From college to the work world: what your professors didn't tell you!

Congratulations on landing your first corporate position! If you've been lucky to have an internship or summer job while in college, you already have some insight into the world of work. But, in case you've had little exposure and experience to what happens in Corporate America--welcome to your new reality--one that will be quite different than your former life as a college student on campus.

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While your professors equipped you with the abilities and skills to get your college degree, navigating and learning the lessons of the corporate terrain will take some effort. At this point, I'm sure there are many questions running through your mind. Questions like: How do I make myself invaluable while avoiding common pitfalls faced by new hires? What can I do to increase my job security? How important is networking and attending company events? How important are my first three months and my first evaluation? What makes a "standout" employee? How do I make a good first impression on the job? How do I handle mistakes? What are the rules of dress and behavior now that I won't be on campus but in the work world? How do I deal with this major change in my life?

To be successful as you gain career momentum in what will be just one steppingstone in your overall career journey of the next 30 to 40 years, you need to be aware of what to expect and what's expected of you as you get started. This article is designed to help prepare you for today's realities in the work world and how to survive uncharted territory. Here's what your professors didn't (and probably couldn't) tell you.

You and Your New Organization: What's Important

Welcome to your organization! Corporations are keenly concerned about their success and their people--or as you will hear it referred to in the 21st century workplace jargon--its "human capital." Companies spend a significant amount of money and resources on talent with the goal of being able to attract, motivate and retain individuals who can contribute to the organization's success and the creation of stockholder value.

You are an important part of this equation. You were hired because you have a unique set of knowledge, skills, abilities and potential. You are there to help your organization accomplish its objectives.

You are joining your company at a time when dramatic changes are taking place. There's rapid technological change, globalization, market transformation, workforce diversity, changing U.S. demographics and a time when there are various generations present in the workplace. All of these cause major challenges to employees, managers and supervisors. The rapid change in technology alters how work is disseminated, and performed.

Let's spend a few moments discussing generational issues. Although today's global workplace has a variety of generations working together, the workforce is predominantly made up of three generations: Baby Boomers (Boomers) born between 1946 and 1962, Generation X, (Gen-X) born between 1963 and 1981, and Generation Y, born between 1982 and the present. Generational differences are one of the most challenging diversity and leadership issues in organizations in the 21st century.

Embracing generational differences in the workplace is beneficial because people with different perspectives always have the potential to bring alternate thoughts and ideas to problem solving, which provides future opportunities for the organization.

Generational conflict can impact teams, employee morale, and productivity. Additionally, constant change in the physical workplace created a need to revise management styles, devise different ways to communicate and to recognize and value employees

Because of these corporate realities you will be more successful if you place your priorities on contributions, accomplishments, building relationships and creating value and recognizing how all of the areas mentioned above may impact you and how you do your job. You will want to start focusing on operating from your strengths while recognizing the importance of balancing life and work. You'll be introduced to people from diverse backgrounds and may work on a team of people with skills both similar and different from you own. Your success (or failure) will depend on how well you navigate your workplace.

As you enter the work world you will be trading grades as a mark of success for corporate evaluations that will be in the form of performance reviews. Your manager will conduct these. You are trading the camaraderie of your "buds" at the student hangout and on your personal computer for coffee breaks and team meetings with your manager and new work colleagues.

Also, say goodbye to rolling out of the bed and the house in jeans and a "wife beater" and feeling that you're dressed for the day. Your new work "uniform" will be "dress for success" which will be either professional attire or business casual depending on the rules of your new work setting and corporate culture. By now, you're getting the picture. You're going into a whole new world. But, it's one that you can conquer if you have adequate information and preparation.

Getting Off to a Good Start

Most companies offer new hire orientation programs. The purpose of new hire orientation is to introduce you to the company. During your orientation you will meet members of the Human Resources staff and other new hires like yourself. You will be given information on policies and procedures. You will be introduced to the benefits package and asked to make your elections for coverage. You will also be provided information about the company through the employee handbook. This will be the source of much of the information you need about rules in your new organization. The handbook usually provides general information about your company's employment policies and other procedures that you will need to know. Study your handbook and become familiar with its contents.

After your orientation you will be taken to your work unit and probably have a series of "newbie" activities designed to move you into the team and your assigned responsibilities. These activities are developed by your supervisor and will be things he or she feels are important during your introductory period (depending on your organization this could range from 90 days to 6 months or a year).

