Regardless of whether your first job is a success or a flop, it will leave you with indelible memories. To start off on the right foot, put all the chances on your side. Being on time and presentable are factors that can act either for or against you. Take them into consideration, because they are an indication of your motivation. The responsibilities you will be given will be commensurate with your experience. Before wading into a world about which you know everything in theory but very little in practice, it’s best to paddle around a bit to get accustomed to the temperature of the water.
CHOOSE A GOOD MENTOR
When starting out, you will have the opportunity to work with people who have been doing the same job as you for many years. During this breaking-in period, you may find it helpful to facilitate your integration into the company to choose an experienced mentor to support you. Lara Dietiker is a young technologist specializing in construction materials, who effortlessly recalls her first steps. “I went directly from the classroom to the job site, which was very stressful. Luckily, I was supported by someone with more experience, a mentor. This helped me get used to the pace of things, and learn to talk to my co-workers, and after that, everything was fine.”
Try to find a mentor you feel comfortable with and whose quality of work is recognized by his or her peers. In this way, you will advance faster, under optimal conditions. And, as one of Lara Dietiker’s teachers likes to say, “A good engineer is one who asks questions.”
BE PATIENT
Your first days on the job will no doubt be combined with the excitement of entering the professional workforce. This excitement may blur some of your perceptions. Don’t forget that having a job is neither an entitlement, nor a gift. You will have to work hard to prove yourself and show that you deserve it. Brent Lyon, a consultant at David Aplin Recruiting in British Columbia and a recruiter in the engineering and technical fields says that young hires have to be patient. “When a company hires inexperienced staff, it is making a long-term investment. It has to train new technologists and engineers under real working conditions, which has a cost in terms of time and human resources.”
So don’t expect to sail in and have it easy. Your supervisors will be checking the quality of your work, upon which the scope of your responsibilities will largely depend. According to David Brent, “Young hires shouldn’t get discouraged if their responsibilities are not in line with their wishes.”
MAKE A GOOD IMPRESSION AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW
It is entirely in a company’s favour to have engineers and technicians able to work on diametrically opposed projects. However, it must first of all ensure that its employees are able to do the jobs they were hired for. At first, the work risks being a little repetitive. Your motivation will be put to the test and will influence the image your employers will have of your work. “At the beginning, companies want staff who are competent at what they do and don’t have any weaknesses. Afterwards, with experience, the aptitudes of the young hires will broaden, which will allow them to tackle all kinds of projects, even those in which they have only basic training.”
Brent Lyon knows what he’s talking about. With a background as a chemical engineer, he worked for nine years in project management and contract negotiation. He is now a consultant in a recruiting firm. Lara Dietiker has also gone through this test phase: “At the beginning, I was not given a lot of responsibility, and my work was closely supervised. Later, I was sent to work on a small job site alone, and gradually, the size of the job sites I was in charge of also increased.”