Period of adjustment- Random thought on my first week at a new job

So, I have one whole week under my belt at my new job.  It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster, but that’s to be expected.  Industry changed from insurance to gaming.  Development method changed from waterfall to agile.  And my co-workers changed from women over 40 to men under 40.  That’s a whole lot of different.

Monday and Tuesday were  filled with office tour, meeting people, finding my desk and the bathroom.  I actually had a working computer in the afternoon of my first day!  We got some software loaded and I started playing games to get used to the products.  Day 2 I attended my first scrum meeting and even gave an update (it was about being able to find the bathroom, but still counts!).  

Wednesday I started poking at a game that was being built.  The guy next to me was officially testing that game, so it was interesting to see what issues he found and considered important vs. what I found and thought were important.  I was close on some, but completely missed a few.  I don’t like missing things, even when I’m not sure what I’m looking for.

On Thursday, there was a gap to fill due to an illness.  So that afternoon, I got to dive into the deep end a bit sooner than expected and start testing ‘unsupervised’.  I prefer the ‘jump in and claw your way out’ method of learning, so I was excited to get started.  By the end of the day, I had found a handful of issues and put them in the bug tracker.  I actually felt productive and that I had made a helpful contribution to the team.  Not bad for day 4.

Friday, I continued testing the game and was able to retest the fixes from the previous bugs.  I even found a few more interesting defects that got a ‘good catch’ from the designer.  (A little confidence boost was nice.)

Later Friday afternoon, I met with my manager and his manager to talk about how my first week went and where we go from here.  They have a genuine desire to improve the testing that’s being done.  I’m confident that I can help do that, and they are offering any support I need, including time to get my bearings.  And I have the great advantage that their current testing isn’t bad or broken, it’s just young and a bit disjointed.  

So next week, I’m taking a vacation.  Super classy when starting a new job, but it was previously booked.  When I return, I plan to take a deeper dive into the development process and start formulating some plans for where we go from here.

Thanks for reading! If you have any suggest, comments, input, complaints, recipes, etc., I welcome and appreciate them.