I wanted to share a little story during my first week of work in California...
I was in my cubicle as a temp worker at Netscape. It was a simple HTML job. Back then, a lot of editing work in big portals weren't even handled by large content management systems that allowed the editors to make changes to their respective channels without having to know HTML. So, a team of people like me served that purpose, and our skills ranged from HTML to some old-school JavaScript to back-end Perl scripting (this was 1999).
So it was my first week on the job, and I was still in awe of my new corporate culture (weird people, beer bashes, dogs at work, khaki shorts, sandals, Nerf gun wars) but I was also still groping around American culture in general.
One morning -- possibly in my second day of work -- one of my new teammates introduced herself and also handed me a couple of chocolate chip cookies in a napkin. I just wolfed down the cookies when she left. Then, like in a timely scene in a TV sitcom, my boss, Jeff, also dropped by my cubicle to introduce me to his boss, Hugh.
"Hey Marvin, good morning... Hugh, this is Marvin, our new Content Specialist."
And there I was barely able to smile and much less able to talk. I couldn't open my mouth because of a half-chewed cookie, and I felt like some character in a "Got Milk?" commercial as I was trying to desperately swallow the rest of the cookie quickly while extending my hand for a handshake. I merely managed a wide-eyed nod. Hugh shook my hand and smiled but also had a look of concern on his face. "He's just a little quiet," my manager told his boss as they moved on.
Later that morning, my liaison in the temping agency, Lisa, gave me a call. Apparently, Jeff reported that Hugh was concerned that I may not be fit for the job because I seemed too quiet and shy and I was about to be "thrown in the lion's den" (apparently that was the exact phrase that Hugh used to describe working with web producers and editors, though honestly, some of them were actually very sweet people). I explained the cookie incident to Lisa and told her that I would try to drop Jeff a note. I wanted to reassure him I was not too much of a wuss or an idiot for the job.
So, an hour or so later, Lisa called me and the tone of her voice switched from concern to amusement.
"I don't know what email you sent but Jeff was laughing when he called me and said 'Marvin just dropped me this really funny note' and then he just said, 'He'll be fine here'. Good job!"
The email I sent went something like this:
"Hi Jeff,
"Lisa told me about your concerns about me being too quiet. The truth is that I'm actually still in the stage of observation and adjustment. Also, as you know, I'm new to the country in general, and currently my vocabulary consists mainly of four-letter expletives and Seinfeld episodes, but I should be fine soon."
. . .
That short note may have captured the cowboy attitude of the new frontier and gold rush I was in -- the tech boom in the Silicon Valley. The truth is probably closer to the fact that I was really just being a smart-ass -- but I think it showed that I could fit in and would actually have fun in the company. So I kept my first job and launched my modest career in the web industry.
Sometimes, I look back and think that I was probably a better person when I was 23 years old. Although I was also prone to over-analyze and be miserable, I also had more guts and a sense of adventure. I was more tenacious. Most importantly, I was able to laugh at adversity and failure, and then recover gracefully (most of the time).
I was in my cubicle as a temp worker at Netscape. It was a simple HTML job. Back then, a lot of editing work in big portals weren't even handled by large content management systems that allowed the editors to make changes to their respective channels without having to know HTML. So, a team of people like me served that purpose, and our skills ranged from HTML to some old-school JavaScript to back-end Perl scripting (this was 1999).
So it was my first week on the job, and I was still in awe of my new corporate culture (weird people, beer bashes, dogs at work, khaki shorts, sandals, Nerf gun wars) but I was also still groping around American culture in general.
One morning -- possibly in my second day of work -- one of my new teammates introduced herself and also handed me a couple of chocolate chip cookies in a napkin. I just wolfed down the cookies when she left. Then, like in a timely scene in a TV sitcom, my boss, Jeff, also dropped by my cubicle to introduce me to his boss, Hugh.
"Hey Marvin, good morning... Hugh, this is Marvin, our new Content Specialist."
And there I was barely able to smile and much less able to talk. I couldn't open my mouth because of a half-chewed cookie, and I felt like some character in a "Got Milk?" commercial as I was trying to desperately swallow the rest of the cookie quickly while extending my hand for a handshake. I merely managed a wide-eyed nod. Hugh shook my hand and smiled but also had a look of concern on his face. "He's just a little quiet," my manager told his boss as they moved on.
Later that morning, my liaison in the temping agency, Lisa, gave me a call. Apparently, Jeff reported that Hugh was concerned that I may not be fit for the job because I seemed too quiet and shy and I was about to be "thrown in the lion's den" (apparently that was the exact phrase that Hugh used to describe working with web producers and editors, though honestly, some of them were actually very sweet people). I explained the cookie incident to Lisa and told her that I would try to drop Jeff a note. I wanted to reassure him I was not too much of a wuss or an idiot for the job.
So, an hour or so later, Lisa called me and the tone of her voice switched from concern to amusement.
"I don't know what email you sent but Jeff was laughing when he called me and said 'Marvin just dropped me this really funny note' and then he just said, 'He'll be fine here'. Good job!"
The email I sent went something like this:
"Hi Jeff,
"Lisa told me about your concerns about me being too quiet. The truth is that I'm actually still in the stage of observation and adjustment. Also, as you know, I'm new to the country in general, and currently my vocabulary consists mainly of four-letter expletives and Seinfeld episodes, but I should be fine soon."
. . .
That short note may have captured the cowboy attitude of the new frontier and gold rush I was in -- the tech boom in the Silicon Valley. The truth is probably closer to the fact that I was really just being a smart-ass -- but I think it showed that I could fit in and would actually have fun in the company. So I kept my first job and launched my modest career in the web industry.
Sometimes, I look back and think that I was probably a better person when I was 23 years old. Although I was also prone to over-analyze and be miserable, I also had more guts and a sense of adventure. I was more tenacious. Most importantly, I was able to laugh at adversity and failure, and then recover gracefully (most of the time).
