First impressions count. It’s especially important that you keep this in mind when starting a new job. You need to make a positive impact during the first few months of being hired. Failing to do this can negatively impact your chances of advancement and promotion. In fact, it can stall your career for years.
It helps to realize that your first months on the job are in effect an extension of your interview. Just because you have the job, doesn’t mean you’re going to keep the job, or get promoted. This means you need to perform at your absolute best. To help you do this, here are some things to keep in mind during the first months of working at a new job.
Build strong relationships
Relationships are probably the most important thing no matter what type of job you do. Don’t keep to yourself. It’s critically important that you develop positive relationships and make friends with co-workers and management. You need to work on these relationships whenever you’re at work and continue to build them after work.
That being said, this needs to be done in a natural way. Remember, insincerity is easily spotted, and you don’t want to come off as fake or try hard. It also helps to get formal feedback from management. Set a meeting with your manager and ask them how you’re doing. Ask them if there are things you can do to improve, or if you’re making mistakes somewhere. Also, don’t restrict your efforts only to management. Relationships with co-workers are extremely important. To build these relationships, you may want to organize coffee or drinks with them. This is a great way to build your network.
When building relationships, it’s also important to keep boundaries in mind. You need to set healthy boundaries from day one. You have to learn how to say no, otherwise you’ll risk becoming the office punching bag.
Also, do everything you can to avoid conflict. You do not want to get into battles with co-workers or management during your first months on the job. At the same time, make every attempt to avoid office politics. Do not want to become involved in gossip, cliques, or competing groups. Most importantly, don’t be an idiot on social media. Finally, avoid talking about your former job or co-workers. You do not want to badmouth the people you previously worked with.
Set goals and ask for feedback
When starting a new job you should have a clearly defined set of goals. In most cases management will already have goals set for you. This could include things like closing, certain deals or hitting sales targets. If this isn’t the case, then it’s important to provide yourself with goals. You need to have targets which you’d like to achieve. It’s important that you challenge yourself. Doing this provides motivation and gives you something to aim for. Goals also provide you with concrete evidence which helps when asking for a promotion.
It helps to get together with the management when coming up with these goals. This helps you stay on the right track and makes sure that you’re not focusing on things which aren’t important. Finally, setting goals is useless if you don’t actually achieve them. You may actually harm your career if you set goals with management, and then fail to achieve them. That being said, very few goals are completed in the manner they were originally set. You need to be flexible and adjust your goals as time goes by. Also make sure to set up a monthly review. This way you can get feedback on how you’re doing in the company.
Try to improve things
One of the biggest benefits to being a new employee is that you see things differently. Companies often get set in their ways and by providing a fresh viewpoint, you could find ways to improve things which others haven’t considered.
This means you shouldn’t simply accept what you’re told. Speak up and ask questions. Even though you’re new at the job, it doesn’t mean you cannot be a force for change. Just be careful and don’t step out of bounds. There may be reasons why things are done a certain way, and you could end up embarrassing yourself by trying to change them. This is why it’s also important that you know when to keep your mouth shut.
Learn how to manage your time
Time management is your most valuable skill in any job. This is something which you should have mastered, and if you haven’t, then now is the time. You need to learn how to manage expectations, set priorities, block off time, and maintain your to do lists. If you fail to achieve this then work will quickly pile up. When that happens, you’ll gain a reputation as someone who cannot handle the job. This will have serious consequences for your chances of promotion and by extension your career.
Exceed expectations
It’s critically important that you exceed expectations during your first few months. Show up early, make an effort and do more than is expected from you. Be willing to take on additional work and go the extra mile. Do things that will help you stand out, and which demonstrate that you’re a team player. Also, pay attention to things like your presentation and communicating effectively.
That being said, be careful when doing this. You don’t want to become the person who gets dumped with additional work which isn’t your responsibility. You need to avoid taking on too much work before you’re ready to handle it, or working on tasks you don’t fully understand. This could result in mistakes or missed deadlines.
Study corporate culture
Every business has a certain corporate culture. This could mean doing (or not doing) things a certain way. No matter what the corporate culture is, you need to learn about it, and align yourself with this as quickly as possible.
