You’ve spent what seems like a lifetime completing your studies. You have been a student longer than you can remember. After all your hard work, sweat, and tears, you have a degree you are proud of. Now, it is time to start thinking about your work life and what lies ahead. No matter how accomplished you feel right now, there’s no ignoring there is a scary world to approach. The jump from school to work can be faster than we’re ready for, and it can lead to anxiety. Do not fear, you can overcome first job challenges with these powerful tips to succeed.
It doesn’t matter what your situation is, or what you just went through; hindsight is always 20/20. This is exactly why so many people just entering the workforce wish they’d been told what to expect to avoid the shock they experienced when entering the corporate world after school. At the very least, most wish they’d been given some advice to make the transition easier.
This article will share the top ten common insights people wish someone had shared with them before their first day on the job.
- Exhaustion Is Real: No one can really prepare you for the heavy shift in responsibility you will feel changing from student to professional. There is nothing as shocking as leaving a life with the freedom to make your own class schedule and decide how much of your time is spent socializing, to feeling like someone else owns all your time from 9 to 5. You will spend an entire day without addressing any of your own personal needs five days a week. By Saturday morning, you are overwhelmed, which can put a toll on your mental health, and physical health. To avoid this, learning how to manage your time wisely is essential. It is a skill you’ll want to master quickly to avoid exhaustion.
- Keep Your Personal Life Personal: A student thrives on being social and their popularity grows when they share their social life with others. In college, it is not unusual to know who is dating who, who is having a fight with someone else, or who will be at the next party. Entering the professional world, it is quite the opposite. At work, it is generally frowned upon to discuss personal details about your dating life or broadcast what you do on weekends. Doing so will negatively impact your professional reputation. Some companies even discourage certain social media activities. Many of these mistakes can and will impact how you are perceived at work. You will be judged quickly for how you practice your company’s core competencies. If you do not practice them well, your ability to advance in your career could take a hit. Sadly, over-communication about social activities can even influence how your overall performance is rated on the job. When you start a new role, get to know the culture by asking questions and reading policies. The sooner you know how to adapt to the culture, the better off you will be. As a rule of thumb, it is always best to learn to keep your personal life to yourself.
- Your Boss is Human: Don’t expect your boss to be superhuman or perfect. All people make mistakes, your boss included. When you enter the workforce you may consider your boss similar to your old teachers in thought. You know, the ones that never made mistakes (or at least never let you see them). This could not be more wrong. Your boss is never above general personality flaws, mistakes, or miscommunications. Quite the contrary, the boss you have may make frequent mistakes; they could be a micromanager, overreactive, unorganized, or even have poor communication skills. The sooner you learn to expect this from your boss, the easier you will adapt. While not always the case, sometimes bosses hire people with strengths in the skills that they are bad at. Despite this, you will gather learning experience from every bad boss you have.
- Eat Lunch & Take Breaks: Do not fool yourself into thinking if you keep working through lunch, you will get ahead and finish that report before the deadline. Even if you get the report done early once, the danger in what you cannot see is what will come back to haunt you. Skipping lunch enables you to ignore a personal boundary that will form a toxic habit you will have a hard time getting out of. When lunch or breaks are utilized properly, this helps set the standard, telling coworkers that you respect yourself enough to recharge. This is important to accomplish instead of being known as the person that works through lunch. No matter how much you try to convince yourself you will be fine; you will eventually wear yourself down. Even if you only spend half of your lunch away from your desk, you will create a healthy habit with many rewards. Taking breaks and caring for yourself will allow you to be better respected by peers and yourself.
- Ask for Help: There is no ‘I’ in TEAM. If you need help, get help, period. No one is above asking for help. Whether it is a new procedure you are learning that you don’t quite grasp or you’ve taken on too much in your workload, the sooner you reach out to your support areas for help, the higher the success rate will be for your work. Many people learn as they do the work, and sometimes if there is a new procedure, the steps may be incorrectly taught, leading to bumps along the way. Whatever the scenario, you are better off using the team’s lifelines to get help and clarity. Even if you have taken on more than you can chew, admitting you need help will show your boss your character and that you care about the bigger picture for the team, not just a deadline.