Your manager's job is to lead you and the team. Managers are primarily concerned with strategic vision, analytical thinking and decisive judgment. That means your manager's work may be evaluated by how he or she creates an effective team and motivates and manages the work of his or her assigned work unit. It's important for you to become a valued team player and manage not only your work projects, but also your attitude and relationships with others--especially your manager. Work closely with your manager and work collaboratively with others toward your team goals. This means that you will be open to providing and receiving ideas and contributing to the success of your department.

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Accomplishments and Results Are the New Grades

Once you learn what's expected of you, try to make sure that you demonstrate confidence in your work. Plan and organize your work tasks. Your interpersonal skills (how you get along with others) and establishing and maintaining credibility will be important as you move along in your position.

Performance reviews are a means companies use to formally document your work performance. It also can identify ways you can contribute to the organization's success and your own professional growth. The rating is prepared at the end of the appraisal period for performance over the entire period, including the assignment of a summary rating. There can also be interim ratings during which your manager provides you with feedback on your accomplishments during the period prior to the appraisal period.

When you start your new position and learn how the evaluation process is administered (check your employee handbook and consult with your manager), start to think about how you plan to perform your responsibilities and what "grade"/rating you would like to receive. Ask yourself how competent you plan to be? Do you want to receive a "Poor" or "Just Ok" rating? What would you like your rating to reflect "Good" or "Outstanding?" The main thing to keep in mind is that there will be a rating scale like the one listed or one that could range from a low of "Unacceptable, to Minimally Successful, Successful, Highly Successful to Outstanding." Strive to learn as much as you can about your job and tasks and perform them to the best of your ability keeping in mind that you will be evaluated. Your future salary increases will be determined based on this rating. It's up to you to maximize the opportunity. We wish you much success in your endeavors.

Career & Executive Coach Chris Bardwell is head of The Career Connection, Ltd., a Chicago-based career development and consulting firm. You can send questions to [e-mail] or to 910 West Van Buren, Suite #166, Chicago, IL 60607.

RELATED ARTICLE: FROM THE EXPERTS: Secrets About Corporate Success That Every Graduate Should Know

STEDMAN GRAHAM 

BUSINESSMAN, EDUCATOR, AUTHOR AND HEAD OF GRAHAM & ASSOCIATES, CHICAGO, IL

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Stedman Graham lectures and conducts seminars for businesses and organizations around the country. He has authored 10 books, including two New York Times bestsellers, You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success and Teens Can Make It Happen: Nine Steps to Success. Move Without the Ball is a collection of principles that teaches students that sports are a part of life, not life itself. Stedman Graham teaches that in the 21st century your talent and skills above all else will define your value. Here are some of his tips about how to achieve corporate success.

* Make yourself valuable by having a passion for what you're doing as opposed to just trying to get a job. Hopefully you've prepared by aligning your college courses with your career interests. You also hopefully had some prior work experience and did some research around your passions. This is what will separate you from your competition and will make you a valued member of the organization.

* You can increase your job security by knowing the business that you're working for, knowing the business and organization inside and out--this will keep you securely employed.

* Networking and attending company events are very important because your success in your company is going to be about the relationships that you build. Many times people have to like you before they promote you, so if you can find ways to increase your social network, professional network and build good relationships, that's going to give you a huge edge.

* The first three months on your new job and your first evaluation are very important. During your introductory period you will want to create the kind of image you want others to have of you. If you can create an impact during the first three months it gives people the opportunity to evaluate you in a positive light.

* A "standout employee" is one who has more energy than anyone else, who is focused and knows how to get things done!

* To make a good first impression you should be interested in the work you do and be able to execute and understand the company's big picture. This will give you a vision of your possibilities. Be results oriented, and interested in the work that you do. Build good relationships, be results oriented, and above all be positive.

* Mistakes happen. You handle mistakes by telling the truth. Truth and trust are two of the most important things that you can bring to your job. People can teach you the business, but if people don't trust you, you'll never get to the next level. You always want to get better, to get beyond your failures. When you are moving toward a vision bigger than yourself, you're always going to stay in the game.

* Moving from the classroom to the work world entails a big change. Being able to get knowledge about your industry and reading as much as you can about the world of work and things that pertain to that particular job will help with the change.

* As a "newbie" on my first job I learned some key lessons. I learned that I needed to be consistent, to develop some consistency in what I was doing--not do things that I wanted to do. I was a basketball player in the European pro league for a number of years, served in the Army, and then I worked in the prison system. I realized that I had to stop trying to do what I wanted to do and to serve the needs of the organization that I was working with. This is one of the key elements to success at the beginning. You need to figure out how you can be helpful to the organization versus advancing your own agenda. Do the work that's required. And if you create excellence in the work, you'll always get to the next step. Success is a series of small steps. The more steps you complete, the more success you have.

