5 Don’ts When Starting A New Job

Starting a new job is an exciting career milestone offering you a fresh start, opportunities to learn from new challenges and expand your skillset. Notwithstanding, starting a new job can also be a daunting experience – especially if you want to impress your new team.

To help you prepare for your big day, we set out five tips that will enable you to smoothly transition into your new workplace and get off to a good start.

 

1.     Do not ask for time off as soon as you start

Although the leave structure can vary with each office – as a general rule, it is best to mention during your interview if you are planning to take some time off or if you have a trip booked. This is so the company knows your availability and can plan accordingly if they decide to hire you. If they are flexible, they may even schedule your start date after you return from your trip. However, once you start at your new workplace, we advise that you take the time to learn your new responsibilities and postpone any leave days till after your probation period.

 

2.    Do not overshare your private life

Before you start revealing details about your personal life in an effort to connect with your co-workers – think twice. Whilst it’s great to be authentic and be your own person, we will encourage you to remain professional in the workplace – especially when you’ve just started in your new role. You don’t need to share how wild your weekend was or the quirky hobbies that you may have such as ‘hacking websites’ or ‘sword collecting’. After all, you want to make a great first impression and project an image of someone who can be trusted to deliver excellent results. This is why it is best to maintain your sense of privacy both in the office and online if you have any social media presence. Don’t be a prolific online sharer and ask everyone to add you to their Facebook account on your first day – these things come in time as you establish relationships with your colleagues.

 

3.     Do not sit back – take initiative

Many new starters do not take the initiative to make a bigger contribution to the firm. Being new to the company, many tend to sit back on their laurels and wait for their manager’s instructions.

“At Progressive Recruitment, we fully encourage our new starters to engage and participate in group activities and experiential learning. We put a lot of focus on training our new starters and coaching them on how to take the initiative to go above and beyond in their relationships with clients and candidates,” said Daniel Batts, Global Learning and Development Lead.

Whenever you have some spare time in your day, ask your colleagues within your discipline if you can shadow them so you can learn on-the-job. Don’t wait for them to come to you as they would most likely be engrossed in their own workload. Reach out to your colleagues first and let them know how you can use such learnings to assist them later on. Not only will this make you come across as an effective team player but you will also be able to expand your experience and skillset.

 

4.     Do not bring negativity into the workplace

Some new hires can be enthusiastic during their interviews yet exhibit negative attitudes once the daily grind sets in. If there are elements of the office that you don’t agree with, make sure you don’t make a big scene out of it. Do not come to work sulking and bring a list of complaints about what needs to be fixed in the company. If you show discontentment and complain about the company’s culture within your first few days of starting the job, this will be a red flag to everyone. You don’t want to be labelled as the problematic new employee. Instead, we advise that you speak directly to your manager and ask questions rather than enumerating all the things that you do not like. Through your questions, your manager will see you as a proactive employee who is eager to learn and wants to grow with the company.

 

5.     Do not assume you know everything – ask for help

All workplaces have their own jargons and terminologies for specific processes they have in place. Coming into a new workforce, it is therefore completely fine to ask questions as your colleagues will not expect you to know the company’s processes ahead of your start date. Furthermore, the longer you take to clarify any areas of doubt, the more questionable your performance could become. It is also important to understand the terminologies from earlier on as any misunderstanding or misconceptions can cost the company time and money. Our advice is that you embrace the steep learning curve and take the opportunity to ask as many relevant questions as you can – from your job responsibilities to knowing who to contact when you are experiencing IT issues.

 

Last but not least

In addition to the tips above, it would also be great to ask your new colleagues if they can share any tips on what they wished they knew when they first started with the company. Good luck on your big day!

At Progressive Recruitment, we always ensure that our candidates are well-prepared and well-equipped before starting with their new employer so they have their best foot forward. If you are a candidate looking for an opportunity and seeking to find out more about how to ace your new role, feel free to contact us at +61 02 9285 1000.