The first year on the job is often challenging, but it is also your chance to integrate yourself and to make a name for yourself. Here are a few key strategies to ensure your first year on the job is a satisfying and productive one.
Familiarize yourself with the company’s culture
Each profession, organization or enterprise has its unique features: a specific organizational structure, a management style, policies and procedures, a language or jargon, as well as work tools that define its overall culture. To adapt yourself to it, you have to:
- Be aware of the company’s policies and procedures and follow them. Have regard for the establishment and its management style.
- Learn the language or jargon – especially when the work is technical or academic in nature – in order to communicate with colleagues efficiently and productively.
- Focus on becoming comfortable and skillful with any new equipment or tools that you aren’t familiar with.
Listen
Contribute when you can, express your ideas and objections, but make sure you listen to your colleagues and superiors, who have plenty of valuable information and advice for you.
Seek feedback
The best way to learn is through feedback. If you’re not getting any reactions or comments concerning your performance, ask your colleagues or supervisors for direct feedback.
Show initiative
If you volunteer for projects, you look eager, enthusiastic and competent.
Develop positive work relationships
Build good working relations with successful and trustworthy co-workers. Always be professional, avoid getting caught up in cliques and gossip that inevitably offend colleagues and cut you off from opportunities. Be sensitive to differences in personality, culture, and opinion at all times.
Network
Build and maintain strong professional relationships. This is a true investment, as people can turn out to be a key reference for you in the future. Therefore, don’t underestimate the importance of making a good impression.
Be patient
It may take up to a year before you feel comfortable in your new job. Take pride in small steps, keep your goals in mind and always try your best. In brief, have fun while learning.
Well-being in the workplace
Your physical and psychological well-being at work is a critical part of your career development. Discontent and prolonged stress at work quickly lead to health problems, which is why it is crucial that you do everything in your power to ensure your well-being in the workplace. Know that this is a shared responsibility between the employee and employer, who can support your efforts and provide special services as needed.
Balancing work and personal life
Achieving a proper balance between work and personal life can be difficult and varies from one person to another. It is therefore uniquely up to you to establish such a balance and to maintain it. Respect your priorities and values, review your life in all its aspects and avoid getting caught up in one of them.
Time and workload management
When your time is too scarce to get everything done, you might feel like you’re overwhelmed and losing control. Organizing your time and your workload means managing work requests you’re your colleagues and superiors, and sharing or delegating work when it can be divided among team members. For optimal work efficiency, it is also important to stay motivated, to avoid procrastination and to focus on upcoming tasks.
Remember the basics
Rather than working non-stop, your performance benefits from taking time for short breaks and lunch. Stopping to replenish your energy level ultimately allows you to be more productive. We therefore suggest that you personalize your workspace in order for it to be comfortable and pleasant, and that you maintain your social ties and relationships. But above all, make sure you get enough sleep, eat healthily and set aside time for exercise and leisure.
Job satisfaction
The ideal job is one in which you are motivated, inspired, respected and well paid. Nevertheless, there are times when you can feel dissatisfied and frustrated with your job, such as when the following elements occur:
- Conflicts between co-workers or with your supervisor
- Inadequate pay for the work you do
- Lack of necessary equipment or resources to do your work well
- Lack of advancement opportunities
- Lack of control or involvement in decisions that affect you
- Fear about job stability and possible downsizing or outsourcing
Here are some points to consider in the hope of overcoming work dissatisfaction.
Consider your approach to work
People tend to approach work from three perspectives: as a job, as a career, or as a calling.
If your see your work as a job, your focus is primarily aimed on short term financial rewards. However, if you perceive your work as a career, your main concern is advancement as well as financial and personal gains that come with climbing the career ladder. Finally, if you fell your work is your calling, the work itself is important to you for the meaning and fulfillment it brings.
If your career aspirations change, you’re likely to want to make a shift, i.e., to find a different job or to change the way you perceive or perform in your current job.
Challenge yourself
If your job isn’t challenging, it often won’t be interesting or stimulating. To avoid this from happening, expand your job skills or take on a project beyond your normal duties that will provide a motivating goal. Another option is to mentor a co-worker. On top of adding the challenge and satisfaction of teaching to your job, you can develop your own skills.
Stay positive
If you find that you’re always making negative comments about your job, try putting things in perspective. Remember that obstacles are a good opportunity for you to prove your worth and that mistakes: failures and errors make you a more skillful and resourceful employee. Focus on the positive aspects of your job.
Despite your attempts to improve your job satisfaction, sometimes a job simply isn’t right for you. In that case, you might be ready for a different job or a new career.