
Tips: When starting a new job - andima
http://www.refactoringideas.com/when-starting-a-new-job/
======
andrewstuart
I would have said, when starting a new job:

1: make friends with everyone, avoid making enemies. Make sure you have read
"How to win friends and influence people."

2: make a good first impression, get some big wins under your belt in the
first six months and impress. Your reputation at your new company will persist
for years and it will largely be defined by your initial achievements.

3: politics: either avoid it entirely, or play it very well. If you're
playing, make sure you have read "The Prince". If you're playing, make sure
you win. If you play and lose, you should move on.

4: do more listening than talking.

5: if you are ambitious, commence your ladder climb after six months of points
1, 2, 4 above.

~~~
hkarthik
I suggest that reading The Prince, or the various synopses of it, should be
used for defensive purposes against old school, Machiavellian management
rather than using them offensively against the larger, younger workforce.

I find that those who actively use Machiavellian management techniques can
easily be disarmed by those who know how to actively counter them. Also, many
of the Machiavellian techniques that work great against company-loyal Baby
Boomers and Gen-X'ers can be quite disastrous against the Millenials.

For those who just don't like managing Millenials, you better get used to
them. There are a lot more of them and you'll be ahead of the game if you can
work out some effective techniques for leading them without resorting to
Renaissance era tyranny.

~~~
Simucal
Can you give some examples of ways to counter the Machiavellian management
techniques?

------
FiddlerClamp
1\. Make friends with the receptionist or office manager. This goes a long
way.

2\. Bring goodies for the first major holiday/celebration (i.e. Halloween,
Valentine's Day) that comes up.

3\. If think of things that could be changed or improved, write them down,
then sit on those notes for at least a month.

4\. Avoid gossip. The best reply if someone says something gossipy to you is a
non-committal "Ahh" or "Hmm."

5\. Be relentlessly positive. No mention of anything bad going on in your non-
work life.

6\. Avoid saying things like "TGIF" or "at least it's Wednesday."

~~~
frostmatthew
> 6\. Avoid saying things like "TGIF" or "at least it's Wednesday."

Since switching careers (I'm a former banquet manager turned software
engineer) I've always advised people who spend their entire week looking
forward to the weekend to change careers to something they'll enjoy more.
Sadly too many people feel work is something that _must_ be hated.

~~~
normloman
Nobody, if given the chance, would chose to clean toilets if they didn't have
to. As of now, we can't replace these people with robots. So your fantasy
world where everyone chooses a fulfilling career is unsustainable.

~~~
frostmatthew
> Nobody, if given the chance, would chose to clean toilets if they didn't
> have to.

In my experience people with occupations like that consider it a _job_ instead
of a _career_. In the interest of clarity perhaps I should have used the word
_professional_ in my previous comment instead of _people_ (not that a "career"
is limited to professionals, but colloquially that's more often how the word
is used).

------
jqm
These might be good tips. But don't spend too much time on them at the expense
of actual work.

Oh, and sometimes a new guy doing "too good of a job" can be a problem. Might
want to test the climate before letting it all out. Many a promising young
career has been cut short by people who are "threats". This is sad, and
doesn't apply everywhere, but certainly applies many places. Help those above
you. Help them look good. At least initially. But beware of being locked in
the back office in chains while your supervisors take credit for you work
forever. That happens all too often as well. Make sure there is a way for you
to be recognized and rewarded/promoted for the work you do. Unless you are ok
where you are forever... don't stay long if there isn't.

~~~
sokoloff
If you're early in your career and at a place where doing "too good of a job"
is frowned upon, IMO, you're better off to find that out early and leave
early. No time for that early on. If you're a threat to the established
technical team, move elsewhere, because you cannot afford not to build the
strongest possible technical basis for your later career.

Later in your career, especially if you aspire to technical leadership
positions, you might want to reconsider, but just starting out, go find a
place where technical excellence is valued and cultivated.

