Starting a New Job: Guide to Your First 90 Days
Inside: Starting a new job can be exciting and nerve-racking. Let’s make sure you have the tools you need to excel at your new job (without stressing yourself out)!
First and foremost, congratulations on landing your new job! You’ve done the hard work of pitching yourself for the role, finding the right opportunity, and securing a fulfilling, flexible position that you’ll love. Now, let’s set you up for success in this new role.
We’ll break down your success strategy into the first 30, 60, and 90 days. Whether your company has a structured onboarding plan or you’re in a more informal setting, taking ownership of your onboarding process will help you get to know your colleagues, achieve early wins, and feel confident in your new role.
And for all the moms and dads out there, if this is reading *a little* bit like becoming a parent for the first time, I agree! Starting a new job (paid or unpaid) requires prep, asking questions, and trusting yourself. Let’s dive in!
The First 30 Days of Starting a New Job: Laying the Groundwork
Day One Preparation
Your first 30 days in your new job will begin with preparing for day one. Much like reading paperwork from your doctor before the baby is born, you want to check to make sure you have the information you need.
Read Your Emails: Go through all the introductory and preparatory emails from HR and your boss a few days before you start. There’s likely a ton of information in there, and it’s hard to digest it all without actually being on the job yet, but absorb what you can and take it one piece at a time.
Know the Logistics: Understand where you need to be on day one. Should you report into the office, log on from home with a computer they will send you in advance, head to a training? This may be in your onboarding materials, but you can always ask. You ask your OBGYN questions, you can ask your boss too!
Plan Your Outfit: You packed your hospital bag back in the day, let’s pack your work bag too! Have your clothes ready to avoid any last-minute stress. A simple thing like this, whether you’re working from the office or from home, smoothes things out for day one. Make sure that outfit includes a notebook to take notes along the way too, please!
The recap here – simple preparation will help reduce nerves and make your first day smoother.
Understanding Logistics and Norms
In your first week, focus on understanding the logistics and norms of your new workplace just like you eased into your new role as a parent.
Get Your ID or Badge (if applicable): Some companies will have an ID badge to enter the office. Others will give you an ID number to access resources online. Ask what you’ll need access to and how to get it.
Meetings: Familiarize yourself with the meetings you’ll attend and their schedules. Your manager will be your go-to here. Bonus: While your baby didn’t have a schedule on one week one, you can in your new paid job. Insert sigh of relief here!
Communication: Learn the preferred communication methods (Slack, email, phone). Onboarding materials may not state this explicitly, so ask your teammates how they communicate to know what to check and how to reach out.
This information might be documented, but if not, don’t hesitate to ask questions. Being proactive in understanding these logistics will ease your transition and save you time. And as a parent and professional, you need that time!
Clarifying Your Role
You have your job description in hand, but in those first 30 days, continue asking questions to clarify your role.
Review the Job Description: Before you get started, go through each bullet point of the job description and ask yourself if you understand how to accomplish each task and who you’ll need to work with. Don’t worry if things are unclear, that just means you have good questions to ask!
Set Up Manager 1-on-1s: You scheduled appointments with your baby’s pedetrician, now it’s time to take care of you! Ensure you have regular meetings with your manager to discuss your role and any questions you have. If these meetings aren’t already scheduled, request them.
The First 60 Days of Starting a New Job: Building on Your Foundation
Ongoing Learning
As you move into your second month of starting a new job. you’ve likely done a ton of training and have started getting into your role. Just like from the parenthood perspective when you’ve nailed getting your baby into a carseat and changing diapers after a few weeks! Now, let’s shift focus onto ongoing learning and identifying opportunities for impact.
Identify Training Opportunities: Have you taken notes as you meet new people and learn your new role? Excellent! This is going to help you see where you may have information gaps. Look for additional training sessions or resources (the rabbit hole 2am Google search of breastfeeding but with more clear answers and less chafing) to expand your knowledge.
Listen for Pain Points: Pay attention to challenges your colleagues mention just like you listen to your baby’s cues. Are you seeing themes? Now is a great time to consider how you can help solve those pain points.
