First time working for a big corporate company is this normal?

[Mum8929]

I’ve had lots of jobs but most of my experience has been working for a university and for the government. This is my first real “corporate job” for a massive company which I won’t name but I’ve been streaky shocked at how the working culture seems to be. I’ve had relitively no onboarding, no training and I seem to find out in drips and drabs about system to request access to. I work in project management and most of my days are spent ringing up other employees in my sector to figure out how to do x,y,z. I’m very good at taking initiative but I get stuck when it comes to using systems I’ve never used before and it seems there no process or procedure in place for anything. I honestly think it’s a bit of a s… show but I was wondering if that’s what corporate is usually like?

No, not in my experience. Not like that at all.

I worked for one of the large banks (a long time ago). In theory there was a very robust induction, often that did happen, but it was all dependent on local managers putting it in place, so it was variable.

If you know what it is you need, have a meeting with your boss and have him tell you how it's going to happen.

You need to find a mentor who can guide you through

Plenty of places seem to let project managers 'use their initiative', especially when it covers to project management tools.
Chaos is quite typical I'm afraid.

As for training: is this your first job move as an experienced hire?

Pretty normal in my experience, yes.

I’ve actually had a meeting with my boss asking for this. I haven’t heard back yet unfortunately.

I work for a huge international company. I had no induction whatsoever when I joined a couple of years ago!

Of course I can understand it’s hard to use a blanket approach but when it comes to systems and tools the company uses I would have thought there should be training or something in place?

I have worked in multinationals for over 30 years. I would expect to have some kind of corporate induction, which would be maybe half a day with a few different presentations and meeting other new starters.

I have not had any set training for decades, it is learning on the job and pretty much expected to self start on this. Of course at times I have attended supplementary formal training on soft skills, management skills and occasionally technical skills.

I am not in Project Management but have met many and I would expect them t join the company already trained and able to get on with it. It sounds like you are meeting lots of people like me.

You just have to ask somebody, a peer most likely, to show you.

Yep, normal.

Actually yes. I worked for BP a few years ago. I did have training but the onboarding/HR induction I was told they didn’t do this like in the old way anymore. You basically were left to your own devices and had to muddle through. I left for various reasons after 2 months.

I work in project management and most of my days are spent ringing up other employees in my sector to figure out how to do x,y,z.

Yes it sounds normal which is why I wouldn't do it again. My experience of corporate companies is that you

1. spend a third of your time chasing other people for stuff you need and which they should have done anyway because they are paid to do so.
2. spend a third of your time answering questions and queries and providing stats and figures to your own manager.
3. spend a third of your time actually doing the job you applied for and want to do.

Now i'm self employed, i spend 95% of my time doing the job and I want to do and 5% of my time doing things I don't want to like tax returns keeping records etc.

If you’re a project manager and the company uses well known PM software perhaps there’s just a misunderstanding that you already know how to use it?

Are there contractors in the same roles?

My experience ( IT ) was the contractors tend to stick together and the staff the same.

Normal! In a big corporate there are so many systems and so many roles within each system and so many ways it's used that it's up to each team to organise their own on boarding. You should have a peer or buddy who is helping you with these things. If you don't ask your manager or team mates.

In large corporates there is usually an online training platform and you are expected to self serve.

Fairly normal, ime.

Sorry, OP - it's stressful while you are going through it.

The company induction tends to focus on company wide policies, procedures and systems, such as HR, payroll, leave, regulatory requirements etc.. Also plenty of buff about what a great company they are and their history and how great it is to work for them and their culture values.

When it comes to job specific onboarding that varies widely and it really comes down to how good your team or department are at it. Some managers have a very robust onboarding programme where you will be guided through everything and they know what systems to help you access or train on and will often buddy you up with someone.

Unfortunately other managers just expect you to work it out, and seem to forget on boarding is needed.

Unfortunately it sounds like you have the latter. I would keep speaking to your boss about what you need and see if you can find a team member that is happy to help guide you. It sucks, as really your manager should have onboarded you properly.

One thing to keep an eye out for, in my experience managers with useless onboarding setups, often have rubbish off boarding and contingency plans too. Don't let yourself have other work dumped on you if a colleague leaves or is away, just because your manager hasn't forward planned.

Yes, quite normal and very often dependent on who is in charge of your induction. It never used to be like this. It goes a long way to explain why stress levels are through the roof.

Having said that, I have experienced same in public sector.

When I worked for big corporates a two day induction was normal.

Very normal to learn by doing.

If it's truly a large corporate, there will be procedure documents/training, but you'll have to look for them yourself as opposed to them being given to you - unless you truly have a manager that's on the ball!

Also it does depend on seniority. There will be a lot more hand holding if you're junior, but if you're in a more senior role, you'll probably be expected to figure it out yourself by asking people etc.

Agree with PP that company inductions (if any!) are generally focused on company wide policies etc as opposed to systems used by individual teams.

I joined a large corporate company a couple of years ago. My ‘induction’ consisted of my line manager spending half an hour on a teams call telling me how busy she was, didn’t have time to do this, rattling off loads of information I needed to read then she took her dog for a walk!

Depends very much on manager. We did create a good ticklish of things people needed to cover, and access they required. Some access could be requested in advance, but other stuff couldn't.

Even with self-guided online procedures and training, it was useful to gave a list with links and prerequisites e.g. "before doing this training, make sure your access to System X has been granted and you have permission for Y - this usually takes 3 business days from request."

Plenty of colleagues thought that because thry hadn't had these sorts of guidelines and just had to work things out, nor should anyone else. I thought no one else should have to go through all that shit where so much of it was avoidable with a bit of documentation and planning. Surely the sooner people are able to to the work you're paying them for, the better?

To be fair, when I worked in universities and government agencies, you often had to wait a month or two for the next induction session, so I'm not sure it's just a corporate problem.