Regular readers will know that I have a slight
tendency to go on about how important reflection is and how I find that writing
helps me to think about things. Now that initial new job rush has passed this
seems like a good moment to put that into practice.
Starting a new job is always an odd experience.
It shakes us out of our routine and forces us to learn a lot of new things all
at once. A new person has to take on board a huge range of new information: new
ways of doing things, new procedures, who people are and what they do, where
things are, the history of a place, a whole new culture.
Strangely I think that can be particularly
disconcerting when you move to a workplace that is similar to your old
workplace. I’ve moved from one FE college library service to another. In some ways I
felt right at home straight away. (It helped that everyone was friendly and
welcoming). That very familiarity can sometimes give a through the looking
glass feel to your first week or two in a new role. It’s a world you know well
but everything is slightly different.
Maybe that’s not very like Through the Looking Glass at all. The familiar is more fundamentally twisted in Wonderland. It’s
more Sliders or some other story where parallel universes are very familiar but
other enough to get the plot moving.
Some of the induction training covered systems
and resources that I was already experienced with but of course there were
enough small differences to make complacency potentially risky. (Not all that
dangerous but definitely a source of potential hiccups when I was trying to
make that good first impression. Thankfully I think I managed to stay on top of
this.)
Beyond those small differences there are some
more fundamental differences between my new role and my old one.
The college itself is bigger than my last place.
As a result our service is spread across three different sites and we have four
different centres. The main site has the main learning resources centre and a
specialist higher education centre.
A higher proportion of HE students and thus the
need to provide that kind of tailored facility is another key difference.
In terms of my personal role here the big
change is that I am now line managing other members of staff. This is a new
challenge for me and it’s one of the aspects of this job that I was looking
forward to before I started. Professionally it’s a very important area for me
to develop and I’ve always been interested in helping other people to develop.
I know I’m bound to say this but having met everyone they are a great team.
Another important difference is that my last
role was term time only and I am now full time. Again this is a very positive
step in terms of professional development. It’s also a positive step for
practical reasons. However there is another layer of culture shock involved in
getting used to working in a college library outside of term time. That will
get worse after Friday when my teacher wife will start her long summer holiday
but never mind. She does completely deserve it and we are going away
for a couple of weeks later in the summer.
Don't worry I am keeping busy during this relatively quiet period of the year. Jiscmail List users might have seen my request for help with researching a new code of conduct for example.
Don't worry I am keeping busy during this relatively quiet period of the year. Jiscmail List users might have seen my request for help with researching a new code of conduct for example.
When the new term starts I will be responsible
for timetabling everyone. As far as I can tell that’s a task that is reasonably
easy as long as nothing comes up but something always does.
Inductions will also take up a lot of my time
in that first half term. I will be explaining our service to new students who
are going through their own through the looking glass moments. Perhaps the
analogy works better here. A student who is used to a school might find this
new place of learning familiar in some ways but radically different and strange
in others. When working with brand new students I always try my best to remember
what it’s like to adjust to a new environment and new people while trying to
take on board a huge amount of information. It shouldn’t be too hard for me
this year.
My overall area of responsibility is
Customer Experience. I am responsible for making sure that we are meeting our
students’ needs and providing high standards of customer service. It is part of
my job to make sure that those new students find our LRCs friendly and
welcoming. Given the warm welcome I’ve received in the last month or so I have
no worries about that aspect of my new role.
