5 Things You Should Know and Perform on Your First Job

All graduates know how difficult it is to get the first job straight out of college. However, if you succeeded in getting the job you desired, it does not mean that you can now relax. It is a time for a challenge. It is a time for working. Working hard. You will need to learn a lot not only in terms of your qualification but in terms of how the whole employment and career system works.

1. Salary Arrangments

You need to realize that the first job after graduation is more about getting experience and not about getting the money. The amount of payment that you can receive will be minimal and might not get higher for about a year of employment.

2. Making Mistakes

You will need to change the way you treat your errors. If previously during your study making mistakes affected only you in terms of grades, at the working place any fault in the project or a missed deadline can influence your co-workers, your boss or even the entire company.

3. Result is What Matters

In college, teachers appreciate if you are smart and if you are trying your best in order to excel academically. However, on the workplace things turn out to be slightly different. Just trying isn’t enough anymore. The actual result and meeting goals are what is required in the working world.

4. Taking Time Off

Be prepared that in most workplaces time for taking holiday is limited and strictly defined. You might be asked to work during official holidays, and as an entry-level worker, you might get maximum two weeks for your vacation during the whole year. As for taking time off for lunchtime, in many companies “one hour break” in fact means thirty minutes.

5. Being Proactive

On your first job, it is vitally important to demonstrate your skills and your potential to the best of your ability. At school you were expected to do what teachers tell you; however, in the workplace the situation is different. Employers do keep an eye on you, so it is important to show that you are really enthusiastic about the job that you do. The fact that you are taking initiative to make things better will most likely help you to move up the career ladder faster.

Being smart and having potential is great, but being employed on your first job is also about learning quickly how the work world operates. Figuring it out will accelerate your movement on your career path, and if you are clever enough to grasp all the nuances quickly, very soon you will reap the benefits of your efforts.