“Hi, I’m new here, what should I do?”
When meeting new people, we use our experiences and guides to understand a person. We scan through every action he or she does, to form an image and put a category on that person. That’s most likely how our mind works since we like to understand and fill in the gaps we don’t know of. The first impression is an exciting topic to talk about. Does it matter? Are we doomed after a bad first impression and are we able to recover at all?
Writing this, I’m working my first week at Jayway by Devoteam. I thought I would share some of my first impressions so far of this new exciting journey.
I know most of us have a little bit of nervousness in their body when starting a new job. Even if you have tons of experience or worked at many jobs. This shows that you care and are willing for the new job to get along with your expectations. Because that’s how it is when you walk into that new job for the first time. You have a certain amount of expectations of how it will turn out. Can the new job fulfill those expectations?
This is what Peter Mende-Siedlecki says in a TedEx. If we score the ball in the net on the first try, there is a higher possibility that we trust that person’s skills rather than if we miss the net. Maybe, this applies to companies as well when it comes to the onboarding process?
Starting at Jayway by Devoteam gave me an insight. My journey of “first impressions” didn’t start this week. From the moment I first heard about the company. From the first email or phone call. The outtakes from the interviews, where they took place, and what questions were asked. All the steps are interesting since this leads to the first impression of the company. And one mistake of the first impression may lead to a difficult onboarding. With a guess, difficult onboarding leads to an unhappy staff. And no need to say what consequences that can have.
This may sound all logical, but all the steps are quite interesting when starting a new job. I was very impressed with Jayway before I joined the company this week. They did 3 things that I think stand out.
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After signing an agreement, we had a conversation about why I wanted to work at Jayway by Devoteam. Only to make sure I was being placed on the right spot from the beginning.
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Including me as they were sending out x-mas cards. This was a small gesture that made me feel welcome. And it showed a bit of belonging.
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They were letting me know what to do in the first 2 weeks in advance. And most important spoke about the expectations of me and them as a company. This is interesting because of the first impressions when you actually starting to work.
Peter Mende-Siedlecki refers to research and claims that we are quick to form lasting impressions of others. If you get a bad first impression you might expect more to come in the future. Unfortunately, bad impressions are harder to delete than good impressions. So the onboarding process is important. For the person starting a new job, I believe it is equal to the “first impression”. Therefore, I’m very glad that my onboarding process has been taken seriously. And I’m super excited to get started.
