Anyone who comes to the US for their masters, their first day at work is always special and something that they won’t forget for the rest of their lives.
My first day at Ford was no different. I still distinctly remember it as yesterday.
After arriving at Michigan, I had a good couple days before starting my job at Ford Motor Company. For those two days, I was alone at my Michigan apartment, as my then-roommate, Ravi, had plans to travel to Las Vegas to catch up with his masters friends.
Not knowing how to drive and not owning a car back then made it difficult for me to get around. I had to get some food and supplies for the weekend, so I had to walk to the nearby Meijer store during the September weather.
I was coming from Connecticut, so I wasn’t new to the cold weather in North America. However, one thing that I underestimated was the wind. I didn’t check how much windy it was going to get and though I was wearing my winter gloves, the wind and the stuff that I was carrying in my hands, hurt a lot. I remember coming home and soaking my hand in some hot water. The hot water felt extremely good after spending at least 45 minutes outside. I will never forget that day.
Getting back to the first day, as I mentioned, I didn’t know how to drive, so I had to book an Uber to get to my work location in Dearborn. I was living in Westland during that time, so it was going to be a 10-15 mile drive, which would roughly take 30 minutes. As it was my first day, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t delayed, so even though I was supposed to report at 8 AM, I booked my Uber at around 7 AM. It was a good decision as it took the Uber driver 15 minutes to get to my apartment.
After reaching the workplace, I waited patiently for 15 minutes before I was greeted by my recruiter and my manager. It was a strange feeling and I was excited to meet people whom I talked to during my interviews.
It was strange because it was the first day after the Labor Day Weekend, so the building was not full of people. I was greeted warmly with my manager, who introduced me to a couple of teammates and to my buddy, a term we use at Ford who acts as a onboarding assistant to the team members. Patrick was my buddy for the day and I must say he made sure I am welcomed by the team and introduced me to at least 20 people on our team and floor.
I was given a laptop to go through a few trainings that we had at Ford. Before I realized, it was time for lunch and Patrick was kind enough to drive me to a nearby Chipotle. Suren also joined us and I had a good time eating out and hanging out.
After lunch, I spent most of my time going through more training and many teammates stopping by my desk and saying hello.
I found it extremely soothing that my future teammates were coming to me and stopping by, asking about my past experience and skills set. I loved meeting everyone of them and I admit that I didn’t remember their names from the start, I had registered their faces with the kind of work they were doing.
By 4.30PM, I was about to head home and I wasn’t sure the protocol of closing the work. I quickly asked Patrick and he explained that the team is really cool with these “official” norms. I was so glad to hear that.
The highlight of the day for me was to go out for lunch and sort of imagining what my life would be working here. As I have mentioned earlier, I was sure that I wouldn’t stick here for long and a stint at Ford would turn out to be something different. Funny how things work out & that is for some different time.
For now, I was happy and relieved that I had a job that was helping me to pay my education loan and supporting my family back home.
It was a good day. It was a memorable one!
Next stop at Monika’s, which I wasn’t aware about back then would turn into something magical and life lasting! 🙂
stochasticity 
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