When I interviewed for this company, I actually had a reason that put me more at ease.
At the time, my supervisor told me that the previous production control manager had stayed for eight years. They left because their child got into a high school farther away, making pickup and drop-off inconvenient afterward, so they decided to change jobs. I thought to myself, someone staying in the same department for eight years means this position should be relatively stable. Plus, there would be a predecessor to hand things over, so it probably wouldn't be too hard to get the hang of.
In the end, from the interview, submitting my resignation, waiting out the Labor Standards Act notice period, to officially starting, about two weeks had passed. On my first day reporting in, I found out the previous production control manager was leaving in just one more week.
That moment was a bit shocking, and I also felt somewhat deceived.
I had originally thought there would be plenty of handover time, at least enough to slowly get familiar with the system, work content, and scheduling logic. I didn't expect the actual full handover would only last one short week. For someone who had never used this ERP system before, one week was really too short—especially since a production control manager's job isn't just following SOPs step by step. Every day brings new situations, new anomalies, and new problems to handle.
But later, after calming down, I realized I couldn't really blame the other person.
After all, they also needed to find a new job and match the new company's start date. They couldn't delay their own plans just because I was coming. From another angle, from the time I interviewed until I officially reported in and the handover was complete, they actually did as much as they could.
So that slight feeling of resentment gradually faded.
Still, I have to say, only after truly taking over did I understand what it means that "handover doesn't mean you'll know how to do it." The unfamiliar ERP system, the colorful scheduling boards, countless Excel tabs, files for different purposes, and all kinds of data that didn't connect—every form seemed to be telling me, "Figure me out first, then move on to the next." On top of that, the timing of my joining the company happened to coincide with orders starting to surge nonstop.
I often joke that I must be a prosperity bringer for companies—every time I join a new one, it's during the busiest, most overloaded period. The previous company was like this, and this one is too. It feels like there's never a newcomer's honeymoon period to slowly adapt and learn.
But complaints are just complaints—life still goes on.
Many things aren't mastered after one handover. You fall once, fix it once, and gradually turn it into your own experience. Those once-unintelligible schedules, unclear processes, and confusing reports all accumulated bit by bit this way.
Although I still encounter many new situations I've never dealt with, maybe every new environment is like this. There's no day when you're truly prepared—you just grit your teeth, push through, and one day look back to realize that all those things that once seemed terrifying have already become your everyday routine.