So this week is my first week in Kainos. I’ve landed. Hurrah!
I’m never generally one for week notes, as I can never manage to remember to write a blog a week, or even remember everything I’ve done in a week to blog about it; but I thought given it’s my first week in a new role it’d be good to write down my first impressions, observations and experiences within my new role.
To be fair before I even started the role, Kainos were giving a good first impression; I’d been sent logins to their onboarding site, where I could see all the tasks I’d need to complete; with welcome intros from relevant senior folks and links to information about the company; as well as a message from Helen, the Head of Planning and Strategy initiatives and Delivery Management in Kainos letting me know she was looking forward to me joining. She also gave me the names of some other key folks in the Delivery community she recommended I talk to once I landed, and sharing details on some of the communities within Kainos I might like to join; which was really lovely.
On top of that, I also had emails getting me set up on their wider systems, and calls from the IT support team to ensure my laptop had arrived and everything was working ok before I started. All of which just made my first day that must smoother. On my first day itself I then got another call from the IT support team before 9:30 to check I’d gotten logged in ok and didn’t have any questions. Honestly, Bravo Kainos. Way to make an excellent first impression. A+
Then we move into the induction; this was really well organised and spread over two days to ensure it covered everything any new starters would need to know Getting everyone who’s starting in the same time period to join on the same day and do the induction together is a really good idea; it meant we could form a little group of newbies all asking the same questions and feeling a bit less lost together. We got a lovely intro chat from Brendan Mooney, the CEO of the company, on the first morning; which was given plenty of time so we could ask questions etc; and made him seem human and personable, which is always a good start. We also had sessions with people from IT support, the people team etc. All talking us through things we’d need to know (like how to do timesheets etc.) and pointing us to the relevant sections on the intranet so we could find the relevant areas and helpful guides should we need them.
On the afternoon of the second day, we moved form the general induction to one for our specific business areas; so we could start getting into the details relevant to our areas, which flowed really nicely. I also found the second day was also spaced out enough that we had enough time to do intro chats with out new managers, and I managed to observe a few meetings for my new teams, which was good.
Day three was then beginning to get stuck in; I had a calendar full of invites to all the relevant meetings I’d need to attend going forward; and an onboarding plan from my people manager suggesting useful people to talk to within my first month or so. I started chatting to a few folks within the various communities and practices that were relevant to me; and everyone was really welcoming and friendly. Already super impressed with the diversity and obvious culture of inclusion within Kainos. Joined a session with Kainos’ women’s network which was really interesting; chatted to some folks from their LGBT+ and Neurodiversity community’s and generally for a really good feeling from the various people I chatted to about how hard Kainos is working to make people feel welcome and at home.
New team seems great, just a lot to learn as the scope of what we’re doing is pretty big; but reasuringly I’m apparently getting a slow steady handover and into to everyone and everything; which will be a refreshing change to the last few times I’ve started a new role and basically been thrown in at the deep end and left to get on with things.
Day four was a bit quieter on the meeting front, with a few key meetings in with my new Account Director and a first 1:1 into meet with the client; but still plenty of time to dive into the background reading and trying to get up to speed on the programme we’re delivering so I can hopefully start asking useful questions and lending a hand. There were a few areas that I identified in the meetings on day three that I flagged to look into and pick up some conversations on to see what I could do to help; so day four was about giving myself time to read up before I start wadding in.
Day five was more handover meetings and continuing the 1:1 of my intro meetings to the client; with plenty of time to continue reading up and getting up to speed on everything. Also got to listen into a Business Unit update which covered work happening across Digital Services within Kainos which was fascinating and gave a good picture of the pure amount of projects teams are involved in; and had a first chat with the sales team about some potential new work.
All in all it has felt like a really well planned out introductory week. Lots to take in, but I’ve been given plenty of time to land; with room to read and absorb things between meetings rather than feeling like I’m being rushed around like a bit of a headless chicken; which is nice. Everyone so far has been absolutely lovely and very kind and willing to answer all my questions and talk me through things. I’m certainly looking forward to next week and hopefully starting to pick things up and getting properly dug in.
If only all landings could be this smooth! Next week the real work beings!
