Written by Soheb Ismail
Imagine it is your first day at work and your boss and supervisor have offered to take you out to lunch. The whole crew piles into the boss’s car. An Italian lunch was planned but you’ve already declared you hate Italian, Mexican, and Asian food. You only eat American bar food. Your co-workers laugh it off and head to a local American grill. Within the first fifteen minutes you share your GPA, varsity sports resume, the names of celebrities you’ve met, and the number of beers you can handle. You have a better story and expert opinion on every topic that is brought up. After finishing lunch, you comment on the food and show anxiousness to return to the office to start work.
Bad impressions are hard to undo and recover from. Even if you have the educational background and technical expertise for the job, you may rub everyone in the office the wrong way. So what do you do to not be that guy/gal? Here are 4 simple tips and tricks to create the best possible impression at work:
1. Remember that your training or immersion into a new office culture is a marathon and not a sprint. You do not have to share your life story your first week. Be yourself and let your co-workers find out who you are over the first few weeks and months. It can take some time to build rapport with your co-workers, but it’s important to be patient in order to reap the rewards later on.
2. Leave your ego at the door. Exude the confidence that won you the job and recognize that you are the new fish in the pond. Display an eagerness and willingness to adapt to the unique way the company does things. It is wise to limit opinionated statements until you have seen how they would likely be received. Keep your eyes and ears open to observe how certain opinions are received by the team when other employees are talking. That is not to say that you should not be yourself or not talk at all, but easy going employees that avoid unnecessary drama will find that co-workers would want them to succeed in a new role.
3. Seek out top notch peers that are well respected employees in the company to build healthy relationships with. Be intentional about it but not in an awkward or desperate way – you gotta find that right balance. On the other hand, there might be some challenging individuals you cannot avoid interacting with. Butting heads with these people is not wise. Try to persuade them to work towards a common goal and save tough conversations for the future – but do so with humility and humor.
4. Reflect and learn from your past. I know this sounds pretty generic but it can be very important and beneficial to your future career. Keep asking yourself questions, ponder over them, and see how you could improve. Accept any mistakes in your past, and improve on them.
The very first impression you make at a work place is with your resume, or even your LinkedIN profile. Check out HC at UVic’s annual professional headshot event if you feel like spicing yours up a bit!