Starting a New Job Career
You may expect the article to guide you about how to fit in a new job career! But this article is not about conforming, but connecting. You need to maintain your poise and at the same time learn to mingle with your peers within the company.
When you’re in a new job career, the first response is often like a joy-fear. This term is coined by celebrated blogger Leo Babauta. When you experience something as exhilarating as uncomfortable for your guts, you experience such a condition. So, experiencing joy-fear while having a new job career is quite natural! But then it’s difficult to decide what to do at that moment. If you’re wondering what to do when you’re in a new job career, we have some tips for you which will allow you to relax and enjoy your new job career.
According to a recent study, it’s being said that 58% of millennial employees say that it’s okay to say ‘yes’ to authority when you’re in a new job career. Yes, you may say ‘yes’ to authority when you need to learn something new. But make sure you don’t become them in the process. You need to remain you and do your part, but yes learn from them, connect with them and be polite with them.
Let’s look at the 10 primary things you should do when you start a new job career so that the days in the new organization become easier and you can grow and expand your professional horizon.
1. Introduce yourself
Many people tend to get shy about introducing themselves. But this is the first thing you should do. Yes, there may be an orientation session done by the HR department to introduce you to the other employees of the company. Still, you need to take charge and connect with as many people as you can in the organization to create rapport. Introducing yourself often banishes the discomfort between two unknown people and creates a harmonic relationship immediately. You don’t need to say much or you need to understand how much to say. For that, you can find an ally in the office who you can talk to on the first day. Later, you would realize who is who. If you’re a manager and you introduce yourself to the President as you introduce yourself to a manager at your level, that wouldn’t be appropriate.
The best way to do this is to ask for a hierarchy chart from the HR department. If they’re one, they will provide. Otherwise, go around and ask the HR manager to help you introduce yourself to the other members of the company (if no orientation is in place). Then you can connect with others whenever possible. But introducing yourself to the key people of the organization is the first pre-requisite while starting a new job career.
2. Connect with a veteran to be wary of office politics
You need to understand head on that there will be politics in your office once you join the new job career. In every office, it’s the same. In some offices, it’s more prevalent and in some, it’s less. If you need to know about office politics and save yourself from becoming a victim, you need to take measures in the beginning. Talk to a veteran who has been there for a long time. You may find that s/he is not easy to talk to. But you need to find commonalities between you and the veteran to build rapport. Once you talk and build rapport, s/he will share information about the office and who’s who. You don’t need to believe everything s/he says, but still, you can check out and be aware of what s/he says to you. Other than politics, every office has its own language and soon enough you need to know the language. In that case, as well, the veteran will be able to help you.
3. Ask a lot of questions
People like people who ask questions and want to learn from them. But do not be draggy about it. Ask questions which are not uncomfortable. Don’t even ask personal questions. Get away from close-ended questions as well. Rather ask open-ended questions like – “How things are in this organization?”, “How is the work culture?”, “What is hierarchy looks like here?” etc. Be sure whom to ask the questions. Everyone would not be comfortable or open to answer your questions because not everyone would be interested to connect with you. Leave them and ask those people who are interested and are ready to connect. If you’re in a top position, be careful about how you ask questions because if you need to lead afterwards it can create issues later. Remain open to everything around you and ask new job questions to the right people.
4. Understand the expectation of your new job goals
You’re offered this new job training for a reason. The reason is usually an expectation of performance. Even when you’re in a honeymoon period for some time, still it’s always better to know your key performance areas so that in the beginning only you would know how much you need to perform and what you’re responsible to improve in an organization. Go to the HR department and talk to HR about how the performance is being measured in the organization and also sit with your boss to know what s/he expects from you in months to come. Most people would stop here but if you’re in top management, you also need to call your team and discuss their expectations of you. It will help them sort out things and you can also understand what you can expect from them as well. In an organization, the whole unit works toward the same goal. When you join, you may get aware of the goal of the organization, but until you dive in you can’t know how much your contribution you need to make to get the ball rolling.
Set a time in the beginning only to clear the fog and get clarity about what you should do in the months to come.
