Things You’ve Got To Know About Your First Job

That feeling of euphoria when you land your first job – after months and months of sending out CVs and being left downhearted by unanswered emails and panic-stricken interviews that went terribly – is indescribable. It’s so incredible that you’ll spend the ensuing days and weeks strutting around town and tell everyone that you’re now a contributing member of society with a real job that even your Mum is proud about.

However, that quickly fades and you are soon overcome with nerves, fear, jitters and everything else. This is normal, though, so you just need to relax, lay out the clothes you are going to wear and accept that you may be overawed when you start, so much so that you may falter a bit. That’s where we come in because we have listed some top pieces of advice from those that have come out of the other side of the nervous first job syndrome.

Rule 1: You’ll Be Lost

It is insane, but you won’t understand anything on your first couple of days. You won’t understand what the company does, how they do it or what your role is. This is normal. Sure, you may have left school with great grades, but you’ll be lost at work. It’ll feel like everyone is talking a different language as they throw about acronyms and tech lingo. Don’t worry. Just ask them to clarify. Most employers hire someone because they see potential to grow, not because they know everything.

Rule 2: There Will Be A Lot To Learn

This is a long and arduous road, so it is better to accept that you need to learn a lot, and a lot of what you learn you are going to get wrong, probably more than once. You will need to learn marketing strategies, or what to do if you are injured in an accident at work, the different sales techniques and the names of senior management. It is daunting, it is hard, and it is acceptable to get some stuff wrong at the start.

Rule 3: The Hours Won’t Be 9 To 5

You’ll learn this pretty quickly, and you probably won’t mind at first, but your boss is going to be able to reach you at all times of the day, and they are going to exercise this power too. That is part and parcel of the mobile-obsessed world we live in. It doesn’t matter that it is 9 pm on a Sunday night, they are gonna call, so you’ll probably be clocking up way more than 40 hours a week, but you won’t be getting paid for the extra ones. Sorry.

Rule 4: You Are Going To Doubt Yourself

We don’t just mean your abilities to do the job or how quick you are picking up the menial tasks you have been given to do. No, we are talking about whether this is the right job for you. You are a child of the Millennial generation and that means doubting whether your new job gives you that purpose you want or fights for a cause you believe in. It is common, but you have to stick with it.