How to not feel overwhelmed at your new job ?
Many of us feel overwhelmed when we join a new job, a new project, a new organisation and start questioning ourselves, and I did the same, I re-opened my resume when I joined my new Job to see why did they even hire me, I realised that I dint know many things that were needed for this job.
Well, Don’t do that, Don’t doubt yourself.
You are the best person to do this job and that’s why you have been given this new opportunity.
Here are few tips that I heave learnt and used and have made my life easier in every new opportunity I have been given.
(e) Meet People -
It’s important to meet people you are going to be working with. Before pandemic it was very easy to have those casual chats with folks during tea break, water break, lunch or while passing by the lobby but due to pandemic and virtual onboarding we are not able to do these small talks. So what should we do ? Well — (e)Meet People. Talk about yourself, your family, your hobbies/passion and interest areas and avoid shop talks if possible. It’s important to get to know people. Believe me the first 30 mins (e)meet is going to help you for the comings years.
Observe -
You may have lot of ideas, lot of things you would want to do, but hold on to it for first few weeks, Take time to learn and observe. It’s important to understand the current process/WoW(ways of working) before you propose a new one. Take time to learn about the organisation, people, tech and non-tech stack that is currently in place.
Check-ins -
Schedule daily/biweekly check-ins with your counterparts, While you are learning and observing, do meet your boss/manger or the person you are going to work most closely daily or at least in alternative days. This will help in understanding the first 2 points — Are you (e)meeting the right people ? Are you in the right meetings ? Are you learning the things you are supposed to ?
Daily check-in for at-least first 2–3 weeks is helpful and then make it twice a week, once a week, monthly and going forward as on need basis. Believe me this is a critical step and don’t worry, you are not going to bother anyone by meeting them daily. It would help you and your counterpart both. You have been hired to work with them.
It’s okay to ask basic questions -
It’s okay to be upfront about the things you don’t know yet, this is probably the best time to accept your professional strengths and weakness. Consider that, you are very new to the organisation, you can ask as many questions as you have. Don’t hesitate to ask twice if you don’t understand something. Remember, your progress will enable your team’s progress and will have impact on organisations performance, so everyone around you is there to help you learn and grow, Use this opportunity to ask Questions!
Organise yourself -
While you are in the process of learning, you might find yourself all over the place, so it’s important to organise your thoughts and create a daily to-do list. Write down the to-dos for the day and check them at the end of the day. You may end up adding more things as the day progress and it’s okay if some of them roll over to the next day, but do make sure to tick what has been completed.
Start your day with your last day’s to-do list, this will ensure that as your learning new things daily, you are also taking time to observe and process yesterday’s learnings.
Be open to learn -
Even if you are joining as CEO/CTO or as any executive level role, there will always be something new to learn in your new organisation. No matter what skillset you possess or what organisation you are from, there will be things that are done differently in your new job. So keep an open mindset and be adaptive to change. There could be 10 different ways to do a thing and maybe you know all 9 but there will always be 1 new thing that you would learn in the first 30 days, so be ready to take in and absorb.
While you do all of these, make sure to have fun and take time off for yourself and your family.
If you are facing any challenges in your new job, project, business or any new opportunity, feel free to comment below and I’ll be happy to help you.
