Three steps to conquering your career doubts

With numerous students reporting unease about starting a new role and what will be expected of them, it’s good to reflect on the best ways to allay fears about a new job. Here are three of our top tips for making the transition period a little easier and finding your feet as quickly as possible.

1) Understanding your role

To really get a feel for the role you’ve undertaken, you need to first examine where it fits into the department and the larger framework of the company as a whole.

This will help you understand exactly what your position entails and how your work affects the cogs in the machine you are a part of. Thinking about the bigger picture will help you to understand the role as best as possible.

2) Expect the unexpected

No matter how much research you do into what life will be like within a company, you can never quite understand what the atmosphere and ambience will be like until you experience it first-hand as an employee.

Don’t panic if it’s not quite as you expected it to be—there’s always room to grow and adapt and talk to those around you in order to understand what is expected of you in terms of conduct within the workplace.

Bear in mind that everyone started there at some point and most will be more than willing to give you a helping hand in understanding how it all works and how your role fits. Your colleagues may become your friends over time, so keep an open mind!

3) Think about the long term

If the worst comes to the worst and you still have doubts over things after a settling in period, it might be a good idea to talk to someone higher up your career path to see how they feel about the situation.

They’ll almost certainly have similar experience, and they’ll be able to help you understand if your feelings are based on the career path or just the company. If you’re thinking about the future, rather than just the present, this will make things easier.

Keep looking for opportunities that suit your scope, and work towards certain goals rather than just on a day-to-day basis—this will help you stay focused and driven, even on the worst days.