New Hires’ Guide for the First Week at Work

 To start things off, congrats on your new position. As a new hire on your first day on the job, you are full of expectations and apprehensions for what challenges your new workplace will bring. In order to quell some of that fear and apprehension, provided here is a selection of common new-hire mistakes and tips on how to avoid them and make a stellar first impression. While every workplace and job is different, several transferable scenarios are relevant to most any position and should be noted and remedied before losing face with your new boss and coworkers.

Everyone has heard a million times that first impressions are everything, and there is some truth here. Even before shaking hands and making introductions, your coworkers and bosses will be making prejudgments about you based on your immediate physical appearance. As such, you should put a lot of thought into your first-day wardrobe selections. Hopefully, when you interviewed you got a feel for the atmosphere and observed how people dressed. If not, you run the risk of coming off as too formal or overly casual; both of which can potentially hurt first impressions. Dressing appropriately will make it easier for you to fit in and make you less of an object of gossip during your first days on the job.

New hires typically expect to have their hand held through their first week, but not all jobs provide this sort of onboarding experience. You may be required to show self-sufficiency right out of the gate and come prepared to ask the right questions to extract information not otherwise forthcoming. The “right questions” here don’t include anything that springs to mind or that can be easily discovered on your own. Spouting a deluge of questions to everyone in your immediate vicinity can make you appear unprepared, but not having questions can make you appear disinterested and unsocial.

Many new hires, especially those entering their first jobs, often expect to do precisely what was described in the job description, but this is frequently not the case. Often, employees are expected to branch beyond their expertise and learn new skills in order to multi-task and take on more responsibility. But this is actually a good thing. By showing willingness to develop your skill set and be flexible, you make yourself more valuable and likely to be called upon to work on a variety of projects.

Finally, it sometimes happens that new hires feel uncomfortable with acclimating to a new office culture. Things may be done differently than in previous jobs and you may feel the need to correct your coworkers in order to be more productive. Don’t! Every organization has its own way of doing things and new hires are expected to adapt to those methods, not vice versa. No one will appreciate being critiqued by a new hire after being on the job for years. The more open-minded you are, the better you will be able to take advantage of your new position and fit in with the new culture.

The list of potential first-day foibles is vast, but with a bit of preparation and a desire to fit in, participate, and adapt, you will quickly open up avenues for career development and professional relationship building with your new employer.