ROLONDA WATTS 

JOURNALIST

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Rolonda is a household name from four successful years as host of her own nationally syndicated television show, The Rolonda Show. She is a true personality and journalist-at-heart who gets inside the issue, asks tough questions, and often presents provocative solutions. Her website says this about her: "Rolonda Watts is a friend and confidante with a power behind her voice. If she's saying it, you just know it's something worth talking about." Here are insights she asked us to share with you:

* Making a good first impression: I think that showing up on time, dressing the part and having the right attitude are key. You can have the best grades in the world but if you don't have a good attitude when you walk in the door, it doesn't matter about your grades.

* Your first three months and your probationary period: First of all you have to remember anytime you walk into a new situation people are watching. They want to know how you work out conflict--when things don't go well one day--how do you handle that, can you handle a high amount of pressure. You don't want someone who is going to point a finger and avoid responsibility when pressure is placed on them. They want to know how you get along with people, how you work out conflict at work, because at the end of the day it's the team that makes the bottom line and the team successful.

* Mistakes to avoid as a new hire: Mistakes will happen. What we have to do is to learn from our mistakes. Especially when you're young and getting out of college. You've only been on this earth some 20 years, so there's a lot that you don't know. It's how you handle and recover from those mistakes that make the difference. A lot of time the greatest things in the world come from our mistakes because we promise ourselves we're not going to do that anymore. Focus on the positive things--what did you learn that you can incorporate that would make you better at living.

* Be a standout employee: I always surround myself with people who know more than I do and can bring something to the table that makes me say "wow I didn't think about it that way!" And someone who has the confidence to bring who they are to the table. Everybody around me is totally different, they bring something different to the table and they are proud of what they do and when they shine, I look pretty good.

* My first job and lessons learned: Well, first of all I would say this to students, I had a bunch of internships. I guess it was because I didn't like being at home during the holidays and summer. I wanted to be out of the house and I was always very curious. I had an internship with the Winston Salem Journal. If I didn't learn anything else, I found I loved journalism, but that I didn't want to work for a newspaper. I worked for a radio station and then I went to television. I saved a lot of time because I threw myself into the business, learned the lingo, what I liked and didn't like. In the meantime, I negotiated and exchanged pay for credits and graduated a year early. Because of my internships I had a track record, people knew how I worked, I could get recommendations and had a little experience. These experiences helped me find out what I ultimately wanted to do.

ETTA GARDNER

CHICAGO, IL, TWICE RETIRED, 50+ YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE WORK WORLD

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I would like to begin with the end in mind. You should be focused on being as successful as possible. Always look for an opportunity to exceed what's expected of you. You're going from school to your new job and will be working until you retire. This will be some 30-40 years. You don't want your first job to be a failure. If you go into your first job thinking and feeling that you have to succeed--you will because you will put everything positive that you have into it.

Look around you. What's your purpose and what part do you play in making the organization work? You need to know your job, you need to know about the business and how you fit into it and in your individual department and role.

You make yourself invaluable by:

* Punctuality: You need to be on the job and on time. This also goes for your projects and other work responsibilities. Whatever you're doing make sure it's done in a timely fashion. It goes without saying that attendance is very important along with punctuality.

* Quality and Quantity of Work: The quantity of work that you do should also reflect quality. You shouldn't sacrifice quality for quantity because in the end you will make mistakes and that's not what you want to happen.

* Different generations in the workplace: As an older manager, I found that the younger people didn't value their jobs. They'd go onto the computer, take care of personal business as opposed to doing the work they were hired to do and were unproductive. They had difficulty adhering to the rules and regulations. Oftentimes they felt that they could do what they wanted and couldn't understand why they had to do it the way they were told it was to be done. They didn't understand going into the workforce the importance of rules and regulations. They would come in at any time, get written up through the disciplinary procedures and still wanted to do it their way.

* Best Advice: The best piece of advice I can give is to go in and realize that this is your job and you have to place it as a priority in your life now. Your job determines if you're going to advance or not, how you handle things on a job is a very serious step in your life--it's not like at school. It's important to have maturity and be able to be responsible, have initiative and strive for good performance reviews. Be careful not to violate the policies and procedures if you plan to advance.

* Mistakes: When you make mistakes, first you should admit that you made the mistake, then you fix it and try not to make it again. Honesty is the best policy. Try to figure out why you made the mistake and naturally, you correct it. If your manager has to be involved, admit that you made the mistake, ask for help in trying to avoid it if you can in the future.