Dan Richards is a serial founder and former public company CEO, and an award-winning member of the marketing faculty at the Rotman School of Management, where he oversees the credit course associated with MBA student internships.
Early in their career, many recent graduates have a decision to make. They can pick a job that offers the ability to contribute and to learn, but where the compensation may be relatively low – a mid stage startup with 30 employees and some traction would be an example. Or they can opt for a role that pays more but where there is less ability to make an impact and learn.
There is no hard and fast rule for that decision. Sometimes your financial circumstances mean that you need to go for the better paying job, even if other aspects aren’t as attractive. And in other instances it makes sense to give priority to security. But those should be exceptions. For most graduates, initial compensation should not be the determining factor. In fact, get three things right beyond your starting salary and over time your compensation should take care of itself. Those three things? Maximize your contribution. Maximize your relationships. And maximize your learning. While every job is unique, here are some broad guidelines on making those happen.
Maximize your contribution
- The first imperative when you start a new role is to be crystal clear on the expectations and then make it your No. 1 goal to deliver work to the right standard and on deadline. Your goal is to simplify life for the people you work with by removing any doubt about whether you’ll deliver on your commitments.
- Perceptions of your performance in the first few weeks on the job can persist. A common mistake when you’re assigned work is reluctance to ask clarifying questions, feeling that this may undermine how your manager and colleagues view you. The exact opposite is true – people working with you don’t want you wasting your time and theirs, so are generally open to good questions early on.
- Another trap is failing to act quickly when you fall behind to let people know and ask for help. It may feel awkward, but not as awkward if you wait close to the deadline to give bad news.
- Delivering on core expectations will let you keep your job but won’t be enough for you to be viewed as a superior performer. If that’s your goal, make it a point to learn about your manager’s top priorities and issues. Having done that, seek out ways to help address them, without being asked to do so.
- Look for ways to demonstrate initiative. During internships, some students complete the work assigned to them and then ask for more. That’s fine as far as it goes … but one student I had went one step further. She canvassed members of the team about the roadblocks to improving productivity. Meeting with her manager, she shared a summary of what she’d heard and asked whether once she’d finished her assigned work, she could tackle a couple of the biggest roadblocks.
Maximize your relationships
- In most organizations, relationships are the currency that lets you get things done. Your goal in the first week is to understand the norms of your workplace, with the objective of adapting to operate within them.
- In your first 30 days on the job, you want to spend as much time as possible interacting with colleagues in person and to be seen as a strong team player. Not every workplace allows you to spend time face to face, but if yours does then seize that opportunity.
- As you prove yourself, look for managers who are willing to give you advice as “mentors” and to promote you within the company as “sponsors.”
- Spend as much time with colleagues as possible. If your job is three days a week in the office with the other two optional, find out if some people are coming in on the optional days – and join them if you can.
- Seek informal opportunities to connect with colleagues over coffee or a sandwich at lunch. Ask questions and get them talking to learn as much about them as possible – the journey to their current role, lessons they learned and advice they’d offer to someone in your situation. The more that people feel that you’re truly interested in their views, the more disposed they are to want to help you.
- Don’t neglect the personal aspects of people you work with. Look for cues to get to know the interests and passions of the people you work with … and then make a point of remembering those when you talk.
Maximize your learning
- Bring a mindset of curiosity to your role – an earlier column identified curiosity as one of the key things that employers look for in high-potential candidates.
- Identify key gaps you’d like to work on – whether it be technical skills or industry knowledge.
- Next, create a learning journal where you set goals on what you want to learn in the next quarter, the next month and the next week. Then every week set aside time to record what you’ve learned.
Maximizing your contribution, your relationships and your learning early in your career will set you up for success. By doing these, you put yourself in a position to ask for more responsibility and higher pay.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.