- Don’t Gossip or Listen to Gossip: Whether you are the one spreading gossip or listening to someone else do the talking, it is still gossiping. Do not participate in this toxic behavior. Gossiping will ruin your reputation and credibility. It will make you appear untrustworthy and ruin the reputation of those being talked about. If you know you will have a hard time with this, come up with some ‘out statements’ that will give you a way to get out of a gossip conversation once started. An example may be ‘Sorry, I need to finish a deadline I am working on’, or ‘Late for a meeting’. In removing yourself from the conversation, you will quickly earn respect and learn who the office gossips are.
- Don’t Be a Passenger in Your Career: Always be proactive about your career. Don’t let yourself get preoccupied with what everyone else is doing; instead, do what is right for you. Be aware that you will go through seasons in your career and need different things at different times. Never be afraid to ask for what you need. If you don’t ask, the answer will always be no. Learn to accept yourself and avoid feeling guilty when you go after what you need. To keep things in perspective, remember that every person that is working is there to make money. This mindset should help you keep your priorities straight to avoid burnout. Take chances, and don’t fear failure. Every failure makes you a little stronger and a little less afraid for the next challenge ahead, which is always just around the corner.
- Use Mornings for Yourself: Mornings are when we are most refreshed and energetic. You will quickly learn how exhausted you can be after a busy workday. If you make a schedule that allows you to spend part of your morning every day doing something for yourself, you will reap the benefits. Carve out two hours every morning to complete tasks you know you will not have the energy to complete in the evenings. Try to spend your two hours with a mixture of need-to-do’s and like to-do’s. Some examples of tasks you could include are praying, reading, meditating, working out, walking the dog, paying bills, doing laundry, or prepping for dinner. Checking a few things off your to-do list each morning will help you start your day feeling successful and confident, which is a win/win at the office.
- Make Mistakes and Learn from Them: Every person can make mistakes. This is how we learn and grow. If you can admit your shortcoming, you will be more likely to learn from it. However, if you avoid admitting that you were wrong in the first place, you will be busy avoiding the truth and probably not learn much. If you notice you made an error, admit it early instead of waiting for the mistake to be noticed. Those that can be proactive about their mistakes will build character and leave themselves open and receptive to learning valuable lessons.
- Take and Use Feedback: Feedback is a free gift in the workforce. Asking what someone else thinks of you or your work may be nerve-racking, but it is worth it in the long run. The value of feedback is immeasurable because it helps you grow and remedy issues before they become big problems. When you receive feedback, always receive it with gratitude. If you react negatively or combatively to feedback, you are guaranteed that person will not give you feedback again. Even if you disagree with the feedback initially, it is always best to be thankful and avoid reacting. Having an attitude of gratitude will allow you to be given feedback again in the future. Additionally, consider getting feedback in writing when it’s excellent. When it’s less than great, use it to learn from early on. Keep things balanced by soliciting comments and criticism from both peers and supervisors. Then, you’ll know who to ask for references for a future role. On the other hand, negative feedback will let you improve your work overall without the reprimand of a mistake. When giving feedback to others, be honest but avoid sounding overly critical. Feedback that is constructive is always received better. Sometimes it helps to make it a rule that you will give one positive feedback example with one negative feedback example, keeping a fair mix.
Now that you have insight into what types of things to expect when entering the workforce, you may have less anxiety as you enter. Even though there could be so many more beneficial scenarios for you to know, I share these tips with the hope that they help illuminate your path.
Professional transitions can be difficult for everyone, especially those entering the workforce for the first time. While the fear or trepidation you feel is real, always be patient with yourself and others along the way and these tips will pay off immensely in the future of your career. Remember that your career journey will be unique to you, and you will find lessons to take from your own experiences. Here’s to a new beginning toward your success in your new chapter of life.
