My new faux-leather briefcase, filled with blank notebooks, pens and a fresh tube of berry lip gloss, should have included a warning as I waltzed into my first day on the job: Owner's ego is inflated.

I won't lie. I thought I was a hotshot. Someone should have warned me: The first day can be tough. And oh, by the way, you're not that important.

And maybe if a human resource expert, like Jeremy King, had been in my life at the time, I could have taken a note from him on what to expect on that first day at a new job.

Don't expect to be gushed over, he says. Don't try to make a statement. Don't try to take over a project in the first three hours. Instead, try to fit into the office landscape like a fern that's been sitting next to the receptionist's desk for years.

"You'll have plenty of time to stand out," says King, president and chief executive of 26.2 Dynamics, a Carmel, Ind., human resource consulting firm. "Right away, you just want to fit in."

Which can be hard.

At a new job, you're going to be like a zoo animal on display. Everyone is going to watch to see how you behave. You'll be judged by what you wear, how you perform that first task and if you go to the restroom too many times. You will be the entertainment for an office otherwise settled into the doldrums.

Perhaps no one will ask you to lunch. No one did on my first day. Perhaps the boss who wooed you to the company will act as if he never met you. Too busy with daily activities.

You may end up sitting at your desk around 10 a.m. wondering, "What was I thinking?"

Jennifer Caldwell took on a new career in June as a nurse. Her first day on the job, after a few days of training and orientation, was a bit intimidating.

"There's just so much you don't learn in school," she says, pointing to the ins and outs of a workplace, the politics, the culture.

"The first day can be the longest day of your life," says Jerry Steadham, creative director at Hickman and Associates in Carmel, who recently landed back in the workplace after more than 20 years freelancing.

"My advice on that first day is to suspend judgment altogether," he says. "Your first day is not your typical day. It's never a typical day."