Within your first year of starting a new job, expectations may be high.
You’d want to make a good first impression, establish amicable relationships with colleagues and strive to get your work done well.
While there may some expected hiccups along the way, when adapting to a new work environment, your first year is critical.
Within your first year, you will be learning consistently.
Not only about work duties, but the company’s culture, leadership dynamics and personalities.
By the end of your first year, you ought to be well-climatised to the dynamics and company culture.
This will help you to determine whether, this role or company is part of your long-term career plan.
As such, within your first year of starting a new job, you should be able to:
Understand the culture & workplace dynamics.
Just as jobseekers put their best foot forward in interviews, companies also put forth their best when onboarding a new hire, working with a new client or contracting an external vendor.
Usually, it takes time for this new hire to identify a company’s true workplace culture.
After working with a company for a year though, you should be able to identify:
- How do office politics in this company work?
- Who is the person that usually gets the final say in decision-making?
- The specific functions of each department.
- How does information gets communicated throughout the organisation?
- Who are your go-to people when faced with particular challenges?
- The management styles of various managers, including your own.
No organisation has a perfect work environment, policy of culture. For example, you may find your workplace is largely productive but is riddled with gossip and office politicking.
Nevertheless, you should also, by the end of your first year or even sooner, be able to identify toxic behaviours, people and practices going on in the workplace.
Identifying this is critical as it gives you a clear illustration as to the people you should keep minimal contact with or in some cases, avoid!
Establish a work rhythm in your department.
Mistakes aside, by the end of your first year you should be competent enough to handle your responsibilities, with minimal supervision.
More importantly though, you need to establish a work rhythm.
This means, understanding the various roles in the company and identifying the workflow.
For example, how does your work responsibilities affect the operations of others and vice versa?
Which tasks need to be completed by other people, for you to begin the tasks that have been assigned to you?
What information is necessary or conversations need to be held that will allow you to function, provide clarity and get work done?
Understanding this workflow helps to establish a work rhythm.
Establishing this rhythm allows you to see how a department or company’s operations are interrelated.
You will also recognise the people that you depend on as well as those depending on you to get tasks completed. Recognising this, tell you who you need to have close communications with and which relationships are most important to you.
Start thinking about advancement
Some may argue that thinking of promotion this early might be unrealistic.
However, it never hurts to be proactive and adopt a long-term thinking to your career.
Let’s say you’re working in a job that you excel and enjoy. You also see yourself advancing with that company long-term.
It only makes sense to start looking at opportunities to advance further.
Usually, it’s unheard of to receive a promotion within your first year, but you could look at the people a level above you and determine:
- What is their role in the organisation?
- What skills or knowledge they possess?
- What could I learn from them?
- What competencies do I need to develop to work in their capacity one day?
Similarly, if you’d like to someday transfer to another department, even after a year, it helps to understand the competencies required to transition towards those opportunities.
Invest in yourself by upskilling
Just because you’re hired and working doesn’t mean you should stop learning.
If you stop learning while the world is progressing, you risk stagnating in your career and eventually becoming obsolete.
Therefore, whatever skills you would have picked up during your first year, seek to refine them.
This is beneficial for several reasons:
- Upskilling makes you a more valuable professional. The more refined your skills, the higher your marketability to command a higher salary.
- Positions you for promotion. Skills and the right relationships get you promoted. It’s just your first year, but so what? The earlier you strategise for your career, the better.
- Offers greater job security. While no job is 100% secure nowadays, upskilling increases your chances of being retained, should a company decide to downsize. Even if you were to get laid off, your skill set could land your next hire, within a shorter span of time.
You’ve been at the company for a year. You understand the job you were hired to do. Good!
Now look for ways you can improve your own operations and become a high-value team member by investing in yourself.
Document your achievements & lessons
It’s the end of your first year. This means you may have a performance appraisal coming up.
It is important that you document your key successes within your first year.
Key accomplishments that impacted the department or certainly attracted your manager’s attention.
Highlighting these accomplishments for your performance appraisal builds your case as to why your contract should be renewed or permanent status be granted.
Additionally, documenting your successes keeps your resume updated.
While you may be loyal to a company, you never know what opportunities life may bring your way.
As such, documenting these achievements and updating your resume periodically is a wise and strategic career move.
Similarly, you should also make notes the lessons you learnt over the past year.
Mistakes would have undoubtedly been made. Keep track of the things you learnt or discovered about the job through trial and error.
Keeping track of your progress enables you to continually improve as you navigate your career towards your second year.
