Starting your new job successfully
If you are starting a new job because you lost your old one, in the relief and euphoria that you experience to be back on the payroll again, you may not be prepared for the shock of entering a new organisation. Even if you are moving of your own accord, if you don’t have much experience of changing jobs through promotion or moving from organisation to organisation, don't underestimate the shock to your system. You will be going through the same process mentioned in the coping with redundancy section. It’s normal but you do need to manage the change constructively.
Dealing with change effectively is a little like having a vaccination and building up your anti-bodies to ward off the negative effects so as to be able to cope more easily, more quickly next time. The first time you experience something new and unfamiliar you may feel uncomfortable and hesitant, but gradually you create ways of surviving, evolving and coming through the other side. Besides, you haven’t really lived if you don’t have a few scars! What counts is how you deal with it after all.
Induction or 'on-boarding' programmes
So, once you have an offer, ask your employers what kind of induction programme there will be for you so that you can get up the learning curve quickly and start making a real contribution. Put that way, it will appear positive and, even if they hadn’t thought of organising anything, it could be just the prompt they needed.
Even better, if they look askance at such a suggestion, give them an indication of what you might need – access to the intranet, passwords, procedure manuals, background reports, copies of budgets. Whatever is relevant anyway, not just the normal 'toilets and tea machine' routine most people are subjected to.
The best companies recognise that an effective induction programme is essential to retaining new employees. It is a sadly neglected area and leads to the truly shocking statistics of high turnover for new employees at all levels of organisations.
Top tips for starting your new job
- First impressions count - be as prepared as possible to start with and remember how much first impressions count.
- Be nice to everyone you meet because you will have no idea how pleasant or unpleasant they could make your life – especially porters, security guards, secretaries, canteen staff, the person who orders office supplies etc.Don’t just make a bee line for the great and the powerful and get a reputation as an untrustworthy creep from the start.
- Companies are like playgrounds - watch out for the bullies, try not to get involved in gangs, and don’t let anyone steal your lunch money!
- Get stuck in - be and look busy. Be prepared to put in a few extra hours to get used to things at first, take papers home to read or on your daily commute if you have one.
- Learn as much about the culture as possible and behave appropriately.
- Be flexible - unless there are fundamental, show stopping gaps (like being paid half what they offered you) between what they told you at your interview and the reality of your job, it’s best to just plough through it.
- Rose tinting - at interviews there can often be a slight amount of 'rose tinting' that goes on. However, many people owe their best opportunities to discovering work that was never part of their 'official' job or discussed at an interview.Most people have also had their fair share of ‘corporate manure’ to shovel as well. In real life we have to find our own silver linings!
Good luck!
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"Energy and persistence conquer all things." Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) |