Working Full-Time for the First Time

Everybody lives in the hope of winning the lottery, marrying somone rich or just stumbling across a large amount of cash in the middle of the street. Unfortunately, that is nothing more than just a dream and for the vast majority of us working full-time is something that we are going to be doing for the foreseeable future. I want to share with you my experience of stepping into my first full-time job at the age of 21 and my personal transition from university to the world of 9-5.

During my final year of university in 2018, I had decided to start searching for a full-time job a good eight months early from graduation (June time). This was for a few reasons: because I was about to be made redundant from my part-time job due to the death of retail, I wanted a graduate job immediately and I was hungry for the feeling of having a decent bank account. Lucky for me, I was able to get my first full-time job before I finished my degree (the first out of anyone I knew I must add). I bottled a few video interviews because they were so new and cringy so I decided I could probably wait until something better comes along, which it did.

Nearly all of my university friends were applying for graduate scheme jobs including myself. They are extremely attractive (the jobs, not the friends). For example, Aldi offer a graduate scheme with the starting salary at £44,000, a chance to travel across the globe and a fully expensed Audi A4 or BWM 3 Series. Surreal. Nearly every single company out there has a few graduate scheme placements. But do people really land these dream first jobs? I warn you, they are extremely competitive, the recruitment process is lengthy and there's a 95% chance you won't get one. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try, but I do not think it is made known how many people are in the same mindset as you and will be either as determined or more determined as you. I applied for a few graduate scheme jobs and didn't get much luck, so I toned my hopes down and went for something slightly less competitive. A simple office job.

29th May 2018 was my first day in the office (just for the record, my job has absolutely nothing to do with my degree which is more than common in today's society). I wasn't scared, I was extremely excited which is the opposite of most people. I do not work in the same town that I live, it runs in the family that we commute to work for some strange reason. For me, it is a half an hour commute to work without traffic and with traffic about forty five minutes. Even to this day, it does not feel like it takes half an hour to get to work it feels like it's 15 minutes. This is probably because I'm driving on one straight road pretty much the entire way and breaking the speed limit but we won't mention that last part.

When I tell people I work in another town, their first reaction is "you must be so sick of the commute" but this is not the case. If you put life into perspective, the majority of the time you need to leave your hometown to find a job that really works for you and works around you. Anyway, statistics show that the average commuting time to work is 59 minutes. Those that are not willing to commute are just lazy or have been very lucky to find a job that they love local to them.

One thing that did worry me was the hours. 8:30am till 17:00pm. This was a HUGE difference to my sleeping pattern. Whilst at university I was sleeping for 16 hours a day sometimes, always have a nap at least once a day and just generally like sleeping. I enjoy it so much I had to be tested for narcolepsy once. Admittedly, for the first few weeks I was extremely tired. All my energy was being drained on being trained, meeting a million people and repetitive Microsoft excel tasks. I knew there was more serious work to be done as time went on but I was not looking forward to full-time work if this is what I was going to be doing. For those of you about to step into full-time work, I can assure you the first few weeks are not fun. But don't worry, only 43/44 years to go until retirement.

So, what is it actually like in the office? One word: food. One particular colleague of mine will bring in biscuits, cakes, pastries for everyone every Friday and then everyone will just bring things in on any day regardless. When it is someone's birthday, cake gets brought in. When the office have passed their peak time, we have buffets'. When we want to do fundraising, and we do that a lot, we have a bake sale and even more buffets'. The office cafe sell the most delicious cakes and bakery type food. And it's not as if you can ask for a small slice either because there are no small servings in sight. It takes serious willpower to avoid eating it and even more willpower to avoid looking at it. Bear in mind that whilst working in an office, you aren't actually moving a lot, so eating this type of junk food on a regular basis is a one-way ticket to "my jeans don't fit me any more."

The second thing you need to be weary about in the office is the people. No matter where you work there is bound to be at least one person you do not like as much as the rest and whenever they are announcing they have booked a holiday you get really excited, because it means they won't be there. Working full-time means you will have to spend the vast majority of your days with your colleagues and you don't want to have a negative view of anyone, unless they really are pricks then fair enough. Luckily for me, I was in an open office work environment were all of the teams were close and banter was present every day. I find that humour and laughter are key to taking the ease of the seriousness of the work day, but you need to be really careful what you say and who you say it too. It all depends on how well you know your crowd.

If you are looking to go into full-time work for the first time, I advise you to pick a company that offers great staff benefits. I don't just mean 10% discount at this store and that store, you need to look at internal benefits in regards to your career. For example, my job pays for my masters which has saved me approximately £7,500 so far. The first main benefit that people look out for is the salary. This is something that you have to weigh up yourself. Everyone wants to be paid top dollar but it is forgotten that top dollar requires top efforts. You don't want to put yourself in a position where a year down the line you have to choose between your mental health or all the things that you won't be able to afford if you quit. The second main benefit is annual leave allowance. Many companies will display deceiving adverts saying '27 days annual leave'. What you need to research is; does this or does this not include bank holidays? Let's do the math. If a company is offering 27 days without bank holidays, you will only have 19 days holiday a year. Some companies are even cheeky enough to get you to reserve a few days for a week off at Christmas taking the total down to only 14 days holiday a year.

As time went on and I received more training, I got involved in some more serious jobs and I had begun to love my job. Since starting in 2018, I have now received a promotion in early 2020 which means my work is even more engaging. Please don't be fooled, it can also be extremely stressful but those times do pass. Since working full-time, I have been able to learn so much about myself and what I would like to do in the future, but this will most likely change again. Am I looking forward to the foreseeable future of full-time work? In the short-time, yes. In the long-term, of course not. I still have hopes that I will stumble across a mysterious black bag in the street full of £50 notes.

I will round off by saying, the key to loving full-time work is you need to be passionate about your job. If you are willing to go above and beyond in any shape or form then work can become satisfying and rewarding. It does help if you know what you want to do and where you want to go, but as a graduate I know this is not easy. The job I have currently was just meant to pass the time and get me on my feet. It has been nearly two years and I wouldn't dream of leaving. Lastly, if you do win the lottery or marry someone who plays in the Premier League, well aren't you just a lucky soul. And if you find that mysterious black bag in the street, just drop me a message.