Change is for champions
I have been working for almost a decade and changed jobs 4 times.
According to Guy Berger, an economist at LinkedIn, millennial's will change jobs an average of four times in their first decade out of college, compared to about two job changes by Gen Xers their first ten years out of college.
So if there was any doubt that I am a millennial then that’s the proof.
Moving from the Telco to Banking sector I needed to prepare myself mentally for the change.
The once routine lunch breaks with colleagues, morning jogs and infamous Vida coffee catch-ups are a thing of the past.Then there is the admin nightmare — the change of bank details, medical aid, retirement annuity and provident fund change.
Its been a challenge but through it I have not only found a coping mechanism, but also a powerful transformation tool.
Lets be honest the first 3 months of a new job are terrible — Learning new names, finding parking, hot-desking, learning new company abbreviations and having those ‘’deer in headlights” moments in meetings trying to figure out what is going on.
According to a survey from Jobvite 30% of new hires quit within 90 days. Forty-three percent say their day-to-day role wasn’t what they expected, 34% report that an incident or bad experience drove them away, and 32% didn’t like the company culture.
I had found some critical resources that have helped me in my first 90 days of my new role and thought I should share (because sharing is caring)
Resource 1 : Book by Michael D. Watki : The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter
The book thought me the following — secure quick wins, research as much as you can before you even start, set boundaries early on, start early and what worked at your previous gig won’t work now.
Big thanks to my colleague and friend Sharon Rao-Farista for recommending it.
If you dont have time to read the book this quick video will help
Resource 2 : Book — Breaking through culture shock
I picked this book up at Bargain books whilst looking for a book on how to set the perfect workplace culture.
I was pleasantly surprised when I learnt that it talks about working abroad and how others have learnt to adapt and deal with a foreign country, language and culture
It is a great read and I picked up a few things that I have applied albeit I have not changed counties.
Resource 3 : Google Sheet
By far the most effective resource I have had at my disposal.
It a s a simple Google grade book sheet that i applied to myself as if i was a student and evaluating my own performance.
When I started at my new gig I set out 9 knowledge areas. I then monitored and evaluated myself on those areas on a week by week basis.
At the end of every week I evaluate my technical, business, operations, process, relationship, documentation, tools, innovation knowledge and noted any quick wins
Being a new company my knowledge of the : technical platforms,business process and operations was very low, so my focus for Week 1 was to setup time with different business and technical unit champions and learn as much as I can.
At the beginning of the week I set a target and at the end of the week I evaluate my performance, then on a week by week basis I monitor my progress and verify what areas I need to improve on.
At the end of Week 4 I had gone from an average of 46% to 56%. My biggest knowledge jumps have been in process, tools and innovation knowledge areas. I scored some quick wins and now need to further enhance my relationship and technical knowledge. To address this I have changed seats and now sit with my developers and analysts to further enhance my knowledge. Colleague’s are marveled at how quickly i have adapted and got ‘up to speed’ but they do not know my secret(I guess they do now)
Team Goals
I have the pleasure of leading, inspiring and helping a team of 10 talented resources achieve their goals (absolutely hate the term resource, worse then the term warm bodies)
From my end I decided on a weekly evaluation model to determine their strengths, weaknesses and critical development areas. The areas are : Competency,Judgement,Energy,Focus,Relationships, Trust
I make a conscious effort to monitor these areas and schedule per individual sessions to conduct these evaluations. Some items can only be measured after time ,such as trust and judgement, but these help me focus my efforts and focus on the right issues.
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it"— Peter Drucker
Those are my 3 key resources.
Hope it helps :-)
My next challenge will be on how i can use Google sheets to help me get a work-life balance, watch the space
References
1- https://www.fastcompany.com/40583243/this-is-why-new-hires-leave-within-the-first-90-days
