How should I proper initiate my connections?

I'm porting a code and there are these two queries that are executed just after a connection is open.

SET CHARACTER SET utf8;
SET sql_mode = 'STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION';

I don't know if those queries could be set as parameter on node-mysql2 or how do I know if a connection I'm getting from pool is new.

What I'm doing at this moment is:

const conn = await pool.promise().getConnection();
if( !conn.connection.inited )
{
  await conn.query( "SET CHARACTER SET utf8;\
SET sql_mode ='STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION';" );
  conn.connection.inited = true;
}

But I'm not ok with that.

The issue centers on pool.promise().getConnection() and the two SET statements; start by checking mysql2's pool and connection-initialization entry points for a supported way to apply session settings. Done means a reliable initialization path that works for both newly created and reused pooled connections.