Getting your first job is both a scary time and an exciting one. You might be anxious to impress or busily getting up to speed on workplace norms. Every workplace is different, so you’ll need to pay attention to the rules and culture where you’re working. But regardless of where you’re working and what role you’re doing, working to improve yourself will always go down well.
Read on to learn some of our top self improvement tips to help you excel in your first job.
Get to know everyone
How many people at your workplace do you interact with regularly? Most likely your boss and immediate teammates. But what about people with different job functions or those in different departments? You can also learn a lot from them, and getting to know them will always be a good move.
So when you get the opportunity to interact with someone, whether it’s a casual chat in the staff room or asking for their input on a project, always take it. People love to talk about themselves and their work, so ask them about what they do and what they enjoy about it. Time spent building relationships is never time wasted – you never know when someone might be able to put in a good word for you!
Set goals
You can only achieve your goals if you know what those are. Therefore, take the opportunity to set goals regularly.
Your goals should stretch you, but should also be realistic. “Be the CEO in five years” probably isn’t realistic for someone fresh out of school, but getting a promotion within a couple of years might be.
Short-term goals matter as much as long-term ones. What steps can you take to improve your skills this week? For example, you might watch three training videos, introduce yourself to five people in the office, or read a chapter of a book that is relevant to your job. All those small steps help you reach your bigger goals.
Finally, remember to ensure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
Ask for feedback and make use of it
Your boss’s job is to give you feedback, so hopefully they will be doing so regularly. In practice, this varies between workplaces. Bosses are often very busy, and some just aren’t very good at giving feedback unless you ask.
Make a point of asking your boss for feedback regularly. For example, you might request feedback when you complete a project or when you have a check-in conversation with them.
This bit is very important: once you’ve got feedback, act on it! Your boss doesn’t expect perfection, especially in your first job. What they do expect is that you will learn and improve. Every piece of feedback is a gift that can make you better at your job.
Get a mentor
Many workplaces have a formal or semi-formal mentoring scheme in place. Under these schemes, you get paired up with a more experienced employee who can support and guide you. If your workplace has a mentoring scheme, take advantage of it! If not, you still might be able to find a mentor.
An informal mentoring arrangement can be as simple as asking a more experienced teammate to act as a “buddy” and guide you through your first few weeks. Or, if there’s someone you particularly admire who is doing a job you’d like to do one day, why not ask them to mentor you?
The most important thing in any mentoring partnership is that you’re clear what you want to get out of it. So, again, make sure you get clear goals and identify the steps you need to take to meet them.
Volunteer
Sometimes, the best way to learn and improve is by doing. So next time someone asks for a volunteer at work, throw your hat into the ring. This has two benefits: it establishes you as a can-do person who is willing to help, and it exposes you to other aspects of the business that you might not learn about in your day to day work.
Pro tip: never think of tasks as being beneath you. Helping to set up chairs in the conference room before a big meeting might not be glamorous, but pitching in when it’s needed will get you noticed in the right way. And people who show up reliably for the unglamorous tasks are more likely to be considered next time an exciting project is up for grabs.
Get organised
Organisational skills are important in just about any type of work. You’ll be expected to stay on top of your own workload and manage your time, especially if you want to rise through the ranks at your workplace. The good news is that organisational skills can be learned!
Figure out what works for you. Do you need daily or weekly to-do lists? A digital calendar that you can glance at whenever you need to? Do time management strategies like the Pomodoro technique or calendar blocking help you?
When you get organised, you’ll help ensure that you never miss a deadline or let an important task slip.
Keep going!
Sometimes things will go wrong at work or you’ll make a mistake. That’s not a weakness on your part, it is just a reality of life. The most important things are to keep improving, learn from your mistakes, and continually move forward.
Every step you take towards self improvement will help you to excel in your first job and beyond. So don’t give up!