Note: what you think of as "too good of a job" is very likely not "too good of
a job" if you're just starting out. Porting an entire enterprise system to
Rails because it's cooler and easier (for you) to maintain and getting told
"No!" is not an example of you trying to do too good of a job...

~~~
jqm
"If you're early in your career and at a place where doing "too good of a job"
is frowned upon, IMO, you're better off to find that out early and leave
early. "

-agreed 100% Leave unless you need the job. This scenario applies less to the startup (and probably IT worlds) than it does to other places but unfortunately I believe it is pretty common in older established companies. You might not be told you are doing "too good of a job" but if you are threat to your supervisors there is good chance life could be rough at this stage. So make sure you are helping them look good and not appearing to be gunning for their positions. That was my point. And I hear you on newbies thinking their inexperienced pivots are game changing paradigm shifters. I think we have all seen that as well but it wasn't specifically what I was referring to.

------
Fuzzwah
I currently have a whole stack of thoughts about this as today kicks off the
2nd week of a new job for me.

I'm a sys admin who has worked in a range of environments big and small. My
new job is once again returning to a "big" environment. I feel that the tips
which would help me in this role are completely different to tips which would
have helped in my last role which was in a small environment.

The one which I'm 100% confident is good for both is: record every piece of
work you do. The tip from the link here about rating each piece of work is
something which I'd overlooked, but will start doing.

I've used trello religiously since I became aware of its existence. It was a
real challenge to build the habit, but as I've matured and gained experience
in various work places I've set aside my youthful ideas which went somewhere
along the lines of:

"I know I'm good at my job, my work should speak for its self. If people up
the chain of command can't realize my worth based on my output then I don't
want to work under them anyway."

Now I'm more focused on doing the following:

#1 \- find out what my manager thinks is the #1 priority I should be working
on \- ensure that his/her boss thinks the same thing \- crush the hell out of
that task

#2 \- look for opportunities which are too "low level" for my manager to think
about \- bring them to his/her focus

Far too often I used to have those around backwards.

------
buckbova
Don't insist on any drastic changes in your first 4-6 months. Don't bad-mouth
the current set-up. Don't bad mouth anyones work, even if it is legacy. It
shows bad form.

Learn and do the current process. After that suggest those changes to the
right people.

------
collyw
Don't be afraid of asking stupid questions.

My first job out of university didn't go so well, as the office was fairly
introverted (including my team lead) as well as smart. Things were not
explained to me well, and I felt like I would look stupid having to ask them
to explain the same thing again afterwards, so tried to do things by myself.

Anyway, after a while I looked for another job eventually and got one, and
decided to learn from my mistakes. Asked a lot of possibly dumb sounding
questions, but got along a lot better at the second job.

------
Fuzzwah
Also, as much as it sucks.....

\- get in early

[http://qz.com/209513/no-matter-what-the-boss-says-about-
flex...](http://qz.com/209513/no-matter-what-the-boss-says-about-flextime-get-
to-work-early/)

~~~
philbarr
Completely true, and also one of the most annoying things about work. I always
find "morning people" to be incredibly annoying.

I understand that there are morning people and there are night people.
However, as a night person I don't feel the need to quote what time I got up
to everybody I meet that day. You'll see it in blogs on HN sometimes too -
"I've been so successful ever since I started getting up at 5:30am blah blah
blah..."

What kind of honour is there in getting up early? Really? You went to bed at
9pm so you could get up at 5am. That's 8 hours. I went to bed at 1am and got
up at 8am. That's 7 hours. Surely _I 'M_ the one that should be getting the
plaudits?

I've seen it used in arguments amongst team members when trying to assert
blame: "I was here at 7am trying to fix this!!!"

------
ozh
Interesting idea at the "Rate your work" paragraph. There ought to be an app
for this, though :)

~~~
aaronem
Well, were there one, I wouldn't use it, because (I think as most genuine
professionals, especially in this industry) I already have a solid workflow in
place for capturing and organizing notes on arbitrary subjects at need.

------
princeb
of the four items here the most important one (to me) is the "rate your work"
point. but only because (emphasizing specifically for me) when you want to
justify a pay review you want to have a list of things you have done. so
instead of rating it based on how i felt about it i rated it based on how much
the completion added to the company in excess of the basic requirements of the
task.

negotiating for a pay review is almost like the interview for the job in the
first place.

------
raving-richard
These are all very important points. I think that writing down what you learn,
and (also very importantly) what you do is a really good thing. When you
leave, having written down what you have done will enable you to quickly and
easily update your CV/resume.

Tagging, and filtering emails, and generally organizing yourself and your
information is also a good habit to get into. Whether your are starting a new
job or not.

------
normloman
When starting a new job, avoid actually doing your job; obsessively record
your thoughts and feelings instead.

~~~
buckbova
And try to be sarcastic all the time and be sure to add nothing to the
conversation.

~~~
normloman
Exposing the stupidity of someone's advice by restating it in plain English is
adding to the conversation.

