New Job? Here’s How To Behave
The first three months in a new job are usually most people’s probation period and they are often a nerve-wracking experience. There are new people, new customers, abbreviations you don’t know. During this period it’s really important you make a good first impression, that you try to do everything right and that your boss likes you. Here are some tips on how to make your probation period a success.
Actively Ask Questions
At your day-one meeting with your new boss they are likely to give you about 60% of the information you need to be successful. It’s not that they intend to short change you – they just don’t remember what it was like to be new to the role so you must ask questions. i.e.: What do you expect from me in my first 30, 60 and 90 days?
Set Boundaries
The flipside of asking questions is setting boundaries. Once you understand your Managers expectations you have an opportunity to firmly define what your work schedule is expected to look like. In other words what you need to achieve by the end of each working day. These will be your boundaries so you know what is expected of you.
Build Your 90-day Plan
Your Managers expectations will help you begin to develop a plan for your probation period. If you’re in a junior type of role expect your Manager to work closely with you to develop the plan and set goals. For more senior roles you’ll need to develop your own plan of how you can make a positive impact.
Listen To What’s Going On
When you are a new employee, you possess a superpower. That power is that everyone will want to get to know you and as a result you will get to know from the ground roots what the Company is all about and what they like and dislike in the workplace. Listen carefully and work out how you can best be an asset to the business.
Identify Skills and Knowledge Gaps
Even the best applicant for a new job won’t have all the knowledge and every skill they need to succeed. Having spoken to colleagues you may have highlighted areas where you need support. If you don’t have knowledge and skills in some areas ensure your Manager knows about this.
Get Regular Feedback
When you are in a new job you might not know how you are doing and whether you are meeting your Managers expectations, the only way of finding this out is to ask. So I would suggest that at the end of the first and the second month you arrange a meeting with your Manager and ask if you are achieving what is expected of you and if not ask for more support and training in any areas of weakness.
Work Hard
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine of your new job and miss the opportunity of impressing both your boss and your colleagues with how flexible you are and how willing you would be once you’ve mastered what you are doing to take on extra tasks. Hard work impresses all employers so never be a shirker.
Make Sure You Fit In
All employers want to ensure they have a happy and productive team of workers. The word ‘team’ is the important word here, apart from being able to do your job well it is also important that your colleagues like you and that you fit in with everyone else. No Manager want’s someone who isn’t a good fit with their other workers.
Show you are reliable
It goes without question that an employer want’s someone who is reliable, so unless you are dying you should not under any circumstance be off sick during your probation period, nor should you ask for holiday leave. Another dislike employers have are ‘clock watchers’. They don’t like employees who arrive at work on the dot or 9am and leave their desk at 5.30pm promptly. Nor do they appreciate people who watch the clock and charge out of the office at lunch time.
Enjoy your job
The most important thing is to make sure you enjoy your role as this will impact on your performance. If you don’t like the job, don’t stay in it, but if you do like it and like the Company you are working for make sure you tell everyone. We are at work for a large chunk of our life and it’s important that we enjoy being there.
My advice to you is to make sure you work at making sure your probation period is a successful one, never ever take it for granted that just because you have been offered a job that it is a job for life. You need to put in the effort to ensure it could be.