Five Tips to Consider When Starting Your New Job

I made it successfully through my first week at my new job and wanted to share some tips with others who may be struggling as they navigate their first few weeks within a new organization.

Below are my top 5 list of tips for successfully navigating those key first few weeks at your new job.

One of the hardest things to do at a new job is acclimating yourself to the lingo and industry terms. Often times an organization will be speaking in short hand because they have worked together for a while. By sitting in on meetings and calls you can begin to hear the lingo and common phrases used within the organization.

Sitting down one-on-one with others in the organization has two key benefits. One, you begin to understand the different personality types and work styles of the people you will be interacting with and two, you can begin to piece together who does what and where you fit into the organizational ecosystem.

Many individuals have a tendency to operate under a “tribal knowledge” construct where they “know” how things work but rarely document how things work. This leave new employees having to ask the right questions to extract knowledge from people who have been in the organization for a while. A key to your success in your new role would be to start documenting information from day one so that you not only learn faster but can give a hand up to the next new employee and help expedite their on-boarding process.

Absorbing knowledge and acclimating to your new job only go so far in a business looking for you to add value. Whether you are conscious of it or not the organization is evaluating your return on investment to the business starting on day one. It’s your job to get up to speed and begin adding value as soon as you can. By identifying some key initiatives to own or align yourself with, you can begin to move the needle in your role and show progress towards being a valued member of the team.

Asking questions is so important when starting a new job. The organization is expecting you to ask questions early on and nodding along without a clear understanding will set you up for early stumbles. If you are an introverted person like I am, then you need to break out if your comfort zone and gain context on everything you can in the first few weeks.

There are plenty of other things to consider when starting a new job but I thought it would be valuable to share my first week insights as I make my way into my own new job.

Please leave a comment if you have some tips for starting a new job that you think others would benefit from.

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