Perhaps the most dramatic day in your life is the day you begin the first serious job on your career track. Every bone in your body wants to start building a great career, but you’re completely clueless about what to do. The questions you ask, the people you trust, the work you take on, and results you deliver will determine your future career success.
The Employment Policy Foundation says about one-quarter of all new hires won’t make it through their first year. Leadership IQ, a training firm that studied 20,000 newly hired employees over three years, found that almost half (46 percent) of the rookies wash out in the first 18 months.
How well you manage the first new job of your chosen career is critical – so you just have to get it right. Life would be so simple if there was a direct correlation between determination and career success, but sadly there is not.
The first few weeks on a new job are dramatically different from the rest of your career. No one expects you to do anything meaningful, you’re forgiven for asking dumb questions, but people still watch what you do very closely. They want to see if you’re going to make it!
Once you start doing real work, those days are over, but it will still take more than determination to achieve career success.
Just because your boss thinks you’re “up to speed,” doesn’t mean everyone else agrees. Upper management and coworkers will continue to see you as “the new guy” until you prove them wrong.
The key is to get on the radar screen with the people who matter. My proven method for career success in this endeavor is to follow the food chain!
In my next post, I’ll tell you the story of how I did this at Data Terminal Systems.
You can also read articles from Dave Horne at www.careersecretsauce.com
9 Critical Strategies for Building a Winning Career
Dave Horne
