Ways to Succeed at Your First Job - Essay Example

How to Succeed in Your First Job Graduation day is fast approaching for most college seniors. Along with the anxiety of completing the requirements that will allow them to complete their college degrees, thus allowing them to practice their chosen profession, comes the stress of finding that first job. The job that will allow you to get your foot into the door of professional advancement and take you much closer to your career goals. However, not all graduates will be highly successful during their first time on the job. Mostly because these are the grunt work jobs that one takes on simply to be able to say that one has a job. This paper will look into the various ways that a neophyte worker can climb the ladder of success. Hopefully, this paper will help that new employee find his way out of the gopher position and into an actual desk job at the very least. Landing a job is the first step towards succeeding in your first job. It was difficult enough for your to have passed through endless tests, a rigid, screening process, and finally, an all or nothing interview. Now that you have both feet through the door, it is of the utmost importance that you know how to conduct yourself properly in the workplace in order to create an excellent first impression. Begin your first day on the job by arriving early being aware of your place in the office. That is, at the bottom of the office organization. Understand that you are an entry level worker who is not going to get the choice assignments, if you get any assignments at all. Your role at this point is merely that of an assistant. An extra hand that can be called upon to help with any and all extra tasks that the higher ranking employees may not be so keen on doing. Accomplish the task, regardless of how menial it is, with the enthusiasm of a person who seems to actually be enjoying his job. This will show the other employees that you consider your job so important that you are willing to help out anybody who asks for it. After all, where would they be without the extra hand right? Remember, no task is too small or unimportant for without the completion of that task, the rest of the job wont get done. (Ricker, Susan “How College Grads Succeed -- or Fail -- At Their First Jobs”) Remember that being new on the job is not an excuse to leave any task unfinished. It is of the utmost importance that you always be ready to take notes from your immediate superior and be prepared to accomplish the task as soon as possible. It is not the job of your supervisor to baby sit you and tutor you on the job. If you are not sure about the instructions given then ask clarification questions. Observe the others around you who have perhaps been assigned to similar tasks and emulate them. Never let your immediate superior know that you are clueless about what it is that he wants you to do. Time management is the key to accomplishing all of your tasks within an impressive time frame. Remember that your immediate superior is most likely testing your multitasking skills and as such, you need to accomplish all the tasks set before you. (Miller, Farah “The New Rules for Succeeding at Your First Job”) Remember that the best way to get started at your new job is to make sure that you are familiar with the mission, objectives, and current goals of your company. By understanding the foundation of the company, you will also develop an understanding of what your role and responsibilities within the company is expected to be. By developing a connection with the company objectives, you will find yourself more that happy to take on tasks that are assigned to you. You might even find yourself personally seeking out more workload in order to help you learn more about the company and your assigned job. That is not a bad thing because you will learn how to work smartly and deliver the expectations of the job quickly. (Ramesh, Priya “How to Succeed at Your First Job”) Success on the job is also tied in with your willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty. But this does not mean that you have to constantly arrive early and leave late. Rather, it is directly tied into your ability to complete the tasks assigned to you in an expert manner and within the time frame given to you. (Ramesh, Priya “How to Succeed at Your First Job”) You need to meet or surpass the expectations of the person who assigned you to the task. Arriving early and staying late at the office will only be impressive if you deliver more than expected from the tasks assigned to you. It will never hurt to ask for feedback after you have completed your assigned tasks. Comments from your co-workers and supervisor can help you improve your weak points for the next round of work load. Remember, criticism is not to be taken negatively because it is only by hearing about your short comings that you will know what areas you need to improve upon at work. The criticism will also help you increase your sense of self-awareness. As such, you will need to challenge yourself to move out of your comfort zone. This exercise will help you, as a new employee, realize your work capacity and skill limitations. Any mistakes that you make as you go about your daily work life means that you need to pay more attention to the organizational culture that exists in your office. This means that you should never make any assumptions about how things are done in the office. Office protocol in your mind and the actual protocol set in place at the office are normally two different things. These sorts of mistakes can be