Starting a New Job | Preparation Tips & Setting Realistic Goals for First 90 Days

Hello, welcome back, I'm in my final week of unemployment. The time has flown by but I'm really glad I took this month off. I've shared quite a lot of what I've done, but if you're new here, I took a month of work, I quit my job at the end of last year, and instead of rushing from one thing to another I just decided to take a little break and travel. I gotta say that the to-do list that I spoke about in my Porto vlog never really got done, it's very typical Ingrid behaviour where I think that I'm gonna tackle so many things and become so much more productive, but realistically I just wanted to enjoy my time off, take a little break, and yeah, the to-do list did not get done, but regardless, we're a couple of days away from me starting my new role, and I have actually been reflecting quite a lot of what I want that start to look like, so my friend actually gave me this book that some of you may be familiar with, it's called The Onboarding Bible by The Economist, it's the first 90 days by Michael T. Watkins. The book is generally based on the idea that the first 90 days of any new job are quite crucial in setting yourself up for success, some of the core concepts in the book are celebrating your learning, not only thinking about the technical part of the job, but how do you learn the culture, politics, the shadow organization, how decisions are made, which I found very powerful and also something that I'm already thinking about. It talks about securing early wins to show progress and contribution, negotiating success by building a good relationship with your manager, and also building key relationships not just vertically with bosses, but also horizontally. And especially at the beginning it talks a lot about common transition traps that a lot of people fall into. I'm quite glad that I got this book into my hands, because in the first couple of pages it talks about the transition traps, which are sticking with what you know, believing that you're going to be successful in the role by doing the same things you've done so far, falling into action imperative, you feel like you want to contribute as fast as possible, setting yourself unrealistic expectations, attempting to do too much, not doing the right type of learning, and neglecting horizontal relationships. I wouldn't say all of them apply, but I would say half of them is what I was thinking. Because the role isn't a step up, it's kind of a lateral move and I will be doing a similar thing that I was doing before, but in a much smaller organization, I thought I'm going to nail this from day one. So that's one thing that I quite liked about the book, because it helped me think about what are some of the things that I'm good at, but what are some of the things that actually I want to take the opportunity to improve upon and make sure that they don't get in the way of my progression and integration into the company. So if you're in a similar position starting a new job, I definitely recommend grabbing a copy of this book, or just asking the chat to give you a summary, because with these things I sometimes feel like it all could be a pamphlet, I don't need to read 300 pages. One thing that I didn't quite like about the book is maybe a bit of a negative tone from the beginning, talking about how you will fall into these common transition traps and you will not be successful just by doing what made you good at your job. And while there's some truth to that, it's not quite the inspiration that I needed at the beginning, you know, when I'm thinking about my transition, I want to, you know, I think the tone could have been a little bit more positive. And then another thing that it is quite focused on leaders, like taking on teams or thinking about setting strategy for the organization, so some sections were not quite relevant to me. But regardless, I would still recommend grabbing a copy, even if you're in an entry level position, because it helps you think about how do you integrate into an organization beyond just doing your job? How do you understand how the culture works, or the politics work, how decisions are made, and why the organization is at the point that it is, and helps you think like a strategist, even if you're quite junior to the organization. I'm not following this page by page, but I took some inspiration from it, I want to share what are some of my personal reflections and things that I have thought about since when thinking about starting my new role. I have my laptop here, but I'm not going to lift it up because it moves the camera. So I thought about four things. First, what do I want to do immediately pre joining? Second, what do I want to do in the first week? And what does that look like? Third, what do I want to do in my first month? Fourth, what does the end of three months look like? So kind of like a 90 day plan, but not really being it being a plan more like thoughts and reflections of things that I should be thinking about from day one, if I want to have successful three months. Starting off with what do I want to do pre joining? My checklist so far has been to reread all of the materials which have been sent to me, including any links or any documents which have been shared so far around the company, the culture and the role. So I'm super clear and familiar with that. Second has been download and use the product. So I have signed up to their services and I've been exploring the user interface and looking at what's working well, maybe what are some of my personal opinions. Third, I wanted to read on their website, on LinkedIn, any news articles, know more about the company, its strategy, how it's being perceived by the public as well, or has been reading the financial results. I haven't done that yet, but it is a small company and I want to make