Bullish: How To Nail The First Day At A New Job

Jennifer Dziura writes Bullish, a career column, for The Grindstone on Fridays and Bullish Life, a life coaching column, or our sister site TheGloss on Tuesdays.

This week, let’s take a look at a question from a young whippersnapper I’ll call (possibly fictional Revolutionary War water-carrier) Molly Pitcher:

Jen, I just found your Bullish columns this week and am trying to pace myself as I go through the archives, love, love, love. I have a question that might be of help to other readers, not sure.

This week I’m going to be starting a new job, in a professional office/hospitality setting. What are the best ways I can make a great first impression? I think when I start jobs I’m so focused on learning, not spilling coffee on my crotch, remembering names, etc. that I forget to put on a good “show” for them, and I don’t think I make a memorable entry. Except for the time I clogged a toilet in the bathroom within the first hour of my first day (yes that happened). Bribes of fresh baked goodies? Outfits? Print up and hand out Bullish articles my first day? Any tips on landing in their good graces from the get go is appreciated!

- Molly

A highly apropos question for many of us on The Grindstone, I’m sure.

You know, I find that a lot of career writing is overly focused on “The 10 Stupidest Mistakes Other People Made” – like getting drunk before noon and using the company’s servers to email everyone a pornographic racist joke-virus that spreads potentially-lethal peanut dust – so that we can all feel superior that at least we’re not that dumb.

But what are competent, intelligent people actually supposed to do? You know, to do better than neutral?

So, I ran through my contact list and polled a bunch of managers about what they want from their new hires. (I wrote in Bullish: What I Wish I Had Known When I Was 18 about how “networking” when you’re young often just means making normal – smart – friends and then just waiting ten years until they become really powerful.)

Let’s hear first from The Lady Blog Editor (we have quite a few of these over here), who advises that on your first day you should:

Come in with a list of things you’d like to accomplish. At least with us, it would be great if they had a list of, say, five articles they’d like to write. I’d like them to ask for my input on it, but I really, really admire anyone who is enough of a self-starter and goes in to a new situation with a plan rather than just waiting for directions.

Check! Last time I had a “real job,” as a Director of Marketing, I was hired specifically for my list of ideas I would implement on my own pretty much without anybody’s help. Very few people want to hire a puppy dog to follow them around all day and wait for explicit instructions. There are no jobs for those people anymore.

Have a list of good ideas in your back pocket. Then, hold on to them until you’ve felt out the situation, lest you step on anyone’s toes. For instance, at my Director of Marketing job, some of my ideas were regarded as new and exciting (let’s have mixers all over the country and appoint volunteer organizers report about them on our site!), and some of them (let’s completely redesign the website!) would have caused major interoffice battles and hurt feelings.

Next, let’s hear from Impressive Senior Executive-Man Who Works For One of Those Corporations Denoted By Two Dudes’ Last Names:

The number one way to reassure the boss on day one: write down every task you are given to do in a notebook. Write the tasks down as they are given to you and in full view of the boss. This isn’t a fancy restaurant where we are impressed with your memory. I want to see everything put down on paper and crossed off when complete. That way we both know that communication was clear and the employee knows what they have to do.

Yes, sir! You know, I once looked up Senior Executive-Man after not having seen him in a couple of years, and suggested we go to lunch. We did! It was fun, and he was insightful (and direct!), as always. As we were splitting the check, he said, “Great, what do you want?”

I said, “What? I don’t need anything.”

He said something like, “No, surely you want something from me. There’s nothing wrong with that. I help you, you help me. We don’t have to beat around the bush about it.”