The Excitement Of Starting A New Job

When it comes to starting a new position, I have almost always been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to move to a new position from an old one. I have always been thankful for the ability to continue to make money while looking for new work, giving me some comfort that I still have my old work as a safety net should I not find anything new.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t always the case. March 2020 saw the first time in several years that I was jobless, and it took about five months before I could find work again. I understood that there were many jobless people out in the workforce also looking for work, but it still felt terrible feeling not useful or saving any money for my future. It’s something that I hope I will never have to go through again, although I know that there is always that potential.

In this sense, I feel as though my levels of excitement were very different for some jobs compared to others. Of course, I think it’s very difficult to match the excitement of getting your first job, even if it is just an entry-level position. My first day at McDonalds was both scary and exciting because I had never experienced anything like this before, and I finally had an opportunity to be useful and show off my abilities. Yes, it was stressful and you had to be very quick while managing your time well, and there were times when I would be asked to have weeks with very long hours indeed, but there was nothing quite like sitting in that training room on the first day.

My next job would be the position I have currently occupied for the longest (over three years), which was my first sales job at a small Canadian jewellery store called Charm Diamond Centres. Ever since I was little, I had a fascination for gemstones and shiny things, and to have someone take me on while I was in school to talk about gemstones and jewellery all day, how could I say no? I would say that the excitement of starting this kind of job was very close to starting my first one, especially considering the fact that I had gone from a McDonalds crew uniform to a suit in one step. I felt good, I looked good, and I was doing something that I loved doing. My teammates were very supportive of me from day one, and I couldn’t have been happier to have this opportunity.

My next career move didn’t change industries, but instead moved me to a higher class of jewellery. For another year, I worked for the oldest jewellery store in Canada: the now 142-year-old Maison Birks. This career move was probably the hardest decision for me to make. I loved my time at Charm, along with the people I worked with, but Birks was one of the companies in the jewellery industry that I aspired to work for if I continued to work in jewellery. When the opportunity arose, I simply could not turn it down, despite the fact that I was very happy with the company I worked for. I think this added a bit more pressure for me on day one, because although I want to succeed in any position, I wanted it even more in this case because I was leaving a job I enjoyed so much. That being said, the idea that I had made it to work for a company that I had long considered to be a dream to work for was exciting enough that my first day was still happy and very exciting.

Unfortunately, it was with Maison Birks that I was laid off due to the shutdowns associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. For five months I was jobless and desperately trying to find ways to improve myself. As I had completed school as an English Major while working at Birks, I wished to make my next job something that used my education. I took additional courses, I practiced my writing, and I volunteered as a content writer (which I still do to this day, hello blog readers!) Eventually, I finally found a position at a small startup called BreezeMaxWeb where I was hired as a content writer.

To say that I was excited was an understatement. I was finally about to gain experience in the field I went to school for, doing something else that I really enjoyed doing. Of course, being in a new industry with no real previous work experience meant starting at the bottom all over again, but that was okay to me. I was ready to dig in and put myself to work as a professional writer. It also wouldn’t be long before I was promoted from within the same company, the first time that had ever occurred to me. I went from a Content Writer to a Quality Control Supervisor in the span of three months, making it my first foray into a managerial role. This was probably the most nervous I had felt about a position change, especially considering it was a new role for this company that I would have to figure out on the fly. Still, it helped being part of a team that I was already familiar with and who supported me throughout the process, making the transition much easier than it would have been otherwise.

At the time of writing this blog, I am currently two weeks into my most recent position change, and probably the biggest career move I have ever made. Moving from the creative field to a more technical role, I am now an IT Infrastructure Support Analyst for the Canada Revenue Agency. To me, becoming involved in the government had always been my goal, and to finally have the opportunity to work in the field feels like a monumental opportunity for me. I am still extremely excited for what this role brings, but I am also very nervous going through such a massive shift in the type of job I occupy. This much more technical role is going to be a big difference from my previous creative role, and it will definitely take some getting used to after so long. Having some background in Computer Science, the field isn’t entirely foreign to me, but it will still be a very different leap towards something new. It is for this reason that my excitement is also laden with a little bit of anxiety, at least until I settle in.

Different jobs invoke different feelings in people when they start them. There are many opportunities out there, and everyone will react differently to the jobs that they start. One thing is for certain though, there will always be some element of excitement feeling as though you are moving forward in your career, seizing stepping stones when they come to you, and discovering new skills and passions you never knew you had.

I, for one, can’t wait to see what my future holds.