A Day in the Life of an Onboarding Biostatistician

Today, I finally started my new role at the Durham VA Medical Center as a biostatistician. I have been looking forward to starting for so long! In my last blog post, I highlighted what the onboarding process was like; however, I left out most of the goal setting and career brainstorming I did over the last five months. I often find myself motivated by setting actionable goals by specific deadlines. It helps me brainstorm what I value and how I can achieve that end result in a sustainable, path-of-least-resistance way.

I’ve set the following three goals for the next few months at the VA, and went into my first day of work with these in mind:

1. Show up authentically to work. Make an effort to join conversations and provide input without being intimidated.
2. Maintain work life balance. Be intentional in sustaining relationships (friends, family, etc.) without overextending.
3. Become technically proficient and obtaining transferrable skills while at the VA. I want to feel like I don’t have to look things up a ton or struggle in coding.

My mind full of goals, fears of traffic, and schedule jam packed, I showed up to work at 8 a.m. on my first day anxious but ready to start. I purposely left some time to figure out the parking situation; I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to park in the parking deck that I scoped out the day before as there’s construction going on at the office. Parking is everyone’s first day nightmare, but especially mine as I hate driving! Thankfully, however, all the parking deck gates were open and I was able to smoothly snag a spot. I followed the trickle of people from the parking deck to the building, and quickly caught on that I walked into the basement. My manager and I had agreed on meeting on the concourse at 8 am sharp, so I rushed up the stairs in an effort to meet her. I stomped up to the ground floor stairwell to no avail- I couldn’t figure out how to get out! I also almost ran smack into two ladders sitting by the door. In a small panic, I heard a door behind me open. Taking a deep breath, I rushed over to the person emerging and blurted out, “Do you know how to get out?”. And alas, to my disbelief, I found my manager.

My manager, my assigned onboarding buddy, and I kicked off the morning by taking the elevator up to the sixth floor to the HR office. I found myself settling into the HR desk quickly while on the phone with a HR specialist, who was to help me obtain my temporary password to my login credentials. I hadn’t gotten a chance to grab my PIV card yet and could not log in to any of the things I needed to access on my computer! This call took longer than expected since the first phone call dropped. My morning was indeed off to a start.

However, things quickly took a turn for the better. After calling back (and going through the entire questionnaire again), I successfully received my temporary password. I also took some time to look over my HR welcome packet before my 6 hour onboarding call began. However, as 9:15 rolled around and I logged onto the WebEx, I realized that I had the time wrong. My new employee orientation was scheduled for 9:15 Central Time not Eastern Time!

I utilized my extra hour by spending time with my onboarding buddy. She suggested that we take an extended tour around our office suite, which is located in the sixth and seventh floors of the iconic Mutual Life Towers, formerly known as the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company Building. We also jump started the morning by grabbing coffee at Press Coffee & Crepes, just a 10-minute walk away from the office. I enjoyed my morning dose of caffeine in the form of a cappuccino, and found my onboarding buddy easy to converse with and get to know. The support I found from getting an assigned buddy was immense, because I knew that as I had questions arise, I’d have a go-to person.

After feeling rejuvenated and ready to tackle New Employee Orientation (NEO), I headed back for my 4-hour call. I’ll spare you all the details, but the rest of the NEO time block from 10:30 to 2:30 included PowerPoint informational sessions, a very comprehensive federal benefits overview, getting sworn into office, and running paperwork to one of our HR specialists. I was eager to get some of the small paperwork items out of the way, like getting my working hours (called “tours of duty” in government lingo) filed and having computer access initiated.

To my surprise, I also got my seasonal flu shot on my first day of work. For a little backstory, the VA research group I joined is located at the Mutual Towers in downtown Durham, which is in a separate facility from the Durham VA Medical Center located off of Fulton Street. Although our HSR&D group is housed under medical center, we get our own location, which in my opinion is great since parking is more ample. My first day coincided with a scheduled flu shot clinic where a nurse came over from the medical center to administer vaccinations; I was able to easily drop in to the pop-up-clinic during my lunch break. The great part about getting my shot at the pop-up clinic was that it saved me from filling out extra VA paperwork- if I had received my shot outside of a VA clinic, I’d be required under federal law to fill out additional paperwork to verify vaccination status. So once 2:30 rolled around, I felt like a champ- I had not only survived NEO, but had also received a flu shot, gotten coffee, and toured the facility in just a mere few hours at work.

With only a few hours remaining, I retreated to my office on the seventh floor. I was pleasantly surprised to see a desktop set up at the desk, complete with a keyboard, wired mouse, and a set of brand new headphones waiting for me. I love that I got my own room in the statistician row with a door that closes! I quickly logged on with my temporary password to my login credentials and began setting up my accounts. By the end of the work day, I was able to access my VA emails, Microsoft 365, and even navigate the browser to see important websites. I was excited to have conquered my first day at work in my dream role. Knowing that I wanted to work at the cross-section of public health, data, and research came early to me in undergrad, and after waiting so long for background clearance and paperwork, I truly felt like I had made it. Violet Evans, MS, Biostatistician reads my new LinkedIn title.