{"id":649,"date":"2011-09-29T14:02:06","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T18:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.123print.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2015-07-16T21:31:27","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T21:31:27","slug":"6-dos-and-donts-for-surviving-the-first-day-at-a-new-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/6-dos-and-donts-for-surviving-the-first-day-at-a-new-job\/","title":{"rendered":"6 DOs and DON\u2019Ts for Surviving the First Day at a New Job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-650\" title=\"First Day at New Job\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/First-Day-at-New-Job-300x199.jpg\" width=\"227\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve all been there at some point or another. That awkward feeling of relief, excitement, caution and uncertainty all rolled into one big messy ball known as the first day on a new job. On one hand you\u2019re relieved because your seemingly endless days of scouring job postings, going on interviews, networking, sucking up to potential new employers and swapping <a title=\"Need Business Cards?  123Print Has Them!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.123Print.com\/Business-Cards\" target=\"_blank\">business cards<\/a> until your hands are raw are over. You\u2019re excited because this is a new adventure in your life; hopefully one of growth in some way or another. But then again, this is a new adventure, an unknown adventure, something to approach with caution and a sprinkling of uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Lucky for you employers love to do things to try to ease your transition into your new role and place within their corporate culture. These formalities will often include events designed to get you introduced to your new colleagues such as having someone parade you around the office and extending <a title=\"Invitations at 123Print\" href=\"http:\/\/www.123print.com\/Invitations\" target=\"_blank\">invitations<\/a> to join co-workers, and maybe even the boss, for lunch. While certainly well-intentioned and hospitable; anyone who has ever gone through it knows it can actually add to the awkwardness if handled incorrectly. As a public service to you \u2013 and because we\u2019ve had a few new faces show up here at <a title=\"123Print - Yep - That's Us - Come Say Hi!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.123print.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">123Print<\/a> (all of whom were stellar in not being awkward, and fit in superbly, by the way) in the past month or so \u2013 we present to you 6 DOs and DON\u2019Ts for Surviving the First Day at a New Job \u2013 or at least relieving the awkwardness:<\/p>\n<p>6. When meeting your new colleagues on the parade around the office\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO<\/strong> make good eye contact, offer up a solidly professional handshake and say something like \u201cit\u2019s a pleasure to meet you and I\u2019m looking forward to working with you.\u201d Keep it short, sweet and professional.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T<\/strong> avoid eye contact, get too touchy-feely or do a fist bump (unless offered up to you first), or say anything that makes you come off as meek, a jerk, weird or creepy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>5. If you should actually end up engaging in conversation with your new colleagues\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO<\/strong> let them have their say, take the opportunity to learn about them, what they do and the culture and say a little something about you without getting too deep.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T<\/strong> try to dominate the conversation, dwell on what you did in your last job or regurgitate your resume. You got the job already there, Slick, you can back the BS down a notch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. When people ask you about yourself\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO<\/strong> offer up some truthful, but brief, insight about yourself that will help them get to know you at a professional level.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T<\/strong> spill your guts on your entire life story. You\u2019ve got plenty of time to get to know one another, no need to get into your penchant for collecting all variations of every Hummel figurine ever made just yet \u2013 well \u2013 strike that \u2013 ever.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. If you get the invite to lunch \u2013 especially if it\u2019s the boss<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO<\/strong> accept (duh \u2013 it\u2019s free grub) and order something that is both neat and easy to eat while talking and is about mid-priced on the menu.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T<\/strong> order anything that you know you\u2019re going to end up wearing down the front of you, is going to instantaneously give you weapons-grade gas, or is the most expensive thing on the menu. This isn\u2019t about scoring free surf and turf on the man\u2019s dime.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2. When you are shown your office, desk, cube, crate in the broom closet or wherever you\u2019re going to sit\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO<\/strong> quickly arrange it for convenience and efficiency, take note of the equipment and supplies that are there and if you feel there is anything else you\u2019ll need to do your job ask how to requisition it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T<\/strong> ask where you can grab a hand truck so you can bring the six boxes of crap that decorated your last workspace in from your car.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1. When the IT guy comes around to give you your computer log-in and show you how to access different things\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO<\/strong> ask questions about any systems, hardware, software or procedures you are not familiar with and be friendly with the IT guy because being on the good side of IT guys tends to make good things happen!<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T<\/strong> immediately ask if the company can see what you\u2019re looking at online, if it blocks adult sites ,or if there\u2019s a policy on playing World of Warcraft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve all been there at some point or another. That awkward feeling of relief, excitement, caution and uncertainty all rolled into one big messy ball known as the first day on a new job&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,25,6],"tags":[83,191,266,634,664,677,796],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9026,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/9026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}