If you’ve just accepted a job offer, it may feel like the hard part is over and that your next few professional years are set in stone. In reality, the most important part of your acceptance hasn’t even started yet – the first 90 days of your job. The initial three months of your new role can be one of the most pivotal and future-determining periods of your new venture, so here’s three thoughts to take with you into your first 12 weeks.
You’re Establishing Your Reputation
Even though early perceptions may not always be the fairest way to judge, they’re usually what people will remember about you into the coming months and years. Building a strong communication style and demonstrating your reliability early on can be crucial for building trust with your bosses and coworkers. Starting off strong can catapult you into positive habits that will compound over time.
You’re Defining Your Influence and Visibility
What influence and visibility may have meant in your previous place of work can mean something totally different within your new position. Be open to forming entirely different systems and organizational processes that may complement where you are now professionally as opposed to where you have just come from. If you’re unclear on your priorities or limited on exposure to meaningful projects and tasks, you can accidentally sideline yourself before the first few months of the job are even underway.
You’re Writing Your Growth Narrative
Even in the earliest days of your new job, you’re beginning to set yourself up for the next few years of professional development. If you come in coasting, managers will see that, which has the potential to set you on a mediocre trajectory early on. Choosing the relationships you want to focus on and the path you want to run on are a couple of things to do sooner rather than later.
Enjoy the newfound job opportunity you’ve landed, but don’t get caught up in the excitement so much that you forget about starting off right. The first 90 days of your job can be a make or break, so stay open-minded and stay grounded.
