I was really worried about how hard the adjustment from being a part-timer to a full-timer would be. At the preschool, I typically worked 20-25 hours a week. I was usually done for the day around noon or earlier. Big changes like a new job are hard for me and there’s an adjustment period that takes place until I feel settled and as if my feet are on solid ground. There were so many times I questioned myself about accepting this new job. Was it the right decision?

To answer the last question, abso-freaking-lutely. I can’t even tell you how much I love my job and now that I’m doing more tasks, it’s gotten even better. The past two days, I’ve had work to do from the minute I walked in until the minute I left. No observation or sitting around, twiddling my thumbs.

As for the worry about adjusting to a full-time schedule? It hasn’t been much of an issue at all. My days absolutely fly by and most days, I look at the clock and think, “It’s already 4:30?” instead of “It’s only 4:30?” I thought I would miss having my afternoons off, but it feels good to be productive. It also helps that my work day doesn’t start until 9:00, instead of 6:30. (Driving to work with the sun out is pretty awesome, let me tell you.)

I think what I noticed right off the bat was how much my energy levels improved. I remember days when I would have been at my old job for just a few hours and my energy levels were so depleted. That job was emotionally and physically exhausting and sometimes I wondered how I would make it through the rest of the day. And I was only working part-time! How the full-timers do it, I will never know. Eight hours at my new job is a piece of cake compared to 4 or 5 hours at my old one. The work I’m doing can be mind-numbing and a lot to take in, but it doesn’t deplete my energy level. (It also helps I work with fun people who have amazing attitudes and energies.)

I had a few people remark about how working a regular, full-time job is similar to the time when I was working part-time and going to school. I’ve only been out of school for 3 months so my knowledge of how that time of my life was is still fresh in my mind. When I was going in school, my days were generally 6:30 – 1ish. Some days I would be going from work to classes to my internship to a night class, leaving the house at 6:00 AM and not returning until 9:30 PM. My afternoons, nights, and weekends were filled up with homework and studying and writing papers. The biggest difference between that time of my life and now is my weekends. My weekends are finally my time. I can do whatever I want and maintain any schedule I want. I don’t have to worry about making sure I started on this assignment or finished that paper. I spend 8 hours at my job a day and then come home and can leave it all behind. Once I’m done with work, I’m on my own schedule. It’s such an amazing feeling. (And makes me wonder if I’ll ever go back to get my Master’s. I’m enjoying my freedom a little too much to even think about it right now.)

My days are long. I leave the house around 8:15 and don’t return until 7:30 or later. (I head to the gym for an hour right after work.) But it doesn’t feel like such a chore, like my long days before did. It just feels like my new life. I think it helps that I’m spending most of my day at a place I enjoy and am starting to find my place in. It leads to a specific amount of joy in my life. For the first time in a very long time, I don’t feel stagnant and unhappy with the place I am in life. I finally feel happy to begin each day. It’s really one of the best feelings in the world.

My new job is exciting. I’ve never done this type of work before (advertising) but it’s right up my alley! I’m doing lots of observations and shadowing right now, but my boss is slowly handing over the reins. We’re beginning to move some spreadsheets and marketing plans over to Google Docs, after a suggestion by moi. I’m trying to be patient but I’m so ready to have more responsibilities and projects. Everything is so exciting and thrilling to learn, to a girl who spent her schooling writing crappy newspaper articles and spent two-and-a-half years in a daycare.

My new job is tough. I sat in on a budgeting/media planning meeting yesterday and it was intense. I think I was lost within the first 30 seconds, but it’s good for me to just be there, hearing what’s going on and why. There is so much to learn with this job but I’m not expected to pick everything up within my first week. My boss has an incredible amount of spreadsheets with so many rows and columns, color-coded to remind her of things she needs to do, that it makes my brain spin looking at it too long. I’m starting to get the feel for her spreadsheets, though. There is a method to her madness, for sure! 🙂

My new job has a different energy surrounding it. I don’t know how to say this in a nice way, but there was a lot of negativity at my old job. So much so that I tried to keep to myself as much as possible and would dread going to work the next day because of the drama. There were so many people there that made me question why they were working at this place if it made them so miserable. At my new job? There’s a totally different atmosphere. Maybe I’m just so new that I don’t see it, but these people seem to actually enjoy their work. Who knew?! They don’t have easy jobs and have to meet tough deadlines, keep customers happy, and deal with all sorts of mishaps but they maintain a fun, lively atmosphere and don’t let the little things bog them down. They are all hard workers and I feel absolutely blessed to be surrounded by this energy and feeling of support.

