pleased with the turnout – at least 15 people joined me for the drinks, and 3 people came with me for the meal. It was a good night, although I did feel a little bit sad at the end as I realised I might never see some of these people again. 
On Monday morning, I was fairly nervous about starting my first day. When I arrived at the office, I reported to the reception desk and the manager came down to meet me. He called me into his office for a brief discussion about what I would be doing – he said that for the first few months I would be helping out with the development of the new regional news websites using a content management system called Polopoly. Then he took me for a tour around the office building (including the cafeteria) and introduced me to the colleagues that I’ll be working with for the next few months.
On my first day, I had my photo taken so that they could make me a security pass for accessing the office. It has my name with the words “Web Developer” underneath. It was at this point that it all started to feel more real and I kept thinking “Yay! I’ve got my dream job!”
Everyone was very friendly and this put me at ease quickly. I like my office – I’m in a fairly small room with 4 or 5 other people, so it’s not really hectic and noisy like it was in my old job. In my old job I was on a massive open-plan floor with about 100 desks!
During my first week, I was mostly learning to find my way around the Polopoly CMS. I shadowed a couple of colleagues for most of the first day, and then I was given access to the test server so that I could start building a test site using Polopoly. My colleague had put together some notes about Polopoly, so it wasn’t too difficult for me to pick it up. By the end of the week, I had put together a complete test site. Yesterday afternoon, my manager asked me to talk him through the steps that I followed to put the site together. He said that he was very pleased with what I had achieved, and he also said that he hadn’t expected me to be able to put together a full test site in my first week, especially as I had never used Polopoly before.
I haven’t had my official training yet, so they haven’t let me loose on the live server, but that’s understandable. I am looking forward to getting stuck into some “real” work though. I’ve got my official Polopoly training the week after next and I’ll also have a formal employee induction session.
There seems to be more technical freedom in this company, compared to my old company, and I’m very happy about that. Within reason, you are allowed to install whatever software you like, and change the computer settings to suit you. So, you are allowed to download and install open source software on your computer without permission. In my old company, all the computers were “locked down” so you couldn’t make any changes without filling in a big form for the IT department, and it would often take them about a week to fulfil your request as they usually had to seek permission from the head of department. It was a very long-winded and bureaucratic process. Fortunately, at this new place, everything seems to get done much more quickly, which may be partly because it’s a smaller company. Anyway, I’m glad that I’ll never again be forced to use Internet Explorer 6 with its lack of tabbed browsing and its inability to render websites correctly, lol!
On Tuesday I had Photoshop installed on my computer and I’ve been learning more about it. I’ve always been better at programming than graphic design (which is why I’m a web developer not a web designer!) but I would like to learn more about the design side of things as it does interest me. I’ve been working through some online Photoshop tutorials, which has been fun. I’m even considering joining an evening/weekend class to learn more. There are 3 local organisations offering Photoshop training, so I’m still deciding which one to go with. As I’m in my probationary period, I wouldn’t expect my employer to fund the course.
I’m much more enthusiastic about getting up in the morning now that I’ve got a job that I really enjoy! In my old job, I got into a bad habit of going to bed late and then sleeping in until 7.20am, which meant that I sometimes had to rush to leave the house in time to catch the bus. Now I can motivate myself to get out of bed a few minutes earlier, so I always get to the bus stop in good time.
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