Starting Your First Job on the Right Foot

Martin Yate CPC
NY Times Bestseller
Professional Resume Services

So you’ve started your first real job, and crossed that final bridge to adulthood. You want to prove yourself, start taking steps up the professional ladder and get your student loans paid off. But if you really want to start your career off right on the right foot, you need to avoid rewriting the corporate rulebook and blowing everyone away with your magnificence on day one.

Professional success is based first on knowing how to do your job and building a solid relationship with your colleagues and management.

Why You Should Keep A Low Profile
All too often people join a company and, in an effort to make a powerful impression, achieve just the opposite. How you behave when you first start work will determine your acceptance by the team and by management; it can effect your tenure, and ultimately the degree of your success with the company. In other words don’t try to change the world before you know the way to the restroom.

For more advice for emerging professionals,
check out “Knock Em Dead Secrets & Strategies
For First Time Job Seekers” available on Amazon

Your first task is to master your job’s responsibilities and get to know the people you work with, as well as the people whose work is affected by yours. One of the smartest minds on career issues is Rick Kean, and he is dead-on when he suggests, “Nail proficiency in your job first, help pick up slack on necessary but unpopular tasks, and do enough homework to ask intelligent questions.”

Get To Know The Players & Make Allies
Make a point in the early days to remember names, go out of your way to smile and introduce yourself to everyone. Don’t overlook clerical staff; it isn’t courteous, and allies here sometimes wield more influence than you might imagine. In short, learn the job, the organization, and the people. Work extra hours as necessary without complaint, and form good relationships inside and outside your department.

Ask for advice and listen closely to feedback on your performance—you are new at this and pretty much everyone wants you to succeed. Say thank you to everyone who assists you, and show further appreciation of their time and input with brief thank-you notes.

There’s A Method To The Madness
Over the first few days you may notice apparent anomalies in the work flow; things that just don’t make sense. Whatever the apparent madness you see, there is invariably some very sound reasoning behind it.Don’t be the guy who makes everyone feel like you were hired because they weren’t doing anything right and you’re there to fix it. The paychecks don’t bounce, so these people must be doing something right. With this in mind, don’t make comments about how things should be done, because no one will listen and some will take offense that “the newbie is a know-it-all,” which will encourage some wise-ass to put you in your place.

You need time to get to know the company, its services, and its people; and in turn, they need time to get to know you. If you arrive and immediately begin reinventing the company, it will be seen as arrogance! No one wants to hear your ideas until they know if you are a talker or a doer. Never assume anything when you start any new job, especially your first in the professional world, Take your time to learn why things are done the way they are. You can learn more about how to build a solid foundation for your professional success in Knock Em Dead – Secrets & Strategies For First-Time Job Seekers.

Martin Yate CPC

NY Times Bestseller Resume Services

Professional Resume Services Webcasts

Career Management

Books