Tackling a new job

You've made it! You've been accepted and landed the job and now you're looking forward to starting your new career. Great news all round! But after the back slapping, hand shaking and congratulations, you are left with a churning stomach and buckling knees. How will you fare in this new job? Will you like it? What will your new colleagues make of you? Will you make a fool of yourself, look ridiculous, please everybody, and feel at home?

A thousand and one self-doubts, concerns and anxieties may afflict you, but if you look back at your life history you will realise this isn't the first time. Remember your very first day at school? A new school where you knew nobody, had no friends, were landing in a strange and alien place full of strangers. You survived.

If you could do this when you're three, five, 12, 16, and countless other times throughout your life, you can do it again! There are many ways of coping and making this uncertain and stressful time all that much easier on yourself.

New jobs bring with them new challenges and trials, but also new experiences, new opportunities and new contacts. The excitement of approaching Day One is enough to make you full of anticipation and hope for a better future.

The best way to tackle your first day on the job, however, starts the day before. Prepare what you'll be wearing on the day and then just relax and have a good night's sleep, which will help you accumulate enough energy to face all the novelties ahead.

Wake up early enough to breakfast well because chances are you won't have much time to dedicate to lunch on day one. Make it a point to arrive on time, just a bit earlier than you're expected, if possible.

First impressions count enormously and apart from avoiding a flustered arrival in front of your new boss, you will be making a positive impact from the onset.

Chances are you will be assigned to a fellow staff member or a superior who will be ferrying you around the new premises. You will be introduced to new people, shown machines or apparatus and taken to different departments.

Introduce yourself with charm and remember to ask people's names and related responsibilities. Don't try to force yourself to remember everything immediately. You will be forgetting names, faces and places rapidly with the amount of information overload you are receiving.

If it makes you feel safer, you might be tempted to take a notebook along and jot down names of important people you'll be working with. Better yet, ask if a staff list is available. They usually are complete with internal phone numbers and related departments.

Keep it at hand and refer to it until you get used to everybody - which might take anything from a few days to some months, especially if there are people with whom you won't be dealing with regularly. Remember that aside from identifying other members of staff, you will need to help others remember you.

Each time you lift the phone to call another person in a new department, introduce yourself and the department you're working in, and don't forget, if you are not calling on a direct number remember to ask whoever has answered your call for their name.

Once you are shown your post - whether it is behind a desk, on a production line or on the shop floor; take stock of your surroundings, make mental note of where the bathroom is, where the kitchen is, where the nearest phone is, where the nearest chair is. They might all come in handy during the days ahead.

Listen carefully to what people are telling you, observe what you are being shown and ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask them now - you are a new member of staff and are expected to ask questions. It's better to ask a question initially than to embarrassingly realise that you're stuck the minute you're left to your own devices.

Don't be afraid of making mistakes. It's only human and unless you claimed to be an expert at what you are doing, it is acceptable to err initially. Remember to be honest about any doubts you are having or difficulties you may be finding in tackling the work you have been assigned. Not everybody can be modest enough to show ignorance, but it is better than eating humble pie as a consequence to some mess you've created.

First-timers on the job are usually expected to phone the wrong people, get paper stuck in photocopiers or printers, so you're not to panic. Don't mess around with machines you know nothing about, however, as this could turn into a costly nightmare for your new boss and not likely to put you in his or her good books. Stand back and ask for assistance.

First-timers are also usually dumped with quite a handful of chores which everyone else hates doing. Be smart and find the right time to politely ask your direct superior what you are expected to do and what you are not.

If, as a salesperson in a boutique you are not supposed to use the cash till, then don't step in for the other salesgirl while she goes out to buy a drink round the corner. Not unless you have sought the permission of whoever assigned you to your daily tasks.

It helps to get a breather in between duties during those first few days. Even if on Day One you were left with no time to have a decent lunch break, make sure you grab your lunch hour and use it from Day Two. If you get into the habit of keeping on at work during your lunch hour, chances are somebody will take notice and profit from it.

Before you know it, you'll become inundated with so much work that you'll have to stay late to finish the whole lot off and end up missing dinner as well. So set your limits carefully, but firmly because taking on too much can be a two-edged sword.

While it is understandable that you need to prove yourself and your worth, avoid risking overload and situations where work is less than perfe,ct. Not to mention a stressed out employee... which could be you in the near future.

Stressed out people tend to dread going to work every day. It's not something that you would look forward to, would it?

CSB, operators of VacancyCentre.com, have been supporting the local business community since 1987. For further information write to 185D, Old Bakery Street, Valletta VLT 1455, call 2123 2224 or 2123 2225, fax 2123 2226, e-mail support@vacancycentre.com or visit www.VacancyCentre.com.

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