Starting a New Job: How to Make it a Success in Three Short Months

We all have our own ideas about what constitutes success, but if you are about to take on a new job, this generally means that you are moving up!

Starting in a new professional role can be a significant step in someone’s life, so it’s important to get it right. You may have recently changed jobs yourself or perhaps you help to train new employees and oversee their integration into the business. Either way, what quickly becomes apparent is that the good intentions we have when we first start out can quickly evaporate. As new employees or those who support them, it is important to be aware of different needs to always act with purpose.

According to Gartner, over a third (37%) of the skills that an employee currently uses will have been learned in the past 12 months. Moreover, well over half (57%) of all employees gain new skills through colleague-to-colleague interaction. So, in the first 12 months of any new role, each day and each interaction will be important. There are four key elements to being a successful employee: work relationships, personal achievements, mindset and self-support, and purposeful learning. Let’s take a closer look at these elements across the first three months in a job.

The First Month

Work relationships: Be mindful of how others perceive you and steer clear of behaviors that could frustrate colleagues. To illustrate, a study involving more than 20,000 employees found that the most irritating character traits for workers are a co-worker’s negativity, arrogance/sense of entitlement and low work ethic. So, don’t drown your co-workers in negativity and arrogance and don’t make others pick up your slack! To further help you integrate into your new environment, reflect on workplace culture. Identify the workplace norms you see around you and follow suit.

Personal achievements: To begin with, request and complete a chart on which you can organize your work and stay on top of things.

Mindset and self-support: When you start in your new job, ensure you understand your responsibilities and what your employer expects from you. Then, see if you can do that bit extra. By understanding others’ expectations, you can avoid stress and perform well without burning out.

Purposeful learning: When you achieve a goal, record any feedback you receive. As Bill Gates has said, feedback is ‘how we improve.’

The Second Month

Work relationships: Get yourself a mentor. Also, use your entry into a new job role as a way of reaching out to colleagues via LinkedIn to grow your network within the business.

Personal achievements: Start to distinguish yourself by developing a specific area of expertise. Your ultimate goal is to be the person everyone goes to when they need help on issue x, y or z.

Mindset and self-support: Start to reflect on the aspects of your role that you find particularly trying and space out when you need to deal with these aspects so they don’t sap your energy. Additionally, think about your strengths and what tasks allow you to display these strengths.

Purposeful learning: A McKinsey survey reveals that most senior executives (70%) see innovation as among the three most significant drivers of business growth in the short and medium-term. By identifying the innovation types relevant to your business and role, you can establish goals and performance metrics that will help you grow in your job.

The Third Month

Work relationships: Ask to participate in a project connected to your area of expertise and grow your reputation as the go-to person for this particular issue.

Personal achievements: Seek out ways to enhance your role. On a corporate level, think about how time and resources can be saved.

Mindset and self-support: Three months in is the perfect time to gauge your performance. Seek feedback from colleagues and managers to see how your work is being viewed. You might gain some valuable insights.

Purposeful learning: Start thinking about internal mobility. Figure out what is required of you to move up in the business and work to develop the skills and achieve the objectives that internal mobility requires.