Day 1 at work
(This story was written as a response to the task in an online learning course “Product Management” in Udacity. However, a shared perspective is generally applicable)
„Hello everybody, my name is Alex“ — that is the way I would greet a group of people in my new job. Coming here, to this company, and getting this particular role of a PM assigned, must have been a great challenge. Eventually, I am done with searching & applying and ready to start!
People working in an organisation in many ways define how it does look like to public and to newcomers, of course. In my new role I would want to consistently acquire knowledge about my new company, its history, traditions, rituals and success stories. Whereas some of the formal facts you could have known already before your first interview, some you will only be able to get to know as soon as you start working; most of them, through an informal way from different people working there. And so, as you learn more about organisation, you will inevitably learn more about people working in there.
First weeks at a new for me place are very important, since one never gets a second chance to make a first impression. Thus, I would really care about my image: the so-called picture, projected into the outer world, must be good enough and appropriate.
It would be important to appear confident in knowledge and rhetorics related to the job, but not too confident. Since the job in the new company is supposed to be for a substantial period of time, relationships will play a determinative role in my success within a company. Therefore, you would not want to acquire enemies from the day one by being potentially „dangerous“ to them because of simply being more smart, educated, or suitable for the job.
What you would try is to make a good first impression to as much people as possible in the company, be it your boss, fellow colleagues, managers, subordinates, up to the sweeper: all of them will make the atmosphere of your future workplace, so better make it good.
Working on this kind of rapports from different people towards you will obviously be challenging. Starting from the fact, that you possibly cannot be liked by everyone, you will have to identify people you can become friends with, people relationship with who it’s better with a goodwill towards each other and, finally, people a good relationship with who may become challenging. Now these does not necessarily mean that somebody of you is a bad-ass or nasty, but simply that your characters do not match. There cannot be many people like these in your new workplace, provided that you’ve chosen company right; if it is, problem is in you, not them.
Once you know who is who, which is very important thing to accomplish at the first stage, build proper relationships with all. This means becoming sincere friends with somebody, goodwilling colleagues with others, and simply managing to stay neutral and not to fall into the conflict trap with somebody (as the saying goes: „if conflict can be avoided, then it is to be avoided“).
Finally, it will be very important to learn your new job there, and learn it well. Additionally, if personal skills and time allow, I would learn it as fast as possible. That is to be done solely to impress: at the very end, it’s always better to have credits on your account then to have it zero-balanced or, what’s even worse, negatively signed. So be agile, polite and kind, attentive to details and always willing to smart talk whenever somebody at the company wants it with you. Get used to the fact that this is how your life at work will look like at least for the first time.
One last tip: make sure that all these things occur simultaneously. In this way, provided your sound knowledge of the subject, appropriate qualification and good charisma, success will come to you ;)
