How to Succeed in Business

I'm pretty sure I have the recipe for a successful first day of work:
1. Arrive on time - check!
2. Have dizzy spells due to your lack of eating and mixing of four over the counter medications- check!
3. Speak in a voice suggestive of Harvey Fierstein after smoking a carton of cigarettes- check!

I'm pretty sure I rocked the place.

In all seriousness, I did attend my first day of work. About two hours of it was spent filling out forms, and the rest was spent meeting people and trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. The other MBA interns started a few weeks ago (a last batch starts next week), and they assured me it takes at least a week to figure out what's going on. My manager gave me a totebag overflowing with information and office supplies (the key to my heart-- I love office supplies to a ridiculous degree. I have notebooks I snatched from supply closets years ago but can't bring myself to use because they're too pretty. One of the ones she gave me looks likely to meet a similar fate.), and I spent about half my 'free' time reading that, the other trying to get on email, etc.

So far, it's one day at a real company and it already feels different. This is 58 times bigger than any company I've ever worked for, which is not trivial. The processes are really complicated, but the benefits and perks, especially those for full time employees, are incredible. There's a gym, a cafeteria, and discounts on all sorts of things. The intern program is crazy. The calendar they gave us with all the intern events, some of which are specific to the 18 interns in my group, some of which are for the who-knows-how-many interns in the entire New York headquarters, is packed every day. I'm definitely psyched for the Yankees/Braves game in a few weeks.

The office itself is beautiful. It was a bit eerie to be that close to the World Trade site, which is right across the street. In my office building there's an Ann Taylor, a Banana Republic, a Gap, and about eight zillion other stores. Unfortunately, a post-work visit to these revealed that I somehow missed the fun summer business casual season and we're on to ugly faux cruisewear. Assessing my clean clothes situation, I think I have about two more outfits before I have to repeat. Yet another way to make a good first impression.