My new job leaves me feeling fulfilled. I had been feeling very uninspired and unmotivated in the past few months. After graduation and my cruise, my life was filled with the ups and downs of job searching. Getting interviews, being turned down, submitting resumes over and over again to no avail. There was nothing exciting happening and nothing exciting would happen until I received a job offer. I felt like I would be stuck at my old job for another year and every Monday, I felt sick to my stomach because that my life was still the same. Granted, I could have done more during this time to motivate me without having a job, but I wasn’t in that mindset. I feel less tired and sluggish working 40 hours a week than I did working 25. I am undeniably more happy and more satisfied with my life. I’m challenged and pushed to use my brain and problem-solving abilities. Most of all, I am using the degree I put so much work into.

My new job will not always be this delightful. When you know, you know. Just like in a relationship, this job is in the brand-new stages and is new and exciting. I’m in the honeymoon phase where everything is puppies and rainbows and sunshine. But I also know I will encounter bumps in the road. I will make mistakes and doubt myself. I will wonder why I ever thought this job was so amazing in the first place. There will be weeks where I am so busy I can’t see straight and weeks where I am so happy I could cry. I’m prepared for this because my life has been a series of rollercoasters and I know what it’s like to encounter bumps and valleys in the road.

My new job makes me so happy I didn’t settle. During my first-ever post-grad interview, I went on an all-day second-round interview shadowing assignment where I followed a veteran sales rep and a newly hired sales rep as they went door-to-door to businesses, selling office supplies. (Yes, selling office supplies. What a thrilling job!) I remember telling the veteran how this wasn’t the job I thought it would be (I figured more marketing, less sales) and the newbie told me something I haven’t been able to get out of my mind for the past week. He said, “Yeah, this wasn’t the job I thought it would be, either. But, you know, a job is a job.” Is it, though? Can we strive for more? Is that too naive? Perhaps, but I’d rather be naive and happy than in a job that made me miserable. I keep thinking about the what ifs. What if I had tried harder to get the job in the last-round interview? What if I was a door-to-door sales rep, doing something just to have a job? What if I had settled? I am so very glad I didn’t. I’m so very glad I followed my heart and found this opportunity for me to flourish and grow.

My new job scares me to death. I’m only one week into my three-month probationary period and all I can think of is how happy I am with my new life and how scared I am that I won’t live up to expectations and will not make it past these three months. I know it’s a silly worry because all I have to do is show I’m willing to learn and happy to be there and it’s all gravy. My boss has already said she’s impressed with how quickly I catch onto things, so I just need to keep that up. Keep impressing her, keep learning. But I’m a worrywart by nature, so I guess I had to worry about something.

My new job is making me the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. More than graduation, more than my cruise. I finally feel like I’m doing something worthwhile with my life. I’m no longer stagnant, no longer waiting for my life to start. It has started. It started a long time ago. But I’m finally living it the way I was meant to.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

(Hello, my name is Stephany and I love the cheese.)

I start my new job today and I’m equal parts excited and nervous. I am so relieved that I have found a job, one I feel will challenge and push me in different ways.

I am excited…

…about working for a lady I had an instant connection with, learning everything I can about marketing and advertising.

…about growing as a professional.

…about getting rid of my polos and khakis for cute, professional wear.

…about going into work 2.5 hours later than I’m used to, even if I am working longer hours.

…about being able to be financially independent for the first time in my life.

I am nervous…

…about performing well. I have performance anxiety from my internship days, wondering if I’ll measure up to their standards.

…about how I’m going to handle switching from being a part-timer to a full-timer, in a completely different job.

…about the work environment and how long it will take me to feel comfortable.

