Thriving in a new (work) environment  

Starting a new job can be akin to entering a new culture. In my experience, career culture shock is a real thing. I felt it when I started my PhD, and throughout my three job changes in the past four years.  

I’ve come to enjoy the excitement of starting a new job — new colleagues, new responsibilities and a new environment. Yet I’ve also felt overwhelmed and struggled with confusion, boredom and uncertainty. Starting a new job can feel tumultuous compared to the comfort of being embedded in a role for years.  

Those working in the postsecondary sector, including graduate professional development staff, are expected to look at a problem and jump in feet first, often without sufficient training or preparation. Whether you’re new to the workforce, at a career crossroads, or moving between institutions, you’ll need to turn this professional uncertainty into excitement. Here are four strategies that can help: understanding your environment, knowing who to connect with, prioritizing your responsibilities and establishing workflow systems. 

Researching your new ecosystem 

Any role has past content and context, even newly created positions. I recommend searching through team folders or looking over past notes to find relevant information. Reviewing key texts and sources within your field is another way to gain insight into the larger environment. I found reading over past meeting minutes helped me understand how programs were previously delivered, especially as I became a lead on them.  

The goal isn’t to commit everything to memory, but instead to be aware of what happened in the past and build a mental map of where to find information. This process of researching best practices and procedures may also spark new ideas.  

Spinning a web of connections 

Rarely are jobs completely siloed, especially in postsecondary institutions. Take the time and effort to meet the people who you’ll be working with and who can influence your work. It may seem scary to reach out to people you don’t know, but most people will be glad to meet the ‘new person’ and share their experiences. Think about questions you can ask them to further build the relationship and how you can add value to their roles.    

During the first month of my current job, I focused on meeting people within my own faculty and those in parallel roles in other departments and related organizations. While I don’t directly work with all these people, I still benefit from understanding how they connect to my role. They also now know I exist and what I work on, so they can come to me if they need support.  

Understanding the food chain   

In a new role it is a good idea to quickly understand what is expected of you and how to prioritize your various responsibilities. To start, talk with your manager or team to evaluate the current situation and identify which tasks to focus on first. It’s important to find the easy wins, as this can be the best way to show your value in the short run and demonstrate areas where you can continue to develop.  

When starting a new job, I always have lots of ideas. I tend to rush to action, but taking a step back and learning what projects are actually important will have a higher payoff. Prioritizing tasks that are attainable and impactful will help build credibility, which you can leverage down the road.  

Creating and maintaining your own (eco)systems  

There is considerable research on the “fresh start effect”, suggesting that using a temporal landmark can be an effective method for starting and keeping new habits. Starting a new job is a perfect time to establish your working methods. Set expectations early with your team and manager about how to work together and establish that trust.  

In the past, I’ve fallen into the trap of compromising my working style at the beginning of a new job in order to be accommodating. The problem is that this type of well-meaning compromise can hurt productivity in the long run. Postsecondary environments offer a high level of autonomy, allowing for some flexibility of schedule and processes. Since flexibility is a double-edged sword, find a way to set boundaries that work for you. By using well-articulated workflow plans and systems, such as calendar blocking, you will be able to focus on getting important work done, even with a lot on your plate.  

These four strategies all emphasize the importance of taking a steady and sustained approach to a new workplace. By knowing the larger context of your work, through reading and connecting to colleagues, you can accurately discuss with your manager what the future priorities are and where you should focus. Creating processes and systems at the beginning will ensure high quality and efficient working methods down the road. Look at the long game and spend some initial time getting oriented so you can thrive in your new environment.