I am 1 week into this job and I think I have picked up the necessary skills I will need to do it well; I already had training in many of them so I just needed some time to remember. The time I spent contributing to projects remotely during the pandemic was useful, because it meant I didn't lose these skills.
I have already found some problems with the dataset I am working with, which need to be navigated carefully. An undergraduate student was being given course credits to go through that dataset, and had not realised that data quality issued existed, so I suppose I am definitely needed here in the department and that I am assisting in at least one person's development and education. I am looking forward to increasing the speed at which I process the dataset, so that I can progress towards actually doing fun things with it.
The location I live in in the US is beautiful. There were 3 white-tailed deer outside my apartment when I came back from my morning run yesterday. There are turkey vultures and stunning landscapes. I pass through a wood, sheep and horse pasture on my walk into work every morning, so it is a very spiritually uplifting place to be.
Very few of the digital systems that are meant to facilitate my daily life are working though. Almost all of them refuse to recognise who I am and require laborious phone calls to unlock. My payday still hasn't come yet, so I still don't really feel 'secure'.