Getting ready for my first day at work

My five weeks between finishing work as a postdoctoral researcher and starting work as a trainee patent attorney is almost up! Let me tell you that the time flew by and, no, I am not totally bored and climbing up the walls. Five weeks is not enough time for me to get bored in, I’m pretty sure I could comfortably entertain myself for a year if money were no object. I have been keeping busy enough.

Anyway, from Monday morning, I’ll be commuting to Edinburgh. As Monday is my first day my new boss has asked if I could come in for 09:30 and if I could bring some documentation along with me. I expect Monday to be not quite like most other days, I’m guessing I’ll be introduced to the team and will spend some time just getting set up.

 

My wardrobe is looking a lot smarter than I am used to… might stick with the most conservative options for my first day, all the same.

 

As a trainee patent attorney, I know that there are a lot of exams in my future. Starting with the foundation exams. I don’t have to take them all at once, but the next opportunity to take any of them is in October. Since I want to be as useful to my new firm as I can be, and to get more useful quickly, I’m going to ask if they think I would be capable of passing any of the exams if I only have until October to study. My guess is I could reasonably take a shot at one or two, but I’m sure they have their own plans.

This is also the first proper job I’ve had where I’ll have to dress smartly. Last week I went shopping to pick up extra blouses and shirts, smart trousers, a skirt, and a second pair of smart shoes to add to the suit, shirts and jacket I already had. Yesterday I bought an ironing board. Yes, I am 28 years old and have never yet owned my own ironing board. Until now it was unnecessary. Seriously.

On Thursday I dropped into my local hair salon to get my colour touched up because the blue was showing through as green towards the ends of my hair. Kind of cool, sure, but not super professional. So now there’s more red in my hair to balance out the blue-green and while the red will steadily wash out to brown, it should hopefully keep the green covered until I next go in.

So now I’m pretty ready and I just have to wait and see how things go. I’m approximately 90% excited and 10% nervous. Wish me luck!