ignored once or twice, three times and you are asking for trouble. Learning the proper organizational structure of the office will ensure that you eventually come to understand the office culture and become aligned with their policies as time progresses. By doing so, you will be able to begin practicing empathy. You will begin to develop respect for others and learn to listen when other people are talking instead of talking over them. This is the point in time during your work life when you begin to create an image for yourself. Learning to act appropriately and keeping conversations private will go a very long way in helping shape your image as a trustworthy office worker and confidant. (Short, Elizabeth “How to Succeed in Your First Job”) Keep in mind that as a new employee, the company will want to help you discover your various talents and help you harness the talent and abilities that they may be able to draw out of you by assigning you to various tasks. Therefore, you might want to view each task assigned to you as a preliminary interview for a future job. All the successful tasks you have will find its way into your employee record and will definitely be a plus should your name come up in the promotions meetings. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that you constantly present yourself in the best light possible. No task is ever too simple or too complex. Prove your worth to the bosses and you will be on the fast track towards a successful first job. (Short, Elizabeth “How to Succeed in Your First Job”) Therefore, you must remember that the first impression you create of yourself in the office will be based upon your attendance and timing. This means that even if your office offers flexibly working hours, you need to be punctual and set a standard for your own personal attendance record. Your reliability in terms of attendance and time management will prove that the team can depend on you for their future needs because they know you will always be on time. Be so time reliable that they can already set their watches by you. This also means that you cant take too many sick days and leaves. That causes an unnecessary distraction on your part that will force you to lose momentum at work. Not to mention let down the team members who are depending upon you to complete certain tasks. That means, you cant be late either, nor work slowly. We live in the 21st century. Nobody moves slow these days. There is no time to relax. No time to take it easy, because the demands of work means that they needed those files from you yesterday. (Short, Elizabeth “How to Succeed in Your First Job”) Let us not forget the most important part of work life in the 21st century that will help you totally secure yourself on the job and allow you to call yourself successful at your first job. The you create rapport and camaraderie with your office mates could spell your success or failure at your office. That is because your social skills on the job are also part of your work assessment profile. The better you score with your people skills, the more enticing your existence at the office becomes for your employer. Work life in the 21st century is limited to cubicle offices. The corner offices are reserved for the really powerful higher ups. The cubicle is where everyone starts their climb of success. That small square room without a door is your world at the office. The person in the next cubicle is your neighbor. Treat him or her with respect and respect both his space and privacy. Just because you are most likely competing for the same job does ot mean that you have to be rude or disrespectful of the people around you. These are the people who are permanent parts of your office life. They can either be your best friends or worst enemies. The choice is actually yours. Therefore it would be best to always practice common courtesy when dealing with them. It will never hurt to say “please”, “thank you”, excuse me”, and “Im sorry” whenever it is necessary for you to do so. Be prepared to eat humble pie when you are with these people because you are all on the same footing when it comes to your office status. You are all waiting for a chance to get out of the “pit” so may as well get along. (Ramesh, Priya “How to Succeed at Your First Job”) Nobody will find his dream job the first time he hits the pavement looking for employment. If one is not too picky about the kind of job that you get then you will most likely find employment in a line of work that you did not dream of for yourself. However, that does not mean that you will spend the rest of your life in that job that you took out of necessity. Rather, it is merely a stepping stone, an actual training ground for you to practice in as you go about your quest to achieve your professional goals. You need to succeed in your first job if you wish to create a resume that will end up impressing the other companies that you will apply at in the future. Works Cited Miller, Farah. “The New Rules For Succeeding at Your First Job”. Oprahs Life Class. Oprah.com. 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. Ramesh, Priya. “How to Succeed at Your First Job”. Workplace. Rediff News. 31 Jul. 2007. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Ricker, Susan. “How College Grads can Succeed -- or Fail -- At Their First Jobs”. msn careers. msn.careerbuilder.com. 29 March, 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. Short, Elizabeth. “How to Succeed in Your First Job”. cornerrecommended.com. cornerrecommended.com. 20 Jun. 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. Read More