Three Tricks to Surviving a New Job

Whether it is your first ever job or you have faced a number of career
moves, starting at a new job is always a little apprehensive. What if you
fail? What it all those years of schooling and degrees do not contribute
anything to your career success? Graduating from an Ivy League or getting
hired as a senior executive in a large company does not guarantee how you
are actually going to perform at real work. In most cases, you learn that
college degrees taught you zilch about what you were actually hired to do.
Whether you are climbing up the corporate ladder, switching careers or
changing companies, you have to go through all over again with high
expectations and fear.

A little fear is not very harmful, but what is required is that you learn
to handle the situation. Acting overconfident will set expectations of
everyone too high and being honest about what you do not know will make
them wonder why they hired you in the first place. A balance has to be
created between the two. Follow these tricks to survive successfully at
your new job.

Absorb

Become a sponge; listen and learn all that comes your way. You need to act
smart by not looking absolutely clueless and being genuine about what you
do not know. Ask questions at the very start of your career regarding what
you are supposed to do but avoid asking too many questions about every
little thing.

Plan

Set up a goal for yourself and plan to accomplish it within a certain time
frame. Besides being the sponge, you also need to be more proactive and
prove your worth to your new employers. They require a constant assurance
that they did not make a big mistake by hiring you. This will also help
you in keeping focused and will wear off all fear and anxiety that you
have been going through in the initial phase of your new job.

Lower down your expectations

High achievers generally have a habit of setting high expectation levels
for themselves and often have difficulty facing failures. Failures,
however, are inevitable in the initial as well as later years when your
career has matured. Looking for unrealistic achievements is simply going
to put more pressure on you and that means there will be more chances of
messing up at work.

There is no quick way to success. Trying to fix everything or finding the
perfect answer in a book or a pill is simply a surefire path to disaster.
Taking one step at a time and learning as you progress is the key to
surviving at a new job.