First Two Weeks

So fast! I'm two weeks old at the new place. As usual, when entering a new environment many weird and embarrassing things have occurred.

Perhaps the most weird one would be my first day when I almost bumped into my ex-boss while HR was taking us on the office tour. Automatic response was to turn my head away as far as it would go! Why was he there? I don't know, only guesses I can come up with. But why the extreme avoidance? Because I only told 2 persons in my previous place where I was going to, and he was definitely not one of them.

Since then, I have sat in one audit committee meeting and two board meetings (in just 2 weeks!). I thought I wouldn't need to worry about board paper compilations in my first month, but turns out I came in smack in the middle of the quarterly meetings period.

It's interesting to experience various boards of different companies. Even in my previous place, the board dynamics of different business groups differed, but most of the time interaction between board and management were fairly cordial. However, the board meetings I attended last week were quite a culture shock, where the board had really let their opinion be heard (with table thumping and raised voices, nevermind whether it was through a concall or not). I hope that it was just a one-off thing but I have a feeling that it isn't so.

In just two weeks I have been assigned quite a few tasks, not so much the routine secretarial jobs but special projects. I have read (or rather scanned through) probably 30-40 odd past agreements and started working on drafting and finalising new agreements.

The learning curve is on the rise but I'm really thankful for the experience from my previous place, especially in relation to share registrar. Totally helped in understanding the various share schemes and where to find information from annual reports and circulars.

However, the less comfortable moments were finding lunch partners and trying to fit. The cons of having a small department (and more reserved colleagues) is that you are often left alone or insisting to tag along with a group. I hope this part of my experience will improve soon, as I deal with more people and make friends.