6 Tips for Recent Grads to Become Indispensable in Their Job
It’s that time of year again, the best and brightest are graduating from university, college and yes, even high school. Graduating from your academic program, no matter the level of degree and entering the professional workforce is a rude awakening. Your schedule is becoming more eight to five and less class schedule, you have bills to pay, dress clothes to wear daily, and new work culture to learn and navigate. There are basic guidelines you need to learn to succeed, but below, you will find six tips to help make you indispensable to your new supervisor and workplace.
Best Anticipate and Take Initiative
Anticipating needs and taking the initiative applies to your own work and the needs of the office. Think through what your end results need to be and consider extra steps you can take now to make later easier. Also, take the initiative around the office. If you just made 200 copies of a document, refill the paper drawer in the printer. No one likes the guy that is inconsiderate, and little things like that get noticed!
Evaluate Yourself
Assess your own work as you go. Do you think you could have done better on a project or listened better during a meeting? If so, do your own due diligence to be better next time. This will allow you to grow personally, and it will also show your coworkers you can better yourself.
Don’t Stop Learning
Just because you no longer spend your days in the classroom doesn’t mean you have nothing left to learn. Every person you encounter at work has something to teach you. Some of those may be best practices, some of those lessons may be in worst practices. You should also take every professional development opportunity that comes your way. Embracing the philosophy of being a life-long-learner!
Communicate
There are many ways to communicate at work. First, ask questions, even if you are worried you should know the answer. Admitting you do not understand something is better than messing something up. You will want to also talk to your coworkers. Ask how their day is going or compliment a well-done presentation. Begin nurturing relationships with those in and around your workplace.
Show Your Best Self
Anyone can talk a big game, but keeping your head down and crushing goals and projects is a great way to show you have the ability to complete a project. Show your worth and value to the job. This is where you begin to develop your personal work ethic and ability to follow-thru. Being a team member is important but showing you can go it along and accomplish your tasks on time is good too.
Be Nice, Don’t Be a Doormat
It really isn’t hard. Be helpful to your new coworkers. Offer to help with a project or a jammed printer. However, do not let coworkers walk all over you. It will take work to find the balance between being an enjoyable coworker, and not being the office punching bag. As a ‘newbie’ there will be the tendencies from other, more seasoned employees to try and pass the worse of the worst tasks onto you. Accept them, not all of them but a few to show your team spirit. Just make sure you remember your boundaries.
Learning to find your way in a new office is difficult for everyone. Doing so when you are first starting out is even more difficult. Working hard, playing nice, and pitching in will always go a long way.