First 15 days on the Job

You may have seen books on the first 90 days or hear people refer to a first-year President’s test period as the first 100 days. Well, as a co-op or intern on a short work assignment (13-18 weeks), you have 30 or less days to make a good impression. Here are some tips from former interns and co-ops in your shows to make a positive lasting one to turn your intern/co-op into a return co-op offer, a full-time job offer, or a positive reference for a new job.

WORK RULES AND EXPECTATIONS

As a new employee, make sure you keep your eyes open and try to understand quick the following to be seen quickly as a member of the professional team:

  1. Training and Orientation - There may be new information you will need training on and systems you will gain access to. Bring a notebook and pen to take notes to refer back to after training.

  2. Expectations for Dress

  3. Work Hours, Recording Time Procedures, and Policy for Lateness and Staying late

  4. Cell Phone Use Policy - you could be checking email but your supervisor may think you are on social media. Would it be easier to set your phone down during the workday.

  5. How long is lunch break and when should you take it? Is there a place to bring your lunch and store it?

COMMUNICATION ETIQUETTE

Effective communication skills are one of the highest rated skills to acquire and improve upon during your professional experiences. This starts with day one. Early on try to find out your supervisor and mentor’s preferences such as:

  1. Do they prefer email or for you to stop by for a quick questions?

  2. Answering the phone: Is there a preferred company greeting when answering the phone.

  3. Will you meet regularly for a 1 on 1 or how should work progress or project updates be communicated?

  4. Do they have any general work habits that you should no about as someone working closely with your supervisor? Such as not approaching them until after morning coffee…

  5. Is there an expectation or preference for how work is completed — formatting of documents, response time for email communication?

ADDITIONAL EMAIL TIPS INCLUDE:

  1. Use a meaningful subject line to give context.

  2. The beginning and the end. Take the time to address the person you are sending the email to and to sign off the email with a salutation.

  3. Close the loop. Reply with a Thank You to confirm you received an email when you are NOT sure if you should respond.

  4. Compress attachments into a zip file or cloud link (i.e. box, dropbox, google drive).

  5. Proofread, spellcheck, and format. Take the time to proofread and set up your email so each email is spell checked. Consider formatting so information stands out like deadline dates or questions to respond to.

  6. Let memory help provide context. Keep past emails in a chain to provide context when needed.

  7. Use URGENT and READ RECEIPTS sparingly. Only use these when necessary and in a trusting environment both urgent and read receipts are only used every once in a while.

  8. Consider if an email is the best way to get your message across or should you wait for the next meeting or request a time to chat.

  9. First few days – Think of emailing and/or approaching colleagues to introduce yourself. Muse provides email templates to consider making your own when starting a new co-op, internship, or job.

  10. Out of office – When Out of the Office for a period of time during working hours be sure to leave an out of office message. Review the small biz article that provides 7 examples. Here’s one quick example from the small biz article.

Quick Tip: Be sure to get the okay from your colleague who you may direct emails to during your absence.

11. Email Signature: Create an email signature on your work and personal email. For your work email abide by any company guidelines. Review the following guidelines provided by Yesware. See the “how to” add email signature links on the bottom of the blog.

What about texting? Text is useful if you have the cell phone number of your teammate. I typically only use text at work for quick updates or questions such as a meeting location, if it was To Be Determined (TBD) or an “I’m running late from prior meeting to next meeting” to notify a colleague.

SPENDING YOUR WORKDAY

In speaking with past co-ops and interns learning how to manage your time is KEY to being a successful co-op and making the most out of your experience. Find out what works best for you to organize yourself. Do you use your calendar for scheduling all time including project time? Are you using a To Do list App like Wunderlist (shown below) to manage projects and tasks?

Another consideration regarding your workday is EXPECTATIONS. What time is it expected you come to work? What are the written and unwritten expectations around lunch and break times? For instance, one co-op I worked with would bring breakfast to work in the morning and eat it first thing when they started work for the day and would then logged in to check their email. Their supervisor saw this as taking a break and thought that the co-op employee should have eaten before they came in for the morning. The co-op had no idea that this was an issue. In this case asking questions may let you know about the “unwritten” expectations of how your time is spent and managed.

One trick that has helped me is to spend 30 minutes on Friday (I schedule a flexible meeting, as the time can change, if needed on my calendar) to prepare for the following week. I see what is on my to do list and make sure I have enough projected time outside of work meetings to get this done. If I do not have the time, I start asking myself how I can better prioritize my time and what may need to shift. This also helps in 1 on 1 meetings with my supervisor where I can discuss work and ask for input on and expectations regarding priorities around projects and time spent. I may find out that a project is taking more time than my supervisor thought it would take and if so, opening up the conversation allows for us together to figure out why and either take a different approach or rework the project and other responsibilities.

PREPPING FOR 1 ON 1 MEETING TIME AND REOCCURRING MEETINGS

One of my first mistakes as a new professional was waiting to be told what to do. I quickly found out that I wasn’t steering my professional growth and opportunity. Bringing questions, suggestions, and items to discuss to schedule meetings and taking the time to prep for each meeting goes a long way. You can start a paper notebook and have different colored tabs for each type of meeting to keep those bright ideas in a well-known place to you that come to mind throughout the week. Personally, I use Outlook to organize everything and create a blank meeting called notes next to reoccurring workgroup/committee meetings and 1 on 1 colleague meetings that add bright ideas or items as they come to mind. Here is a quick article from the author of Radical Candor in thinking through prepping for 1 on 1 meetings. This preparation may also assist you with daily or weekly project meetings. Another resource comes from Steve Dalton's job closer website. Download the "Weekly Manager Meeting" outline to help prepare for the meeting.

ACCEPTING FEEDBACK AND A GROWTH MINDSET

I recently read Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen’s recent book Thanks for the Feedback that delivers good content on how to receive feedback well and reasons why we may be against feedback at times. Grace Lead provides a quick summary guide that provides an outline to the book and overview of key concepts to get us to receive, accept, and learn from different types of feedback. A few questions that I wanted to highlight from the text that continues to help me reflect on and provide perspective when receiving feedback:

  • Clarification. If I do not agree or fully understand the feedback what can I ask or inquire about to gain additional context and meaning?

  • Relationship Matters. Is the relationship I have with the person giving feedback changing how I receive this feedback and if so how?

  • Opening up to Feedback. How do I normally receive feedback and react? And how do I want to react when I do receive feedback? What can I do to accept feedback and receive it positively?

  • Steering the Ship. Am I encouraging and helping others give feedback to me by asking clarifying questions and giving feedback about the type of feedback or delivery that works best with me?

Switching to a growth mindset where continuous change and learning from past mistakes allows us to see the opportunity for learning and improvement vs. living in the fear and defeat of past failures and mistakes. Who we are now and how we initially complete a task does not have to be how we are always and how we will do something in the future. We can CHANGE and listening to and responding positively to feedback is a key element to that change. Let’s perpetuate a growth mindset starting with this work experience.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

These topics are only a few of the many that will help you in building your professional self and getting acclimated to new work and work environments. Get Involved! If there are intern/co-op events after work or during the day, make it a point to attend. Also, be sure to check out employer resource groups (i.e. LGBTQ, young professionals…). There are great ways to meet people around a shared topic from across the organization. I also am happy to share a Co-op Tips On the Job Tips infographic with a few tips shown visually from my awesome co-op faculty advisor colleagues Dr. Bethany Hanson, Aaron Burdette and Chris Tonnis. Here’s to making a positive impression on your first days at your new position.