Don’t Mess Up Your First Month At Work!

A lot of my videos are focused on what it is you need to do to secure interviews to help you land that all-important job offer, but today I'm going to share what it is you should be doing in the first 30 days of starting your new job. Now a few weeks back I posted these same tips on my Instagram and you all went wild for them. The post amassed over 4 million views and over 33,000 of saved the post. So clearly it's something you guys want to know. Now if you're not already, make sure you follow me on Instagram at careergrowthwithlucy for more daily tips. So what are the six things you should be doing in your first 30 days of starting your new job? So first up you want to determine communication channels. How do people communicate in your new workplace? What mediums are preferred? Email, instant message, using software like Slack or Teams, phone calls or face-to-face conversations. Understanding how communication flows is crucial for a seamless collaboration. So start observing how your colleagues interact and adapt to the preferred mediums. Speak to your manager or supervisor to understand the most effective communication channels. Now two, perfect your onboarding process. Now on my recent post some people were unsure what an onboarding process was. So for those that are new to working, an onboarding process is where companies integrate new employees into their company culture and familiarize them with their new role and responsibilities. So this may include introducing them to your new colleagues on your first day or explaining your responsibilities and performance metrics in more detail. It could include any training that they may need you to complete to develop a specific skill for the job. They may go through their company policies and procedures and set out your goals and objectives. This process could be completed in a day or over a few months as they may also include a follow-up and evaluation meeting to ensure new employees continued success. But essentially this period is to figure out what is expected of you and for you to ask questions if you're not sure. So drop me a comment below, what did your previous onboarding process look like? Did your company offer an onboarding process or did you run into any onboarding nightmares? Let me know in the comments. Number three, write down your goals. Set out some SMART goals for the first 30, 60 and 90 days as well as longer term goals. This will provide a roadmap for your success. Write them down and start tracking your progress on them. Now have you ever written in a career journal? No? So a career journal is a great way to write down all of your career goals and break them down into actionable tasks. It's a space to write down your achievements against those goals and what happened? Did everything go to plan? What did you learn? What would you have done differently this time? Writing a career journal is a great negotiating tool for when you come up for your next annual review. Because let me tell you something, your boss will very quickly forget all those amazing things that you've achieved over the past year. They have their own goals going on and so are focused on what they've achieved and very quickly forget all of those wins that you've had. So by writing your achievements down, you can also remember the metrics, the goals and the achievements for the year. And it's a great way to reflect and understand what you may do differently given that task again. And not only that, it can really help when it comes to updating your resume ready for that next position. Now moving on to number four, establish and lead a regular one-to-one with your boss. Now most supervisors plan for this but if they don't, get a regular weekly time on their calendar or even daily for the first few months and then take responsibility for leading these meetings. As mentioned, if you keep track of your SMART goals, you can update your boss of your key achievements for the week, the month or even the quarter. These sessions should be used to provide updates and ask questions and check in on those goals. Now number five, find your people. So network beyond your immediate team. Identify individuals across the organisation who can influence your career trajectory. Yes of course include your supervisor and your team but also include your skip manager, heads of adjacent teams and other leaders and people of influence who are worth building rapport with. By doing so, you'll broaden your professional network and gain insights into various aspects of the company. Finally, number six, play the new person card. Leverage your status as a new employee to connect with others. Don't hesitate to ask questions, seek advice and initiate conversations. Get to know people, go grab lunch, a coffee, have a zoom chat to really help integrate yourself within the company and forge meaningful relationships with your colleagues across departments. Hopefully you found this video helpful and if your onboarding process didn't quite go to plan or maybe your workplace has taken a turn for the worse, you may want to watch this video where I identify key signs of a toxic workplace environment. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you there.