Overcome your first job hurdles.

First job experience is different for everyone; it can be anything from being confident to nervous. No matter what degree you hold the experience to face your first job cannot be taught.

As per my experience, I hopped through many internships until I settled into a full-time job and after all that experience, I still couldn’t jump through the hurdles so easily, yes I learned the hard way.

You are most likely to have experienced this or are going to at some point in your life. As much as you have prepped up for it, the first job is a tricky one since you don’t have any idea about the corporate world.

I am not trying to scare you but there are a few things that you should not be worried about and if you are then there are always ways to cope up with it! Continue reading …

It’s okay to have not much to do:

Since this will be your first job, you will obviously join as an intern or probably a new team member so you are not going to have much to do in the beginning, it won’t be this way forever and it is completely okay, trust me this is the time to enjoy until you start soaking up with a lot of work. This will be your period to settle in, get to know more about the company, the work process and see how people are around you.

Your Boss is not always thinking of you:

We all want to fit in and want our managers to like us, I had similar thoughts during my first job and it stuck to me with every job I switched until I realized that we are all fitting in and no matter what, we won’t have our mentors or bosses communicating with us the same way every day.

They are busy people, they are probably worried about the money or more deals rather than thinking of you. So, if your manager does not communicate with you as much as the past week or the day before or has been quiet, it’s not you or your work, he has more on his plate than you know of.

Stay On top of your tasks:

As per my experience, I did not have much to do in my first few weeks except for a lot of training, however, the only way to get your hands on work or cope up with the tasks meant for you is to be aware of it.

You may not have many tasks but staying on top of whatever elements of work or emails is very important, it clearly shows your efficiency and creates a good impression of you.

Make notes, highlight pointers, ask questions, try to communicate with people and get hold of what’s going in your team.

It’s okay to ask questions:

One of my major drawbacks was not communicating or asking the right questions at the right time because I was nervous and scared of what people would think of me.

But this is so not a way to go. Asking questions is very important and especially when people have accepted you as a new bee, also because you are here to learn so don’t bother what your colleagues would think of you!

No matter the research you have done or the degree you acquired, it is nothing compared to what you can learn from someone’s experience or answers. I learned this the hard way and realized it’s always better to ask than to do something wrong.

It’s okay to push it for the next day:

This is a real me wanting to sum up and trying to get rid of all my tasks at once because I did not want to cause delays on my end and also be the quick one but this was the most exhausting thing I tried to do, eventually, I figured that many try to misuse the word urgent and get their tasks ticked off! So I suggest it’s always better to push the task to the next day if you have too much on your plate than to do it in haste which can lead to more mistakes.

You will forget but sticky notes are your best friends.

You work for 9 hours in a day, out of which you can stay maximum productive and alert only for around 2-3 hours a day! So no matter what happens, you are going to forget important dates, meetings or tasks, so it’s better to WRITE or make a note of whatever you have at the start/end of the day so if you forget your best friend (sticky notes) can back you up!

Stick to your time:

Coming early, leaving late does not really impact your work impression, what does is your communication and work for real. So from the beginning its always better to stick to your working hours, obviously there are exceptions but this will only do good to you as you won’t give or be habitual of this routine of working late.

There are many things you would experience that I would have missed out, so please share your comments! Also, I hope this blog adds up for you to stay positive and confident with your first job experience.