Five Things I have Learnt In My First Week...

Hello. This is going to be a bit of a different post. Mainly because I've started my apprenticeship this week and in a way, I feel a bit like a different person. It has been a weird feeling. But I'm going to tell you five things I have learnt in my first week at my new job.

My first week went mostly well. These first few weeks are going to be induction type of weeks. I enjoyed the first three days, not so much the last two. I had the photo taken for my ID badge and I had a desk set up, with my own computer and phone. I met everyone sitting near me and they were really nice thank goodness. I had a bit of a tour around the building, met everyone in the department I'm going to be working in, got given different books and set up my computer. In the afternoons I started to learn more about insurance slips and how everything works on the system which I didn't mind too much as I learnt things I didn't know. A good first three days to start the week.

On Thursday and Friday we had to go to different departments and spend the day with them. Which was a bit pointless to me as they kept doing things on the computer and kept saying "you don't need to know this." The only good thing was is that it gave an overview into how the whole workplace operates but it was a bit extreme as on Thursday afternoon I was literally watching a man doing stuff on a computer for two and a half hours (2pm-4.30pm) who didn't really say anything to me at all. And on Friday, we had to go down to a different department and the guy who was talking didn't look at me at all, he just kept directing everything to the other apprentice so all I got was the back of his head. After the week was over, I thought it went mostly well but Thursday and Friday wasn't the best and sort of spoilt the week a bit. I was in a bit of a bad mood on Friday and started questioning whether I should really do this, whether it was right for me and the fact I was exhausted really didn't help. But after going round Jordan's, eating pizza and having cuddles, I felt better, and went out to his gig that night which was a great night. Hence why I'm blogging today as I'm exhausted from my week and night out last night, so I'm having a rest day to try and recover from my week.

1. Everyone was once in your position.
While going round and meeting everyone, most of them said to me "we were in your position once" and obviously it was true as everyone needs to start somewhere. Some people I met joined straight after they left school, others had been to university and got degrees not really linked to insurance. But the thing they had in common is that they didn't know much about insurance. One thing I have learnt is that insurance can be specialist, it is a very broad area of work, and I am going to be specialising in the energy sector, which is apparently one of the most confusing sectors of insurance to get your head around. I am looking forward to the challenge but I'm glad that other employees understand how I'm feeling and the awkwardness of the first few weeks as I can't really do anything as I don't know that much.

2. Everyone is constantly learning, no one knows everything.
Very true. There is so much about insurance and energy, which means no one really knows everything. My manager was asking the guy next to him what to do with a particular query, as well as another guy asking people how he could send out the endorsement in a particular way. Another tip I got given was that I could keep using the excuse "I'm new" for as long as I wanted.

3. Try not to compare yourself to others.
Very easy for me to do and hard to stop. There were 12 apprentices starting on the same day as me, including myself, all spread out in different departments. There was another apprentice in the energy department (not exactly in the department I'm in) but he did finance at college and it seems like he knows more stuff than I do. I've had to try and reassure myself that I will learn more stuff as time goes on. But oh well, I'm improving on this as I'll get there.

4. It is a lot to take in but don't worry if you can't remember everything at first.
All the information we got given last week... Wow. There was a hell of a lot. And I've still got to complete the online curriculum as well for this which involves learning even more stuff. Thursday and Friday seemed a bit pointless to me as I can't remember most of the stuff I even got told. But I'm trying to remember the most important parts I will need to know.

5. Don't worry if you have doubts.
It's only my first week but I have had a few doubts in whether I can do this job and whether I will enjoy it. The only time I will really know is when I start doing the job properly which won't be for a few weeks as yet. I'm just enjoying the experience and learning everything, I am genuinely interested in doing the job but it requires learning before I can do it. Hence why I have a week of online training next week.

I'll let you know how things go but so far it is going ok, better than I thought it would (minus the Thursday and Friday part) You may have noticed I haven't really published a Birchbox review recently but I think I'm going to stop doing them for the time being as I feel like it is a bit more of a chore rather than excitement. I still receive them though, got Octobers this morning and it was great! And I also said on a previous post I was going to upload photos on facebook. That hasn't happened yet as I just simply forgot and when Lish reminded me, I just couldn't really be bothered. I will do at some point though.

So yeah, it's all good...

Amy :)