Tips for Your First Job: Part Two of a Series

TIPS FOR YOUR FIRST JOB – 2

In the first post I mentioned dress codes. Some companies have them, some don’t.  The question is; what do you wear?

Set your style matching the other workers. If they are in suits, so are you. Dress as they do so that you won’t be ’spoken’ to.  You never want anyone to tell you how to dress, do your hair, wear jewelry; ever.

When someone has to speak to you, this puts you in a certain position, both intellectually and socially. It is an
uncomfortable position, because there is no comfortable way to respond.

This is a job, they have their rules at that job, there is no ‘freedom’ on a job, save to be fired.

Many times the ‘war’ begins when a person’s appearance is, in the eyes of the ‘boss’, unsuitable.

Perfectly incompetent morons have held jobs they can’t manage until retirement because they look the part. They dress in
the ‘correct’ manner, and the assumption is that they are functioning up to the standard.

Hence, judging a book by its cover is standard in business.

Behaviour is another crucial factor.

Watch how others act and imitate them. Many employees act like zombies, so do you.

Workers act like zombies when they are ’spoken to’ for acting as human beings; i.e. making a suggestion, correcting
a boss, doing the job more efficently than other workers, having ideas…etc.

If you are hired to bang on a computer for eight hours, you bang on the computer.

Remember; your ‘work role’ is different from your ‘play role’.

Some offices are easy and you feel at home. Fine. You are lucky.  Other’s feel like funerals.

You can’t know, until you are employed by that company how it feels ‘inside’.

Don’t make assumptions.

Drink in the ambiance of the work environment and reflect it.  If it is virtual torture, look for another job while holding this one.  Employers prefer to hire employed people than unemployed people.  After all, if you are working for that company now you obviously know how to work, and they might have to pay you a bit extra or give you a few perqs to get you to this company.

Hence, don’t fret the job, use it as a stepping stone.