Your first day at a new job can be an emotional rollercoaster that makes you feel excited and sick to your stomach all at the same time. While it is natural to be nervous you have to have confidence walking in, but you can’t be cocky. Confused yet?

On your first day of employment it will be much the same as your first day of a new school year. You really won’t be expected to accomplish a whole lot for the day other than to settle in and begin to find your groove.

This starts with meeting and greeting everyone who is going to be working around you. If they do not take the time to approach you then you can always be the one to extend the olive branch and introduce yourself. Knowing who you work with and a little about them will help you to ease into your new place of work and help your new co-workers to feel better about you as well.

Be sure to listen to all that is said to you on your first day of employment and carry a notebook and pen for taking notes. Take notes if you feel they will be a useful resource to look back on at a later date. Avoid saying, “I know, I know,” or, “At my last job,” as this can have you coming off a bit pretentious. Even if you are highly skilled at what you do, take the first day and listen more than you talk.

Of course you should ask questions, but keep them to a minimum. Find out dress codes, lunch breaks, and all the other mundane information that you will need to know for your day to day right off of the bat, but save the more in-depth questions for your future days of employment.

Above all else, breathe, relax, and try to have a good time. The more comfortable you can make yourself feel, the better off your second day of employment will go, and then your third, and so on.