It’s been a few months now since I graduated and started working. The rapid-fire information dumps have subsided, or at least I now have become acclimated enough to know the frequently-used company acronyms and am not left bewildered by conversations with coworkers and managers.
While work has included less abstract reading and scientific experimentation than graduate school, and is more focused on attaining on-target results as quickly as possible, a few similarities exist between school and work. There is still “course material” to learn, but no syllabus is provided, so a good deal of self-teaching is required. The initiative to ask key questions is a must. Instead of my program of study including exploratory courses like grain processing, statistics, carbohydrates in food or analytical bread baking, my “first semester” at work consists of learning many software programs, company procedures, product offerings, processing capabilities, pricing limitations, business strategy and ingredient sourcing, as well as everyone’s name and role.