So, you got a new job – you nailed the interview and you signed the contract. Now comes the hard part: going into the office on the first day.

Day one of a new job can leave the best of us feeling like nervous wrecks and asking ourselves: am I wearing the right thing? Why is my voice so high-pitched today? Did that woman just give me a funny look? Or worse: am I even supposed to be here?

While this kind of first-day anxiety may feel isolating, it’s completely normal. According to a recent poll of 1,000 young people in the UK, Gen Z-ers can take up to two weeks to get over their nerves in a new job, with 17% citing imposter syndrome as their main concern and 11% fearing they’ll forget everyone’s names.

We spoke to Julie Phillipson, author of Survive & Thrive: A Graduate’s Guide To Life After University, and Laura Kingston, a career coach at Leap Career Coaching, to find out more about how first-day nerves affect us and what we can do about them so they don’t last a full two weeks.

First-day nerves: how to overcome the new job jitters