First Day at Dendreon!!!

Wow, it's been a long, exciting, terrifying, exhausting day so I'm going to try to keep this brief.  This morning I met up with a relatively large group of new hires (~12 people) for our first-day orientation.  I met one girl (who I won't actually be working with) that lives right around the corner from me and is also new in town so we exchanged info and hopefully we'll get together and hang out some time soon.  I also met a boy who will be in the same department as me and he said that a friend of his is neighbors with our boss and apparently the neighbor thinks our boss is an absolutely wonderful guy (and she's not the type to give out praise easily).  Phew!!  I thought he seemed cool when I interviewed, but it's nice to have someone who knows him better confirm that.

As you might've guessed, there were a fair amount of videos and power points.  I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but a lot of the videos were really cool and inspiring.  Dendreon got FDA approval for their first drug last year so there has been a tons of buzz and excitement around the company since then.  All of the videos were made within the past year and all the people in them seemed so genuinely enthusiastic about the company.  We also went over plenty of boring (although necessary stuff) about paperwork, benefits, and policies.  They scared me a bit with the confidentiality policy, so I guess I'll have to be really careful about what I post here or what I tell people in general.  I don't think the fact that they got FDA is approval should be top secret...

You know I can't write a blog post without at least some mention of food so...

We took a break for some yummy lunch.  They had a variety of cute little boxed lunches so I got a caprese sandwich on focaccia* with chips, an apple, and a dark chocolate cookie with big white chocolate chunks!

*The spellcheck program in blogspot wanted to correct this word to: dogcatcher, cowcatcher, fogyish, freakish, or quackish

After lunch we went over more of the basics: safety, training, FDA compliance regulations, software programs, and IT stuff.  For the IT stuff a guy came in with a cart full of laptops and said, "If I call your name, come grab your laptop".  Even though I could see that they had a lot of them, I was still a little surprised when they called my name.  The poor other boy in my department didn't get one though and I think he felt a little left out :(

Training ended at around 4:00, well, for everyone but me that is.  My boss had told me ahead of time that we would be meeting up at the end of the first day.  Thankfully, he came to the training room and found me so I didn't have to get lost trying to find him.  He saw my laptop and nodded approvingly, but then asked, "Where's your Blackberry?"  Uh.... I wasn't issued one.  He spoke with the IT guy and said he'd filled in a specific request for me to be issued a Blackberry (they're supposed to sort it out soon).  Holy CRAP!!!  First of all, anyone who has seen my phone knows that the thought of me owning a Blackberry is a little crazy.  Second of all, the thought that I am someone important enough to be issued a company Blackberry is terrifying!

Anyhow, while we were making our way back to my office, my boss was introducing me to various people that we met along the way.  Pretty much every conversation went something like this:

My Boss:  Hello So-and-so, this is Amanda.  She's the one I've hired on for the tech transfers.
So-and-so (with a look of both admiration and sympathetic concern):  Wow!  Thank goodness; we've really needed you.  Good luck...
My Boss:  Hahaha, yeah, we needed her 6 months ago!
Me (in my head):  Uh-oh

Once we got to my office, my boss apologized profusely about the accommodations because I'm sharing a room with several other people.  I still have a ton of space and a huge desk with a docking station and fancy giant monitor for my laptop.  It's a ton bigger than my old PPD cubicle, so it's fine with me.  Once he finished explaining that it was the only space they had available until we relocate to the new offices this fall, he said, "Well, now that you've got everything, I'll be in my office if you need me" and then he left.  Uhhhhh... What?!?  It was about 4:45 and there was no one else around in the office.  What the heck am I supposed to do?!?

Well, I guess I can check my email, right?  Yikes!!!  Almost 60 emails and I've only worked there for a day.  I setup my voicemail, computer, and printer; I checked to make sure I had access to all the systems we had learned about that morning; I started setting up my benefit information; and found the company organization charts and tried to piece together all of the people I had just met.  The company structure involves tons of small departments and I think my job, in particular, requires a lot of interdepartmental communication so it's a little confusing. 

Then, around 5:30 my boss came back to let me know that he was heading out for the day, but he always checks his email at home if I needed anything.  "Okay, bye," I said.  "Bye.  Make sure to check your Outlook calendar for our 8:30am meeting tomorrow," he replied and then he was gone and I was all alone in the office...  I checked my calendar and indeed I had been invited to an 8:30am teleconference with some very important people. 

I am certainly a long, long way from the comfort and safety (and slackness) of my old job at PPD, but that is precisely what I wanted and major reason for my move out West.  I think the weeks and months ahead will be incredibly challenging but I'm so excited and (hopefully) ready for the challenge!