Written by GAB YARED
Starting a new role is exciting and challenging, whether it’s your first job or your tenth. Even if you’re established in your career and can lean on your previous experience, a new role requires you to adjust to a new company culture, new colleagues, and new routines. The first few weeks are the perfect time to forge new connections, set goals, and deep dive into your new role.
With a little bit of preparation, you can align yourself on the path to success:
- Prepare Before Your First Day
Before you’re inundated with new responsibilities, processes, and people, take the time to deep-dive into your new company. Research company culture, values, recent news, and key players. You can also reach out to HR to check on any onboarding requirements or paperwork.
- Make a Positive First Impression
Be on time! Give yourself some extra time to get to your desk, virtually or in person. Arriving early will give you time to introduce yourself to colleagues and settle in. Forming these social connections is just as important to your work as your performance. Enthusiasm and openness to new situations and processes will make the transition easier.
- Learn and Adapt to the Company Culture
Hopefully you learned a lot from your research but on your first day you can really dig into the culture in person. Introduce yourself to your colleagues, officemates, supervisors, and even people in other departments. They can clue you into typical communication styles, work habits, and the informal schedules. Be open to learning and adopting new processes and communication styles while you make connections.
- Understand Your Role and Expectations
Once you complete the requisite new-hire paperwork and introductory meetings and the real work begins, be ready to gain clarity about the scope of your role. This is a great time to define the channels of communication and the typical routines on your team. Take this opportunity to meet with your superiors to define short-term and long-term goals to help guide your transition into the role. Most importantly, gain clarity on the metrics and standards your leaders will use to determine your performance.
- Build Relationships and Network
Starting on the first day, the connections you build at work impact your responsibilities, your network, and your experience in the workplace. It’s more than water-cooler chat. These connections make the days more pleasant but the high-trust and mutually beneficial nature of these relationships can actually make you better at your job. Schedule one-on-one meetings with key team members to measure progress and construct new goals. The teambuilding activities are important too. Attend social and networking events to ingrain yourself in the company culture and form friendships and relationships with people outside your immediate team.
- Seek Feedback and Be Open to Improvement
When you begin a new role and you find yourself learning different processes and new routines, remember that it is beneficial to clarify the assignment, seek feedback and ask for help if needed. The best time to ask for feedback is early in the project life-cycle, about the halfway point, so that there is plenty of time to course-correct. Asking for feedback also provides an opportunity to forge connections and trust with your colleagues. Not only does it ensure the success of your team, but it engages team members and creates a collaborative environment that will benefit the project and entire team in the end.
- Stay Organized and Manage Your Time
The beginning of a role involves lots of moving parts and you might feel overwhelmed. Staying organized requires a certain amount of planning and discipline. New projects, meetings, and relationships are all very exciting but you may need to prioritize your tasks to put the most time-sensitive hurdles first – if you aren’t sure what these are, ask for clarification. Use calendar management and time organization tools to schedule hours for learning or to work on specific projects so you can keep your “focus” time separate.
This phase of transition, though often intimidating at first, is actually a golden opportunity if you execute this early transition period effectively. Encourage yourself to ask questions and take your time. Your preparation and experience allow you to pave the way forward with confidence and assurance. Look to the future with optimism, embrace a proactive mindset, and the first few weeks can set you up for long term success in your new role.
