My first day of work is tomorrow. Not counting co-op and summer jobs, this will be only my third full-time job ever. I will admit I am a bit nervous about the prospect of starting a new job. I think my nervousness stems mainly from the fear of the unknown. Though I know the name of the game I’m working on and the platform it will run on, I know nothing else about what I’ll be doing.
I didn’t have a chance to meet any of the people on my development team nor did I even get the chance to take a look around the office. I have no clue as to what exactly I’ll be contributing to the game. I think if I had just been able to meet a few of the guys and just see the work environment, I’d probably a little less nervous about the whole thing.
Strangely enough, I have no memory of being nervous before my first day at EA, so many years ago. I wonder if I was indeed on edge. I should have been, that was my first important foray into the world of video game development. As it stands, I only remember two things about that day: sitting across from my friend Garrett Knights in the lobby at 9am (we didn’t know each other back then) and the impressive set of orientation activities that EA has scheduled.
I hope tomorrow will go as smoothly as my first day at EA. All I want for this job is to recapture even just some of the magic I felt when I first starting working at EA. Back in those early months, I was completely content and happy with my job. I had never experienced that with a job before and it was euphoric. If they had paid testers just even a little more money, I’d probably be still working there now.
That’s all in the past now of course and tomorrow I start not only a new job, but a new career as a software engineer. We were told in undergrad that some of us would wind up changing careers several times but I never thought that would apply to me.
I’m hoping that after the first day, after meeting my team and getting settled, I’ll feel more comfortable about the situation. I’ll be back with more tomorrow after my first day of work!