Today is my 5th anniversary working at my company. On August 1st, 2014 I walked into a job where I had no idea what I was going to be doing, not really, just that I had a job (thank god). Actually, I signed an offer for a three-month temporary position – it was a new role and they wanted to test it and test me.
I started on a Friday and a few people in the office were ordering lunch and asked if I wanted something. It was from a Chinese restaurant and I most definitely did not want something but did not have food and wanted to come off as a joiner . . . I got a salad . . . the only thing I could find on the menu . . . I didn’t even like salad. I remember being surprised when they told me it was ten dollars. Right. This wasn’t a free lunch. I knew so little about how workplaces actually worked . . . I wonder all the time if I would’ve gotten past my own hiring process now. (probably not)
But five years and I spent today in our office that is 2x the square footage and 4x the people, sitting in an office of my very own. I led three interviews as well as attended our weekly leadership meeting. In between, I worked on a variety of projects and employee relations issues . . . things that would’ve been completely foreign to 5 years ago me.
It took me weeks to figure out what ATS stood for . . . (Applicant Tracking System . . . our own product). I had anxiety asking an employee what treat he wanted for his birthday, something I was tasked with organizing on my first week. Last year I stood up at that same employee’s wedding.
Five years. Longer than my college career and it has been a master’s education in its own. There are so many chapters and layers to my time at work, lesson upon lesson, and change upon change. It wasn’t always rosy, but there was always growth and good people.
This has been just a job for me in the same way that Harry Potter is just a book. I’ve tried to balance that more recently but I don’t regret giving so much of myself to a workplace that has given me a whole lot back: education, confidence, friendship, and complete acceptance of who I am.
It has been a wild, transformative, rarely boring five years. I am lucky.
With Love,
Natalie