I read Craigs story about the wrong university with interest. I am a librarian at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, national library of the Netherlands, in The Hague. A foreign visitor once wanted to see a manuscript which I to my great embarassment just could not find. It turned out that the manuscript was in the collection of another Koninklijke BIbliotheek, not the one in the Netherlands but the one in Brussels in Belgium. Oops, not only wrong library but also wrong country!

Hein Maassen, Leidschendam, The Netherlands

In my sales company we've always had a rule that once a newbie reaches £40k of revenue they can have a laptop, an increase in commission and start looking at company cars in readiness for their £70k threshold.
I had a guy come into the starting team last year, and within ten minutes of arriving he'd demanded to know why his boss was on a higher commission than he was, informed me that he'd like a mini cooper please, and announced that he had to leave early every day for the next three weeks because his wife was taking her driving test then but for now he had to pick her up from work.
Quickest sacking in the history of the company.

Hannah, Manchester,

Danny in Sheffield: I'm glad you're not working for my company - what a disjointed comment you submitted!

Bob Roberts, London,

when I first moved to London I was given a temping job as a receptionist at a small Law and quite well to do law firm. One of the secretaries showed me the ropes. From previous experience I asked " Is there anyone phone calls do not get put through to?"
" No, everyone is lovely, all the lawyers take their own phone calls, so just put the calls straight through."

An hour in I answer the phone and put it through to the name requested. 5 minutes later an olderly gentleman, with a distict frown storms over to me. With raised voice and proper vowels demands to know how dare I put calls through to him.

See sometimes its the people doing the inducting that make the first day hard.

Bridget Slater, Sydney, Australia

Learn what you can and then work for yourself!

John, London,

When i started work in the late fifties I was just told what I had to do and left to get on with it, granted I was only an office boy.
It was not a lot different in the early sixties when I started teaching you were just told where your classroom was and left to get on with it
How time shave changed!

plato, ely, uk

I was 24 and starting my first day working for an I.T facilities company formerly the I.T division of a national car manufacturer that had been the subject of a management buyout.
On my first day, I was having a meeting with one of my managers in which we were discussing the normal company induction stuff.
During this conversation he tried to point out the promotional opportunities to me with the, and I quote, line 'Over 60% of the employees are of management grade, or above!'.
I replied with the most tactless yet obvious conclusion, 'Sounds like there are far too many chiefs and not enough indians'. I was acknowledged with a quiet chuckle from my audience of one.
When I left the company nearly 2 years later because I could not function within the management structure, and I commented on this being my reason at the exit interview, I was reminded by some other manager (of which there were many) about my 1st day comment. I am no trouble maker, yet my cards had been marked.

Joe, Geelong, VIC Australia

I got offered a temp assignment on my second day in the UK (another 'fresh off the boat' from NZ), and they promised to email all the details to me in time for Monday. Long story short, my broadband was down and I couldn't check it until Saturday morning. Guess what - no email. The agency had told me it was in Waterloo, but I couldn't find it via Google. Eventually decided to go to the only London office I could find, while leaving multiple messages for the agency to call me. Turned out I'd found the right office, and the agency got around to calling me back at 2pm. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they screwed up my wages every week for nearly 9 months. Everything has a happy ending though; the company itself took me on permanently and I've been there nearly 3 years.

Liza, London, UK

We like to call newbies CAVE dwellers. They get three months as a CAVE dweller and then have to get with the program. What's a CAVE dweller? Someone who is Critical and Against Virtually Everything.

Adrienne, Dubai, UAE

The main problem starting a new job is you get about 45 seconds to create your new persona and by 10am everyone in the office has a fixed opinion of who and what you are.

Rowing backwards from that is a major operation if you have a bad start.

David, Dubai & PL2, UAE & England

I knew an organic chemist who, on his first day with a small research company located in a grand country house, was carrying a large piece of glassware under vacuum through a hallway between laboratories. It slipped and shattered on the ground with a deafening implosion.

Unharmed, but with broken glass littered all around him, he looked up to see the entire firm's office staff, who had dashed out of their offices in shock at the bang, staring down at him from the balcony.

Nice to gain so much recognition so early.

Epilogue: before his retirement, he was a key team leader in one of the world's biggest chemical companies.

Dave H., Cambs, UK

I was temping in London and sent to a job at "1 to 8" Queen Victoria St. I spent over an hour looking for 1-8 QVS and being fairly 'fresh off the boat' from NZ felt absolutely dreadful.
Turned out it was '128 QVS'.

Still, I ended up with a full-year assignment there.

Melanie, christchurch, New Zealand

It’s all very well criticising mistakes made by people turning up for their first day, but how about some advice for the employers for a change? For example, many line managers will judge you for the whole time you are in a job on your how you come across initially. There should be more advice on what needs to be done for the employee.

Karl Chads, London, UK

Two weeks into a new role at a plumb accountancy blue chip some years ago I was invited to a recruitment event at my former university. Got there a night early so as to be (supposedly) fresh for the morning. Wasn’t to be. Got on the bevs and to cut a long story short I ended up waking up in the clink with no recollection how I got there. 3 hours later when they let me out I was told I’d received a caution for D&D behavior and was handed back my shoes, a pink cowboy hat, one flipper and a yellow inflatable waist tube with a rubber duck head on the front. Foolishly thought that’d be the end of it until I got to the event and received multiple cheers and handshakes on entry. If that didn’t blow my cover, a very angry fella whose car I’d apparently dinted marching over to our stand, threatening me and having to be restrained by his mates – did. Survived the cull but it never left me during my entire tenure. Once you get a rep’ for lunacy envelope it clings to you like a spandex suit

Danny, Sheffield,

I used to work for a University Accommodation Service based in Bucks, on the "moving in day" a young girl arrived with a car full of gear asking for her new room key. Unable to find her name on our system I assumed she must be based at one of our other campuses, asking to see her "conformation letter" I noticed that she wasn't just at the wrong campus, she was at the wrong university. All I can say is that i doubt that The University of Buckingham recieved an "honor" student that day.

Craig, London,