How important that first month is
In my old job, I used to tell new hires that being fresh and being the newest member of the team, is a crucial state that doesn’t come back. It’s the stage where you get the most slack, because you’re new and learning. In that first month you’re picking up new ways of working, getting to know your colleagues, stakeholders, the business. You’re figuring out how stuff actually gets done. That learning phase doesn’t come back.
But you obviously can’t coast either. You have to treat that first month like the first level of a video game. You’re actively trying to connect the dots between your role and the problems you’re there to solve. You’re trying to grasp the politics of the business, how the org is structured, and who actually moves things forward.
None of this needs to be solved in month one. What matters is being aware of how much you’ve learnt, what you’ve learnt in relation to the problems you’re there to fix, and where your gaps are. You need to stay vigilant about what your gaps are, so that you can close them.
Switching jobs has reminded me just how important that first month really is.
How uncomfortable not knowing is
I underestimated how uncomfortable it would be to be back in this stage. Not knowing the politics, the business, or the people around you. It’s a strange place to be, where you don’t know what you don’t know.
It feels a bit like being dropped into a maze in the middle of the night, and someone tells you there’s a torch somewhere but they can’t remember where. You don’t have a mental model of who reports to whom, who holds the soft power, who you need to win over. You don’t know why certain decisions were made, or what certain things mean, which means you have to be careful not to step into a faux pas.
You also have to get comfortable with not knowing, and with not being the go-getter yet. Because in the same way you don’t know them, they don’t know you. They don’t know what you’re capable of, or the problems you’ve solved before. So you have to prove yourself. You have to demonstrate your worth and build the relationship, so they can trust you and know who you are in the workspace.
What I’ve learnt about myself
Sometimes you stop noticing your full potential and your unique capabilities, because you’ve been in a familiar environment for a long time. You know how stuff gets done. You know how to play the game in that space and how to solve problems on home turf.
When I moved into this new role, I actually learnt that I’m a quick learner, that I truly find joy in solving problems, and that I’m able to just get stuck in. I knew all of this already, of course. But it feels like you’re proving your skills to yourself again, because you’ve been thrown into an environment where you have to learn and pick things up from scratch. There’s no way to fake it, and no way to rely on a notion of who you think you are. You actually have to be that person.
I also learnt that those skills were always with me. Being in a new space highlights them for me, because I have to use them, and in using them I’m reminded of what I can do.