How to : make the most of your first 3 months at Bright Network

I’d encourage all new joiners to…

Introduce yourself to as many people across the business as possible. You’ll have certain meetings and introductions set-up for you as part of your onboarding, but there will also be time around this for you to be proactive in reaching out to others. Everyone is very friendly so it's unlikely that people won't introduce themselves, but if they haven't, go ahead and do this yourself! The sooner you establish a connection and working relationship with people, the easier your job will be. Starting a new job can be daunting when there are lots of people and systems to get your head around, so knowing who is who can really help in getting your head around things.

Come into the office on a Friday. We have weekly office drinks each Friday and it’s a great chance to meet people and socialise with colleagues you don't see everyday. Friday drinks are often themed (with a different team member taking charge each week) - so these are great fun!. In my first week the theme was Hawaii with blue Hawaiians to drink and leis all around the kitchen area. More recently we had a Eurovision themed night with a sweep stake for the winner (which I won and was treated for a prize!) 

Week one is a lot! You’ll be taking in a lot of information and learning a new job takes a different type of brain power! So it’s natural if you feel quite exhausted. Be sure to take time to reflect on the week and don’t be shy about asking to clarify things - it’s better that you clarify things sooner rather than later!

 
My biggest surprise when joining was that I…
 
Actually enjoyed coming to the office! I joined after a long period of working from home at my last company, going back to the office there had felt like a chore and I struggled to feel productive as commute time felt like a waste in the day. However, I’m now loving coming to the Bright Network office, there's a great vibe and I'm able to split my week according to if I need focus time or not - this really suits me because of the nature of the work I do. The finance team isn’t the biggest of teams, so by going into the office, I can interact with other teams and learn more about what’s going on across the business.
 
My biggest achievement so far has definitely been…
 
Launching a new enhanced pension scheme for the team! Within a matter of days after joining I took on the project, which wasn’t an area of Finance I’d worked on hugely before. I was very quickly given the chance to present to our Exec team, getting great exposure to how projects are managed and felt like I was really trusted with full ownership of the project.
 
When I started, I wish I’d known it was OK to…
 
Set boundaries. As a business we really embrace flexible working and different team members will work different hours to suit their lifestyles, roles & preferences.
 
As a new joiner, if your previous business (like mine!) was a bit more traditional in its approach to working hours, it can be confusing to see messages outside of normal hours. Nobody expects you to respond to these messages just because they were sent at odd times - it’s very much not a “show face” culture, we just want to accommodate flexibility for different working styles.