How to Stay Confident in a New Job
So you've bigged yourself up for all the interviews you've had to go through. You've told yourself, six different recruitment agents and your future boss that you're brilliant. And they believed you, you've bagged the job, you got your pay rise, congrats!
A few weeks in.... you begin to doubt yourself. You are in a new environment, you couldn't even work out how to complete your timesheet, let alone work that crazy spreadsheet with 50 tabs and on top of this, you have people judging you and comparing you to the person before. AND you don't want to let the person who hired you think they made a massive mistake.
How do you stay calm and confident?
1.) Counteract negative thoughts with positive ones.
"I can't do the simplest thing" -----> I'll ask and find out, along the way I'll meet some people and I'll learn a new thing.
"My boss will think it was a mistake to hire me" -----> My boss chose me out of five other more experienced candidates/ 20 people. I am the best person for the job.
"I've made a mistake" ----> It's normal to make mistake, this way I can learn how things really work as I see the knock on impacts. I am learning on a deeper level and more quickly than if I just followed the rules and never realised what i was really doing.
2.) Use an APP to write down positive things that went well that day.
Even if it's just you met a new colleague, or you worked out how people like their tea. This way you're reminding yourself that things ARE making wins along the way.
Try this one: Notes to Self, a simple but effective way to get yourself to record and remind yourself of the positives at the end of the day
3.) It DOES take months and even years to fully understand
Do not expect to hit the ground running unless you were doing a very very similar job before hand. Be realistic, if all the systems are new, the processes are new, you're managing more people and you need to know what they all do, how is it possible to learn all that in 2 months, whilst having to churn out daily requirements??? Do not be so hard on yourself. Know that the best way is to keep relaxed and go with the flow, everything will all work out, you'll make LOTS OF mistakes along the way and you'll learn from them. You will miss a few deadlines, because its taking you longer to do things. If your boss cannot handle that, they should have hired someone else who matched the job description exactly. They chose YOU, with your CV spec, so they should know what to expect, unless they are highly unreasonable.
4.) Accept that YES YOU DON'T KNOW! SO GO ON! HUNT OUT THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO DO YOUR TASK. KEEP ASKING, DON'T GIVE UP!
Ask questions, all the time. In fact you will probably have to ask the same question more than twice as you're taking so much in you'll forget. Make notes if you can, but come on, unless you're tape recording everything, you're not going to have time to do that all the time. The best way of learning is doing, not taking notes. So just accept that you don't know so go out and HUNT THAT INFORMATION YOU NEED DOWN!!!
If you’re asked something you don’t know the answer to, confidently say you don’t know yet and that you’ll find out. People will know you’re new to the job and you can’t be expected to know everything. OWN THIS. Make sure you understand what the question is and what they want to know, and then make sure you follow up with them with the answer. The person asking the question will be impressed that you actually went to find out and come back to them, most people just go away and not follow up.
5.) Work hard, but make sure you have your evenings and weekends to recuperate
I think this is so important, even if you're behind on work. Not having some mental break will get you more worked up and prone to anxiety. If you are having constant stress and negative thoughts in your head you will not be able to think clearly and work things through the next day. So SWITCH OFF AFTER 6pm!!!!
Please write your comments below and what you experienced in your new job. I think the another way to reassure yourselves is that it really is normal to feel overwhelmed and stressed, and that everyone will have been in your shoes at some point!
