Starting a new job is always a troubling prospect. Especially when faced with doing that new job in a different city, let alone with a new team, new routine, new work area...
Don’t get me wrong - I was delighted when I got offered the job as the new digital officer at BIS. The likes of Marilyn, Tim and the rest of the gang had always been a source of inspiration to me when I was working in transport, and I wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity of working with them. But when you’ve been in an organisation for nearly 7 years, it can all be a bit much.
This is where the old computer helped.
Being the digital wizard that I am, I got online and did some digital stalking, in a purely professional sense, of course. I looked at the people from BIS that are on twitter (look at @Marilyneb’s twitter profile for that - she’s got a list), I looked up people from BIS on Linkedin, I started paying more attention than usual to this blog…
“Yes yes yes, but what were the results?!?” you ask.
It meant that I could tweet new London colleagues on the train to my first meeting with them. I could let Sheffield colleagues know about my hobbies without taking up too much of their valuable time. I could arrange introduction meetings with people who I’d be working alongside, before I’d even started the job.
All of which makes the new job a lot less scary, and hopefully makes me a lot more productive.
It’s funny, then, that the main focus of my job will be talking to policy makers about using social media, potentially for the first time. Because getting out there is almost like a new job in itself.
Will I fit in?
Will people like me?
What will I say?
My answer is the same as my husband, friends and family told me a few weeks ago:
‘Just be yourself’.
If you work for BIS and are concerned about getting onto social media, give me a buzz and I’ll gladly help you. Because when you get out there and start listening to people talk about your policy area, things start looking a lot less daunting. And it makes us a lot more productive, too.
Liz Baldock
@Balderdash33
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