Starting Your New Job
Before your start date, set some goals. What do you hope to accomplish in your first 30 days? 60 days? 90 days? Be realistic, and make sure your goals are concrete and measurable so you will be able to give yourself credit as you achieve each of them.
If you are starting work in a management or leadership position, your goals will be quite different from those of someone starting in a non-management role. Similarly, your goals will be different in different work settings (law firms, academia, government, corporations, etc.).
The following are some examples of new job goals for a non-management lawyer in a law firm, in-house or in government:
FIRST 30 DAYS
Meet with your boss as early as possible to learn how you can work together best. Politely ask what his/her priorities and challenges are and how you can be most helpful. Ask for the qualities and metrics that your boss will use to evaluate your success. Learn his/her preferred method of working and communicating (email, in-person, pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings, etc.) Communicate your receptiveness to real-time feedback and constructive criticism.
Really focus on learning your organization’s structure, revenue streams, client base, key players, biggest challenges and priorities and its required processes. This includes reading (or at least skimming) organizational charts and internal newsletters, as well as reading the employee handbook and other manuals – no matter how boilerplate they might seem. If you don’t do this now, you likely will never do it. The difference between an average employee and a superstar employee is that the superstar makes an effort to understand the organization and the role that his position plays within it, while the average employee waits for this information to be handed to him.
Implement a good system concerning required administrative tasks (time-sheets, internal cost or metrics tracking, data in spreadsheets, etc.). It is tempting to think that these ministerial tasks are not as important as the “substantive” legal work you are doing; but these tasks directly affect (and may even determine) your organization’s bottom line, so the people at the top undoubtedly care about them…a lot!! Make it a priority to do your timesheets, input your caseload metrics, complete your administrative forms, etc. on time, as often as required. Never make anyone have to chase you down for information required of your position.
Get to know, and develop a rapport with, your new assistant or support staff. Often un- or under-appreciated, an organization’s support staff can become great allies and vital sources of information. Take your assistant or secretary, or any other support staff that you work with closely, out to lunch or coffee, and get to know him or her. Similarly, if a Human Resources professional was instrumental in your hiring process, take that person out to lunch to say thank you. It is shocking how rarely this happens and how much this gesture is appreciated.
Prepare an abbreviated version of your personal narrative to use when you meet your new colleagues and clients so you can offer succinct answers to questions they might ask you (e.g., What were you doing before you joined our organization? Why did you join us? What have you been hired to do?). If meeting everyone in your group or department is not part of your formal orientation, stop by and introduce yourself individually to those people.
Avoid any form of gossip, and avoid saying anything – ever – that would be considered unseemly. Your mandate at the beginning of your new job is to listen and learn.
Look forward, not back. Do not discuss your old job too often, and avoid saying “this is how we did it at my law firm. . . .” In time, if you’ve experienced a better way to do something, you can (and should) offer that information – but wait until you understand the new organization more fully and you have established credibility and respect.
Produce first-rate work product.
Add your own job-specific goals here.
FIRST 60 DAYS
Continue to do all of the above.
Make a point to connect with (via email, phone or in-person) at least two external networking connections per week. If you need to do this on a weekend, so be it. Make this a lifelong habit, and you will reap the benefits. Use the full range of your network that you identified in any exercises you completed during your transition. Remember: The best time to reach out to your network is when you don’t need any favors. Since you are in that position now, try to reconnect with as many members of your network as possible. Remember to think of (and ask for) ways that you can help your contacts.
Make a point to network internally with at least one person at your new organization per week.
Add your own job-specific goals here.
FIRST 90 DAYS
Continue to do the above.
If you have not been able to have regularly scheduled check-ins with your boss, consider whether to remind him/her that it has been three months since you started and to ask for a check-in meeting for feedback and development of any new goals. (Depending on how busy your boss and the office is, this may or may not be appropriate.)
Once your boss has become familiar with your consistently excellent work product, join an external networking organization. Ideally, make it one that meshes with your organization’s goals as well as your own.
Add your own job-specific goals here.