Today, I started with my newest client. For the most part, it wasn’t terribly exciting. It was a lot of introductory calls and “just look through some documentation” type work with real no end goal. It was basically designed to occupy my time and get me through the end of the day.

In typical new client fashion, I was waiting for required access. This time, though, the access must come from their laptop. I am actually waiting on the laptop to be delivered to me.

The good news, though, is that with or without the laptop, today is a day I can bill for. So I am getting paid even if I don’t actually have the required tools to do any work. I would like to get the whole set up and on-boarding thing out of the way, however.

The horrible thing about starting anything new is the ramp up time required to get up to speed. During that time, you feel like you aren’t contributing and could easily be let go without anything detrimental happening to the project.

Once I get through this and get about 90 days completed, the stress of trying to keep my position goes away. For now, I have to make it appear I am worth keeping. That is far easier if I am actually delivering something of value.