Besides working your booty off to impress your new boss, and filling out your insurance paperwork, a new job is more than a new businesses card or an elevator speech to practice, it’s an opportunity to reboot mentally and mix up patterns and behaviors with a new feedback system.  Perhaps it’s a change of pace and shaking out those cobwebs to learn a process that’s different than you’re used to.   Sometimes, it’s appreciating the choice you’ve just made.

As I’ve recently made the switch, here’s a few tips on what to do after you’ve signed the dotted line, setup your email, and assured yourself you’re not nervous at all.

Take in the scenery on your way in.  Even if you think you know the area, there’s likely something you haven’t seen.   Notice how it’s different than the way you went to your last job.  Did you get lost?   Try taking a different route the next day.   See how long until it becomes that same ole street you pass by every day.  That’s the moment you’ve settled into your new job.

Try bringing your own lunch.  Even if you can afford to eat out every day, paddle through the waters of the brown baggers.  Find the lunch room fridge and figure out the rules – when does it get cleaned out, do you need to label your that juice you brought, is there always coffee brewed, any public snacks?

Be on the look-out for free lunch opportunities.  Depending on the size of your company, there are likely times when a free lunch is the bait for your time and attention.  Take advantage!  You won’t be the only one and it’s a great time to meet your co-workers under a universal banner of “hungry, but feeling cheap”.

Get to know your new neighborhood.   Spend your break walking around or while you’re grabbing the requisite salad and sandwich lunch.  If nothing else, it’s a great chance to offer your skin some vitamin D and a gentle reminder that life does exist outside those four walls.

Buy new shoes.  Maybe that’s just a girl credo, but refreshing the wardrobe a little is sometimes a necessity and other times, a reward.  Hopefully, your new paycheck has some extra in it.

Try a new do.  It’s a new environment, new people, what didn’t work at your last place might hit the jackpot here.  It’ll go with the new threads and that inspired feeling will pay dividends in confidence.

Meet the team outside the office.  Most commonly this means attending happy hours.  Or, in my case, it was a fire drill.   Either way, take the time to get to know your coworkers beyond the polite how was your weekend and when you have that tough day, you’ll find you aren’t dealing with it alone.

Make your announcement.  Whether it’s the job you always wanted, a better gig or a way off someone’s couch, update your social networks profiles and tell your friends.  Accept the congratulations with grace and thank them for their support with a celebratory evening.

Now go back to work.   You do have a job to do…

 

xo.