5. Know the rules of grapevine
Even if you meet with your boss and your employees formally, that’s not all. You also need to know the rules of the office in the grapevine. If you’re a fresher, you may not know that most of the people who are in top positions pay more heed to the informal meetings of their employees than the formal meetings. Why? Because in grapevine people use to share their true feelings over a coffee. So, go visit the canteen (if the company has one) and look around after you join the new job training. If you have your eyes and ears open, you would understand the norms and approaches of people. Even if it seems unimportant it will help you later as you get to understand all about people and their usual or unusual behavior and attitude. It will help you lead them (if you’re in a top position) or be aware of them in the long run.
6. Prove your unique selling proposition
Why has the company given you the new job goals? Why has the company hired you? Because you sold them on something! You told the company that you are able to do certain things and paid enough evidence to trust you and the company bought your unique selling proposition. And now you’re hired. That means you’ve successfully sold them your USP. But that’s not all. You need to prove your USP.
So, even in the honeymoon period of your new job training be sure to document your USP on a paper and make it your major definite purpose to prove it. Everyone believes in results. They offer you these new job goals on the basis of your words and past-results, but if you want to stay in this company with good cheer, you need to do something to prove your worth. Begin taking small steps toward your major definite purpose and set milestones so that you can understand once you reach them.
Most of the employees who join for a new job training skip this and that’s why they can’t get to stick for a long time in the organization. Remember, you’re not hired in the organization because of you, but because of the company and till the time you keep up your game and ensure that you take care of the objective of the company, you stay. Keep that in mind and don’t take your new job goals for granted.
7. Align your rituals with the company culture
Every company has a different culture and once you join a company you need to know what sort of culture is inherent within the organization. No matter which position you’re in, if you can align with the culture and create rituals along, you will be able to become a great employee in the organization. Aligning doesn’t mean fitting in. You can stand out as an exceptional employee and still align yourself with the organizational culture.
There are a few norms and behaviors that are expected of you when you join a new job training. It will take some time for you to understand the norms, behaviors, values of the company. And then once you can adapt well to the new job training, you can align yourself along. For example, you may have a habit of reaching office late but the organization you’ve just joined may be very strict about punctuality and rewards people who maintain it. So, tweak in your ritual and come early. It’s about new job goals and you don’t want to go because of any of your mistakes. Thus, make a commitment to maintain the norms. It will help you blend in with the company culture and create results that the company hired you to deliver.
8. Go over to social media and update
Once you’re done connecting with the people in the new organization and have an overview of the culture and expectations of the company once you join the new job training, it’s time to update your current designation on social media, especially in Linked-In. It’s always good if you can take time and update the new job you’ve and provide a glimpse of what your current responsibilities are on your Linked-In profile. It will help you become updated about your current role and you can also write a fresh summary and change the resume that you’ve attached with on your Linked-In profile. Once you’re done updating, go to the next step.
9. Reconnect with old colleagues
Once you’re done with updating your profile, you can go over to your old colleagues and reconnect. It would be the first time after joining the new job training when you would try to connect. It’s always better to find yourself a nook in the office and talk privately instead of showing your current colleagues that you’re reconnecting with the old ones. If that’s not possible, you can simply reconnect with them via social media.
This is the age of networking. And networking shouldn’t be done when you need a problem to solve or to get a job. But you need to network all the time. It’s said that the best time to get referrals is when you don’t need any. Moreover, you’re not networking because you need to have people by your side when things are tough; you’re doing it because you want to help people become what they aim to be. That way you can lead others without any need of having the title or credit.
10. Go around your office and know the place
The last thing is to know the place if you don’t know it already. Go around and find coffee shops, restaurants, meeting points, parking places, etc. If you work for manufacturing set up, it’s always advisable to check the factory especially if you would work to manage the workers at the factory directly or indirectly. Know the locals, go for a walk in lunchtime to see if you can find any creative point or not and also check the conveyance option if you’re not having your own vehicle. The point is to know the place as you are about to spend half of your day here every day once you join the new job opportunities.
The above are the key points you should follow once you join new job opportunities. A few things that are mentioned above may become redundant if the HR department runs on orientation and induction program. But not every company likes to increase the cost by giving the introduction to employees who join new job opportunities. So they give a brief introduction and don’t worry about primary training about the new employees. Remember, new job goals would remain new for some time. Once you spend a month or two, you would be out of your honeymoon period and you would be expected to perform well. But if you do the above after joining the new job opportunities, you would relax and would do your work. You wouldn’t need to worry about other things at all.
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