Top tips for starting new job
As someone who has almost always worked freelance in one way or the other (from office admin to TV production) I am very used to being the new girl. I would be in a new team from every three months to every year or so and I picked up a collection of tried and tested rules that made stepping into a new environment less scary!
1 The first week is always overwhelming and exhausting. It’s a form of culture shock, everything is new, nothing is known from who’s who in the team, where the toilet is, what personalities need handling how and where you get a new pen from. Needing and taking in all this is a lot of work for a brain that takes time to process change and learn new information. Expect to be shattered.
2 Sit back and watch at first. Going in gung-ho with ideas for change and making your mark doesn’t work for two reasons. Firstly, you need to see how something is working to see where it actually might not be, and secondly, and more importantly, no one likes it when the new girl sweeps in and tells them they’re doing it all wrong. You need time to observe, both the workload and the team. Make suggestions from inside the team, not as a criticizing outsider.
3 Don’t take sides. Especially if you’re not going to be in the team long, or if you don’t want to find yourself pulled into office politics that have nothing to do with your job, then avoid being drawn into a “side” when you start. This is not school.
4 Set expectations. Once you’ve watched the office dynamics and have a feel for how things work in your new job, draw out your own boundaries and stick to them. If the office has a presenteeism issue, it doesn’t mean you have to take part. If you don’t want your work email on your phone, to be contactable at all times, then don’t. No is an acceptable answer, so long as it is professionally and politely delivered. They employ you, they don’t own you.
5 Work out what you want. Is this a long-term role for you? A stepping-stone? A gain experience and move on job or a build your skills and work your way up job? Knowing what you want from a new job will help you to work out what decisions you will make whilst doing it. Some wonderful advice I have been given is “make the choices based on what result you are looking for” which seems fairly obvious until you realise that most of us don’t do that. We get sucked into what others want from us which isn’t necessarily the same as what we want for ourselves.
All my experiences of being the new girl fed into little elements of The New Girl, little details that I dropped into the book as I was writing it. I hope you enjoy it!
Start reading Alison’s brand new book The New Girl here: https://mybook.to/thenewgirlsocial