…about how long it will take me to get used to a new schedule and new duties.

…about what things in my life I will need to eliminate to make room for the new things in my life.

I know the next few weeks are going to be insane for me. There is so much I have to learn and do. The woman I will be working for told me she spent her first month in a fog with all the new stuff she had to learn. But I am taking the first step in the next stage of my life and it’s thrilling. I feel so blessed to be given this opportunity and I’m not going to take one day for granted.

It all felt anti-climatic. The moment I had been building up to for the past 3 months arrived in a very laid-back manner. A simple, “We’d like to offer you the job,” with his back to me as we walked into his office after meeting with the owners. The entire interview had built up to it, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise but it was still deeply exciting and surreal.

But let’s back up.

Tuesday was my second interview, where I would meet the guy who heads up the marketing/media department. The company helps promote giveaways for charities and I knew the position was exactly what I was looking for. Last week, I interviewed with the woman I would be working for and it was an amazing interview. I instantly connected with her, which is very hard for me. She was energetic, outgoing, and had a supreme love for her job that made me excited. I was shown to her office (and subsequently, my future desk) and it all felt totally right. I felt comfortable there. For the first time ever, I felt as if I was in the office I would work in someday. The desk already felt like it was mine.

For the next week, I could only think about getting the job. I like to imagine the worst-case scenario with all the jobs I interview for (and just in general! That glass is totally half-empty!) but as much as I tried to summon negative thoughts, they didn’t stay for long. I could only think about getting the job and putting in my notice at work and working for that company.

I was nervous as hell about this second interview. I knew things had gone well the first time around and I wanted this job more than anything. We didn’t chat for too long before he decided he wanted me to meet the owners, which I knew was a very good thing. Chatting with the owners was easy and comfortable, they made me feel completely at home and interested in getting to know me beyond my resume. And when they told the marketing head that they were giving me the green light, I knew something big was about to happen.

For the longest time, Monster and Career Builder were my avenues for job searching. And while those websites are amazing, they are also the place everyone who is job searching is looking. I knew I wasn’t standing out and I knew I had to find a new way to search. Enter Craigslist. I have never really used Craigslist before, but I thought I would give it a try. See what’s out there and just apply, apply, apply. I applied to about 5 jobs a day, in all different areas. Some in marketing, some in customer service, some in dreaded administrative assistant roles. Mainly, I wanted to work in marketing. During my internship, I worked on a lot of marketing tasks and it sparked a huge interest in this field. I knew I didn’t have the skills for a big-time marketing job, but I wanted a place to learn. A place where I would feel comfortable learning and growing and asking questions. However, it’s important to acknowledge the consequences of bullying in the office, as it can greatly impact the learning and growth environment for interns and employees alike.

This position fulfills this need. It’s an assistant role, where I will be helping out the media manager with any tasks she needs. (As well as helping out other members of the marketing staff, when needed.) I will be doing everything from filing to research to working with spreadsheets and vendors. Most of all, I will be learning. I will be gaining skills in marketing and advertising. And the woman I will be working for? Well, she’s all sorts of amazing, which makes everything all the better. If you want to be a professional hypnotist, it’s essential to undergo training and acquire a deep understanding of the principles and techniques involved in hypnotherapy.

I wasn’t under the illusion that I would get a fantastic job right out of college. I was going to be satisfied with anything, even if it meant I had to be a customer service rep – which, by the way, might be the worst job in the world for someone who hates talking on the phone. I just wanted to leave my part-time job where I barely make enough to pay for the four bills I’m responsible for. I wanted to use my degree and be happy with what I’m doing. I wanted to stop being so financially dependent on my mother. I’m also not under the illusion that this job is going to be puppies and rainbows. I know it’s going to be very busy, fast-paced, and hectic. I’m going to have to transition from 20-25 hour work weeks to 40-hour work weeks. I’m going to have to make new friends and do new things.

I’m happy. I am so, so happy. Job searching is over. I am employed. I am going to start a brand-new phase of my life. And I can’t wait to take you all along for the ride!

What job did you have right out of college? If you’re still in school, what field do you want to get into?