Things really heated up in my second 'working' month.
One change was that 'M', the balding young man, started giving me busywork. Most of it was horrible, and could easily have been programmed by somebody even halfway competent, so I learned how to program it myself. Basically, I had to debug rich formatted contract templates. Usually he would give me enough busywork to keep me occupied for around fifteen minutes, but it was so boring that I often considered getting up and just leaving. Of course I didn't, because I had already received my first paycheck, and boy does it feel good to get money.
Another thing that changed was that I was given reading material. I wasn't told why or what the project was, I was just given around a thousand pages of dense business speak paperwork, (in a foreign language!) and told to study. I did study it, but it was an unrealistic amount, so I focused on getting the just of it all and learning some new words.
I saved the biggest change for last. my entire office and then some was compelled to attend a seminar on coding for a business process designer. It was the project the big head had talked about months ago. I was excited and did my best, while keeping ahead of the mindless busywork that 'M' threw my way.
You know what? Here I'll just tell you guys the punchline, which otherwise won't happen for another month. Ready? Ok. The point about reading all that documentation was that there was an underlying process to be studied, and my boss wanted this process to be automated using the business process management software. If I had known this, I would have asked different questions to the seminar lecturer, and I would have definitely attacked the hundreds upon hundreds of pages differently.
Now try to forget the punchline. My mindset at the end of the month was only slightly pessimistic. I figured it is normal to start off small, and that if I do a good job with my busywork, and if I learn enough from the seminar, I'll be fine in the long run.
No comments:
Post a Comment