© 2024
Your New Job
Welcome to this tenth module, providing hints and tips on how to maximise your chances of success in your new job
Tackle the module in bite size chunks, don’t feel the need to do everything in one go and allow plenty of time to digest and apply the information covered
The module includes helpful ‘Activities’ for you to complete, it is strongly recommended that you undertake them to get the most out of the content and the key learning points
Allow yourself time to reflect and take on board the advice, key messages and suggested tasks contained in the module to enable you to move your job campaign forward
This module will enable you to
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Explore why starting a new job is both exciting and nerve racking and how to manage yourself to settle in quickly and successfully
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Successfully navigate your next transition into your new job, another major change in your career and personal life
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Recommend some tried and tested practical top tips to make your new job a happy and profitable experience
Starting a new job is like your first week at a new primary school as a child, you
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Are excited by the new place and also daunted by it - like any new experience, your first few weeks in a new job will be full of opportunities for learning and development as well as for being surprised, delighted and disappointed
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Don’t know the new playground’s unspoken rules - as well as the 'official' rules of the organisation, there will be lots of unspoken, hidden rules of the game to learn and adjust to
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Don’t know who you new friends are going to be - initially, be friendly with everybody but, inevitably, you will start working out who your friends are going to be and who are not
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Don’t know who you should avoid or be wary of - having established (by your choice or theirs) who won't be amongst your friends and allies, you then need to work out how to manage them accordingly
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Don’t know what is expected or demanded of you - moving from an environment where you know what the business expectations and standards are into the unknown can be quite unsettling until you know what they are
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Don’t know if your knowledge will be good enough - it is OK to feel self doubt and fear of failure, its not OK to let them drive your behaviour
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Want to fit in, but aren’t sure if you can and how - until you have started, you don't what the underlying values of the organisation are and if they fit with yours
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Had answers to these issues where you were before - but there is no reason why you can't do the same in the new job, after all, you did it before in the old job!
Similarly to the transition you went through to get your new job, you now have a second transition to make a success of it
As with your job campaign, the key is to recognise, accept and manage the stages you are going through as a natural process we all experience
Spotting and implementing key objectives is crucial to your success in the early stages of a new job
Some of your objectives will be set for you by your new boss(es), others will be objectives that you identify
Some objectives will have high impact and high visibility value, others will have a lesser value or impact
Similarly, some objectives will be quickly achievable, whereas others may take some time to achieve
The combined list of objectives will need prioritising, so you can make them happen to maximum effect
One way of prioritising them is via their relative impact/visibility value versus likely speed of completion
This prioritising principle can probably best be illustrated and explained by the following diagram
First priorities
These objectives can be completed quickly and will have high impact and visibility so, to maximise your perceived early success in the new job, they need to be at the top of your ‘to do’ list
Second priorities
These objective are also high impact/visibility but will take longer to bring to fruition, so you need to get them started a.s.a.p. and keep on top of them until they are completed
Third priorities
Once your second priorities are completed or underway, you can focus on these third level objectives, providing quick results, albeit not as impactful/visible as the previous objectives
Fourth priorities
These objectives are still worth doing and will add value to your success in the new job, however, they should only be tackled if all other objectives are completed or underway
Top tips to settle you into your new job include
Task top tips
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Establish what the business’s expectations of you are and fulfil them
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Have as steep a learning curve as you can – get to full competency a.s.a.p.
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Learn as much as you can as fast as you can - build your reputation as a doer
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Spot and complete quick, high profile wins to build internal credibility
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Be the changes you want to see in your new team
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Identify potential obstacle or hurdles and work out how to overcome them
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Be the source of solutions to problems or challenges, never the source of them
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Manage your time and make sure you don't 'bite off more than you can chew'!
Behaviour top tips
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Listen, observe and learn – using your natural empathy
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You have one mouth and two ears, use them in those proportions!
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Ask lots of open questions and soak up lots of information
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Take on new challenges enthusiastically and willingly
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Be open, non-defensive and non-judgemental
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If managing people, live the standards and behaviours you want to see
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Initially, be accepting, later you can start picking and choosing
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Be positive, supportive and helpful to everybody at every level
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Seek official or unofficial mentors to provide you with advice
Relationship top tips
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Identify and manage peer/boss leadership/management styles - 'ask not what they can do for you, but what you can do for them'!
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Market yourself internally – build your new internal network - including identifying and befriending the real decision makers
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Spot and nurture those who you would like to be your friends - over time, you'll recognise the people that share your values
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Identify who to avoid or be wary of and how to manage them - hopefully there won't be many, if any!
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Spot and befriend influencers who really know what is going on - hopefully they will be your friends but, if not, you still need to manage the relationships well
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Build respect based on personal (not positional) acceptance - build your team's regard for your values and ways of working
Alignment top tips
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Research and assimilate the culture and values of the organisation - you don't change your values, just work out how to make them fit
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Align your values and psychological contract to the organisation - be flexible and pragmatic, as long as you're happy - job done!
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Proactively work on how you can best align yourself in the organisation
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Don’t expect 100% alignment, 80% is more than good enough to start with
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Be clear what your ‘personal brand’ is going to be at work and live it
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If you find you can’t fit in, move on to where you can, don’t be unhappy - if you just can't make it work, cut your losses and go
Transition top tips
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Honour the past, but don’t live in it – embrace this new experience and new adventure
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Recognise and accept where you are on the transition curve and keep moving forward
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Moments of self doubt are natural – remember, you got the job on your own merits
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Inform key recruiters/agencies you have a job, thank them and ‘keep the door ajar’
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Regularly review your priorities, objectives and key milestones to keep yourself on track
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Having worked so hard to gain your self-awareness, don't start losing it!
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Manage your wellbeing and work/life balance, keep physically and mentally healthy
Career top tips
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Your CV is a key career long tool, not just an exit document, keep investing in it
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At least once a year, update your CV with all of your latest achievements and other info
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Continue to proactively manage your career for as long as you are economically active
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Keep using the skills acquired on this programme to manage your ongoing employment
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Maintain self awareness of your internal and external employability and transferability
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Tell your external network about the job and keep proactively building your network
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Build your internal networks, be mutually beneficial to your new work colleagues
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Be useful to your network, so they are there for you when you next need them
This module has enabled you to
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Understand why starting a new job can be both exciting and a bit scary
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Manage your new job transition stages proactively and effectively
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Acquire useful 'new job' tips to apply in your new job to make it a success
Finally, it is sincerely hoped that this modular programme has been a positive benefit to you in your job hunting and made a tangible contribution to getting you to where you want to be
Many of the abilities you have acquired in this job hunting campaign are useful skills not just when you are job hunting but also to managing your ongoing career for as long as you are economically active
We strongly recommend that you keep all of these skills in your kit bag for the future but, in particular, we would like you to consider continuing to do the following on a regular basis to keep yourself career ready as well as being job hunting ready - when needed
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At least once a month, actively manage your LinkedIn and other social media profiles, including updating them with new information, growing your LinkedIn and other network relationships, keeping in touch with your existing networks and also, if possible, posting or reposting interesting articles/comments to maintain your profile and also start (or respond to) interesting and relevant online conversations
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At least once every six months, update your CV with all of your new achievements, including the three 'so what's' for each of them, as this will help enormously with both keeping you self aware of your ongoing employability and transferability and also with the ongoing management and direction of your career and future job path
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At least once a year, self review your motivation, courage and resilience in relation to your new job and your career aspirations and proactively coach yourself to ensure that you are at least 'maintaining' and at best 'building' your 'winning attitude' and, most importantly, certainly ensuring that you're 'winning attitude' is not being eroded
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