sure that I understand its current state of profitability, maybe some of the current challenges. And also, I find reading financial statements gives you an insight into what the company has been doing and where it's heading into the future. And then lastly, one thing that I want to do, which is going to be a bit of a journaling exercise later on for me this week, is think about myself and how I'm going to cope with change, which is super important, right? There's a couple of good questions to reflect on from the book, such as what are my strengths, which carried me to date, which will definitely work in a new environment. Second, what could hold me back? I know there are certain behaviors that I exhibit that I don't want to carry forward, and I want to be conscious of making sure that I don't do that. And then three is how will I maintain my equilibrium? Let's say that if things don't go well, or if there's too much change, or if there's not enough change, how will I maintain my balance internally and know that I was the right candidate for the role, I am good enough to do this job, and that I don't let my imposter syndrome get in the way. Second, and again, most importantly, is what does that first week look like for me? So some of those things that I wanted to learn and understand are organizational goals for the year, key company metrics, team structure, key stakeholders, flow of work, key systems used, where does the data sit, and how work and outputs are shared and presented. I think this will give me a good head start on how things are done, not only in my team, but also start to understand how does that organization work. And I also wanted to outline clear responsibilities of the role and expectations for the first couple of months and also for the probation period, and that conversation will need to happen with my manager. My leg on the mat, I really need to find a good setup somewhere. A lot more comfortable than here. Here we go. I also wanted to start meeting some of the key stakeholders, and I know those catch-ups are already scheduled in, and I wanted to review some of the athletical outputs. So that's, I think, a high-level plan for first week. I also need to assess what's the pace of the company and how things are going to work. Maybe I won't do this in, I don't know, one or two days, and then I'm already straight on to a piece of work. We'll see. But that's my plan for the first week. Then the third section was what do I want to do within the first month, and I think this is a little bit more blurry because I need to establish the pace of the organization, and I also want to know the expectations for my manager. Here are some of my ideas of what I think that first month should look like. Within the first month, I want to deliver a first project, and again, maybe I will deliver more, but that's my milestone. I want to have a couple of small wins already there in my bag, and I want to have hopefully presented my analytical outputs. I want to have a clear backlog of work and a clear understanding of what my responsibilities are and what I'm expected to deliver. I also want to have a good understanding of key processes and start thinking about for the three-month mark. Is there anything that I could improve in terms of the ways of working or how things are done? And I want to have a lot more clarity on how does the organization work, the politics, and how decisions are made. I think it's a pretty realistic first month plan. I don't know. If you guys have been in the same position, let me know. That's what I'm thinking about. And then lastly, I'm thinking about what is the end of those three months or 90 days look like, and I find it quite hard to define it. I think it's quite far into the future, so I don't want to over-promise or under-promise and over- or under-deliver, but I still thought it's quite good to start thinking about it. So I want to have a couple of projects under my belt and delivered, and this includes presentations to key stakeholders. Most importantly, I want to have good foundations built for key stakeholder relationships, including my analytics team, but also some of the business stakeholders that I will be working as a lead analyst with. I want to have a good understanding of core company metrics and how they're being tracked so that, again, I can think about those opportunities of how could I potentially improve that. I also know that I want to think about what are some of the ways that things are being done which could be improved. Some of it could be how data is stored or how we're sharing code, and I want to show how I'm adding value from all of my years of experience in working with different data teams at my previous organization. So yeah, that's how I am prepping for my new role. It is quite exciting to think about these things, and I hope some of my reflections have been helpful. I wanted to share some of the things that I'm thinking about specifically so that hopefully you can take those and also use them in your transition. Also would love to hear how you're preparing for new roles and how you're setting out goals for yourself or knowing what's good enough within the first week, second week, or the first month or first three months of going into a new job. I know realistically that it's going to take me about six months to be completely comfortable in the role because that's what it's been like in the past, but maybe in a small organization things will move quicker. That is all that I wanted to share for now. I will leave this video here and enjoy my last few days of unemployment before I go back to the 9-5, back to the grind. I'll definitely update you on how things go with my new role and whether my expectations that I spoke about in this video are actually unrealistic. But for now, that's it. Thanks so much for watching, and I will see you in the next one!