First Impressions

Today, I met a woman who just started work where I am working. She introduced herself, and she asked where I had worked before this. Impressed with her poise and outgoing nature, I told her that I came from soaps (she found the soaps-to-news thing fascinating), and that I spent many years never imagining working in news, but had found news to be an interesting reminder of the control room urgency that I had loved so much.
 
"Where were you before?" I asked her. She replied that she had graduated from college not that long ago (and implied that this was her big break, after a series of small freelance jobs). While it had been clear to me that she was young, I hadn't really considered that she might be right out of school. Her self-assuredness belied her young age, and her natural curiosity about meeting new people and finding out where they came from was refreshing. As I walked away from our conversation, I hoped that a person like that would go far.
 
The reality is, whether you are a recent college graduate, or a long-time professional, this job thing is not easy. It is not easy to walk into new places (much less even to have the door opened so you CAN walk in). It is not easy to learn new things and be as upbeat as this woman was. And yet, we do it. We walk into new situations all the time. We keep knocking on doors, looking for that friendly face and offering our talents, because that is exactly how we DO learn, and how we DO realize that we are capable of a whole lot more than we might have thought. And I would like to think that those doors will open a lot more often if we approach every situation as this woman did--with friendliness, curiosity, and genuine interest.
 
So, whether it's our first day, or a day too far into our career to count, we can all learn from the woman I met today. First impressions matter. They matter a lot.