All major changes in life tend to
make us fairly nervous and uncertain, and there are few things as nerve
wrecking as the first few days on a new job. You want to impress, let everyone
know that you are a true professional and get as friendly as you can with your
new colleagues. If you don’t have much experience, especially if it’s your
first job, then you’ll need to do a few little things to prepare for this new
challenge. Let’s take a look at some of the best things that you can do to make
the first days of your new job stress-free and highly productive.
Update Your Wardrobe to Look
Professional
Some of the people reading this
are, no doubt, quite fashion-savvy and understand the ins and outs of the
business casual and more formal dress codes, but a lot of people are new to
this sort of thing. Millennials in general tend to be more laid back and like
to add their own personal touch to everything, but as long as you follow the
basic guidelines you can still let your inner self shine and look like a
professional.
Get the Right Gadgets to Boost
Productivity
Once you’ve got your business
attire sorted, it’s time to look at some of the tools of the trade. Think of
yourself as business superhero – you’ve got the suit, but you still need some
cool gadgets. The most important tool you will always have on you is your
smartphone, which you will use for anything from sending emails to accessing
information in the cloud and using team management apps.
Finding a proper business phone
can be a bit of a chore, but it is a smart investment that pays for itself in
the long run. Be sure to install a few useful apps that you will be using
day-to-day, and forget about games and silly fitness apps that you will never
use.
Learn All You Can about the
Company’s Culture and Rules
You will be the “new guy/gal” or,
if you prefer classic cop show nomenclature, the “rookie,” but you don’t have
to be a fish out of water. Sure, it’ll take time to get to know everyone, get a
sense of how office politics work and all, but you should come prepared from
day one. Dig through the company website, ask a few questions during your final
interview, look at any written material on things like the dress code and
corporate policies and try your best to fit in.
Once you start working, it’s best
to ask your colleagues about anything you are not quite sure of, no matter how
trivial it may seem. The social and psychological aspects of sharing a
workspace with other humans are just as important to master as the skills
necessary to do your job properly. You might look a bit unsure of yourself or
eager to please at first, but after a week or two you’ll be all settled in and
accepted as part of the team.
Work on Mastering Confident Body
Language
Being seen as a confident and
ambitious employee, and a cool and interesting colleague will help you win over
your coworkers and the bosses much more quickly than just keeping to yourself
and letting your work speak for you. In fact, as unfair as it may seem to
someone new to the corporate culture, putting in overtime, meeting every
deadline, being insanely punctual and just generally courteous won’t lead you towards
a promotion or improve your reputation if you don’t make an effort to charm
everyone’s pants off.
The first step is to learn about
confident body language and practice moving, standing, sitting, speaking,
gesturing and listening while looking completely sure of yourself. In order to
emanate power you must learn to take up space – without looking like a street
thug, of course – avoid nervous movement, speak more slowly and loud enough,
and keep the right amount of eye contact and so on. It takes practice, but you
can get a hang of it within a month or two.
Read Books on Business, Manners
and Conflict Resolution
There is a sort of meta-job
component to any line of work – it’s the ability to navigate business waters,
find polite ways to say “no” or persuade people, knowing how to efficiently
resolve office conflicts in your favor, and so on. These are the type of skills
that you pick up after a few years of working in an office environment, but
there are tons of great books out there that can help you get a better
understanding of how to climb your way up the corporate ladder.
I’d suggest reading up on
business books, as well as books on dealing with problematic people at work,
some of the best examples being “The Ape in the Corner Office: How to Make Friends,
Win Fights, and Work Smarter by Understanding Human Nature” by Richard Conniff
and “ConCom: Conflict Communication A New Paradigm in Conscious Communication”
by Rory Miller.
Apart from that, a good book on
manners like “The Etiquette Book: A Complete Guide to Modern Manners” by Jodi
R. R. Smith will help you get through all the formalities of business lunches
and polite conversations.
Create a Work Journal to Keep
Track of Your Tasks
Now, before you say anything,
this doesn’t mean that you should walk around with a clipboard and jot down
everything that happens during the day. You can simply note the tame and date
when you’ve started a project or were assigned a certain task, the time and
date you completed it, a few instructions that the boss or your teammates gave
you and so on.
Not only will this help you stay
on track with all the little tasks around the office, but it will also allow
you to cover your back in case of a dispute, as you’ll be able to clearly show
just how much work you’ve done, and what you’ve been told to do. People will
just think that you are a bit of a perfectionist and won’t really give it a
second thought, but it will help you a lot on the long run.
This is by no means a be all end
all list of things you can do, nor are any of the rules set in stone, but these
few useful suggestions will help you leave a good impression and adapt to your
new workplace in record time. Have a little bit of patience, mind your manners
and try to raise through the ranks as a good team member who knows the rules.
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