<p>i’m a new grad who just started a job and it find i’m pretty anxious. i’m not sure what my expectations are yet or what people think of me. </p>
<p>i think this is a pretty common experience so i’m wondering if anyone has any advice or stories???</p>
<p>Congratulations! It is very normal to be nervous at your first job. The best advice i can think to give you is to take it slowly aligning yourself with a particular person or group at work. Step back for a while to watch the dynamics and see how you fit. There is no rush to make friends and don’t worry whether people like you. Be respectful of the fact that others have been there longer than you and that you can learn from them. Resist the urge to fall into any negativity that tends to form in groups and remember why you chose the career in the first place. Your positive energy and respectful demeanor will take you far. Relax and enjoy!</p>
<p>Starting a new job is exhausting. It’s normal to be anxious about being in a new environment and trying to figure out the expectations of the employer and the coworkers. It gets easier. Remember, the boss wants you to succeed as much as you want to succeed. Good luck and congratulations!</p>
<p>90% of work is showing up.</p>
<p>^^^
On time. And stay until you get it done.</p>
<p>I’ve worked with a lot of new grads and new grads typically want a little community. Unfortunately the trends, at least in my field of work, is more employees working remotely by choice as we all have nice home office setups and it saves commuting time and costs. I’m in the office just about every day so some of the new hires come to chat with me which is fine. There’s nothing personal about this - there are many older folks that are comfortable working at home or need the location flexibility to deal with taking care of their kids or other things.</p>
<p>You may have to work out things like housing, shopping, finding a place to get your car serviced, etc., the things related to setting up a household. Those sorts of things can be conversation starters in the office as people that have worked there for a while can offer pointers for those things. I’ve had many of those kinds of questions in the past.</p>
<p>In general, we don’t worry too much about work ethic once we hire someone. We’ve pretty much determined that they are hard-workers if they get through our interview process. I assume that the same is true for you - jobs are fairly scarce these days and someone that gives off a slacker vibe probably don’t get hired. But definitely put in a strong effort at your workplace.</p>
<p>It will probably take some months to feel totally at ease.</p>
<p>So don’t be concerned if it takes a while to feel comfortable there.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, Mini and EPTR are 100% correct - it’s really the little things that count.</p>
<p>Be on time.
Put in all your hours.
Don’t call in sick on a Monday or a Friday (unless you’re really, really sick)
Be polite, friendly, and willing to listen/learn.
Refrain from office gossip - it’s treacherous.</p>
<p>really. I can’t tell you how many toxic coworkers I’ve had who were always late and always calling in “sick.”</p>
<p>30yrs later & I can still remember that anxiety when I started my 1st job. I remember going home exhausted mentally. I was fortunate to have a wonderful team of similar age co workers and a very supportive and encouraging boss so in time I settled in and grew in confidence and experience. If you enjoy what your doing, as others have said, just be open to learning & working hard and in time it will all come together. Before you know it you will be an old pro but I hope the next 30 yrs don’t go as fast as the last lol</p>
<p>My mother’s two pieces of advice: (1) give every new job two weeks–you’ll start to settle in and feel more comfortable after that, and (2) it doesn’t matter how quickly you get a job done when you’re new, you just have to do it well enough that nobody has to re-do your work.</p>
<p>(And I agree that I was very lucky to start out in a small firm that had a lot of young singles. We socialized after work. I’m not sure that’s the case so much any more, which can be tough if you’ve moved to a new city.)</p>