SchoolRegistry NG

Getting kept: the first ninety days

About 13 minutes

Being hired is the start of a trial. What to do in the first week, the habits that make a new person easy to keep, and how to handle the first mistake.

The first week

In the first week your only jobs are to learn how work actually moves in this place and to be visibly reliable. Write everything down. Ask for the names of the people you will deal with most and what each of them needs from you. Find out how your work is checked and by whom, because that tells you what good looks like here.

Ask what a good first month would look like, and write down the answer. Then do that. A surprising number of new people never ask, and spend three months being measured against something they were never told.

The habits that get you kept

  • Reply, even when the answer is not ready. A line saying you have seen it and will come back by a stated time is worth more than a perfect answer that arrives late.
  • Say when something will be done, then either do it or say early that it will not be. Early is the whole word.
  • Ask the question after you have tried, and show what you tried. That reads as effort, not helplessness.
  • Keep your own record of what you did each week. It makes reviews easy and it is the raw material for your next CV.

The first mistake

You will make one. How you handle it matters far more than the mistake. Say it yourself before it is found, say what happened without a defence, say what you have already done about it, and say what you will change so it does not repeat. Then let it go. People who own an error early are usually trusted more afterwards, not less.

What damages trust is a mistake that surfaces late, from someone else, with an explanation attached.

If it is remote

Working where nobody can see you means your visibility is whatever you write. A short end-of-day note saying what you did, what is next and anything you are stuck on takes three minutes and removes almost every reason a manager would have to worry about you. Keep your hours predictable, and if they have to change, say so in advance.

Do this before you move on

Write your own first-week questions

Write the ten questions you would ask in your first week. Keep them. When you start, you will not have to invent them on a day when everything is new.

Check yourself

This course teaches how to present your experience and prepare for interviews. It is not a job service and no employment is promised or arranged.