I guess I haven’t said much about my new job, so people are probably wondering…am I liking it? What’s it like?

Here are some answers.

First – wow, what a difference from a Department of Energy National Laboratory! First – orientation. When I went through orientation at PNNL, I think there were 6 of us total going through orientation. In addition, it was all online. For my specific role as a temp secretary there, I had another 2 days of orientation specific to my role.

At Microsoft, there were over 240 people in orientation! And…surprisingly…the only person with a computer was the person leading the orientation. The stages of paperwork before getting to the room for the orientation were incredibly efficient – over 240 people were able to get through everything within about 90 minutes. The downside is that those of us who were there very early got to wait for more of those 90 minutes until the rest of orientation started. But orientation was amusing, fun, and informative. It took 1.5 days and was well done.

Another quick note about orientation — the diversity and median age in the room amazed me. There were people from all over the world in that room! And the median age had to be somewhere around 30! Weird, coming from a place where people seemed to be retiring in droves!

At about noon Wednesday (I started the day after Labor Day), the person leading orientation cheered us as officially new Microsoft employees, and we got our badges. Next step was finding my way to my office – going from Redmond to Seattle. The drive wasn’t bad (thanks to the wonderful GPS!!), though I got very turned around when I had to find the parking garage for the building! Took me awhile, but I found it, and up I go to the office. I got there and was heartily welcomed by the team! Talk about feeling WELCOME. I couldn’t believe how excited everyone seemed to see me! Then, the rest of the day was spent setting up my laptop, getting onto the network, and setting up the various accounts needed for work.

Next BIG difference – NO TIMECARD. You come in, do your job, go home when you’re done. Of course, with the project I’m working on, sometimes, that means leaving at about 6pm or so.

Next – the project I’m working on…it’s global! I have heard so many different accents lately, it’s amazing, not to mention wonderful! Along with the excitement of getting to work on a truly world-wide-reaching project comes the need to work late hours on occasion so that we can talk to sales people in Asia – while we’re ending our day, they’re just starting it. The first teleconference with Asia, it took me awhile to get used to that fact.

And, last (for now), the team — I LOVE this team. The first week on the job, a crisis of sorts was underway, but my manager still took two hours of her day to answer all of my questions from a morning full of meetings we’d had. And the team is small (for now – interviews are under way to fill a few positions) – there’s my manager, me, an analyst, a contingent staffer, the girl who used to do my current job, and a vendor who helps with the strategy direction. It’s a small, but close-knit team. The atmosphere there is SO team-centric, it makes crises easier to get through because you’re all in it together.

Later, I’ll write more about the project. For now – it’s been an amazing couple of weeks!