Identify Opportunities for Early Wins
You have some notes on pain points now, so let’s identify opportunities for early wins. Remember how good it felt when you found the right pacifer for your baby – it’s like that!
Clarifying Priorities: Regularly discuss your priorities with your manager to ensure you focus on the right tasks. A good line to use in your 1:1 meetings is, “Based on what I’ve learned, I plan to focus on X, Y, and Z as my top priorities over the next three months. Is that in line with your expectations?”
Taking Initiative: Start working on projects where you can make a noticeable impact. Here’s a script to get things started if you need to bring others on board: “In talking with Dan, Sue, and Jane, I heard that streamlining communication is a priority to launch the next project on time. I have some ideas I’d love to run by you on how I can help with this.”
Expand Your Network
You’ve likely gotten to know your team in month one, but as you move into month two it’s important to continue to build relationships. It’s takes a village to raise a kid and it can take a village to get the job down at the office too.
Meet New Colleagues: Set up coffee chats or virtual meetings with colleagues in different departments. If you want to ensure you are covering your bases, try this line with your manager. “I’ve trained with Jane on XYZ software and met with Sue in operations about the ABC program. I plan to meet with Dan in marketing next week. Are there other colleagues you suggest I meet with this month?”
Understand the Broader Organization: Learn how your role fits into the larger company structure and who the key players are. As you meet colleagues, ask them about who they collaborate with to get a feel for how different departments intersect.
The First 90 Days of Starting a New Job: Securing Success
Onto starting a new job month three! Some jobs will have an evaluation period at three months, so you want to be able to come to that three-month review ready to share what you’ve learned and how you’ve started to contribute. (It’s like your post-birth follow up with your OBGYN, but much less invasive!)
Secure Early Wins
By your third month, aim to secure some of the early wins you’ve identified in your first 60 days. This helps keeps your confidence high and shows your colleagues what you bring to the table.
Implement Solutions: Use your skills to solve identified problems and streamline processes. Remember that the company hired you for a reason. In fact, lots of reasons! This environment may be new to you, but you have solved problems like theirs before, and you can do it again.
Communicate Progress: Regularly update your manager and stakeholders on your progress. You don’t need to check in every day now that you’re on month three, but communication is key to ensure that you are focusing on the right priorities. Think of it like follow up appointments with doctors, check ins with your mom, and texts to the friend group. Keep talking things out!
Further Expanding Connections
Keep expanding your network! You’re growing in your paid role just like you were growing as a new parent. Meeting new people who can support you, and that you can support, strengthens the helpful “net” in networking.
Cross-Functional Teams: Build relationships with teams outside your immediate department. Have you heard about an interesting initiative in another group? Reach out to learn more.
External Stakeholders: Identify clients, vendors, or other external stakeholders you should connect with. It’s so much easier to solve a problem when you know the people and they know you. If an issue comes up at daycare, you want to feel comfortable picking up the phone and working it out quickly, right? Same thing here!
Ongoing Manager Reviews
If you have a formal three-month review, go back to the steps outlined above and jot down notes about what you’ve covered and how. If you don’t have a formal three-month review, it’s still important to maintain clear communication with your manager:
Regular Check-Ins: Keep your 1:1 meetings to discuss progress and receive feedback. If weekly 1:1 meetings are not the norm in your company or department, switch out to biweekly or establish another cadence that makes sense.
Align on Goals: Ensure your work aligns with the company’s definition of success. You don’t want your annual performance review to come with any surprises that increase stress. You have enough of that!
Starting a New Job Soon? You’ve Got This!
Let’s get back to where we started – congratulations!! You are embarking on a new journey and that’s super exciting. And you know who else is excited? Your boss and colleagues. You are coming in to solve problems they need solving and that’s a huge relief!
It’s normal to be nervous when you’re starting a new job, though. Change can be scary! You’ve tackled change before though (hello parenthood!) and you can absolutely do it again. Prepare thoroughly, ask questions, listen with purpose, and continuously build relationships, and you can navigate this period confidently and effectively. Then those early wins will be popping up before you know it!
You’ve got this!
