Author: LoymiPeralta

6 Tips to succeed in your new role

Starting a new job after undergrad is intimidating; you second guess everything you know about the subject you were hired for. I will spoil you; it gets better with time.

Success looks different for everyone, and you need to save yourself some trouble and not compare your journey to somebody else’s. I created a list of tips for having a success as a new hire that helped me in my first 6 months and that I follow to this day that I hope you can benefit from. The most important part here is to use the tips to create your own process at work.

• Stay positive: Maintain a positive attitude and be open to feedback, it can be doubting to join a new team, but you need to remember that they select you because you bring value to the team. You may not be performing at 100% just yet because you are new, but that will change. A positive attitude will help you to grow and improve quicker.
• Be proactive: Take initiative and show a willingness to learn and grow in your new role. Your team members will be busy; they have their own responsibilities. In a perfect world, we all get a buddy to be with us all day as we learn. In reality? Most people are willing to help you, but not everyone has an extra hour a day for it. Your willingness to learn and reach out to those who can teach you will make the actual learning happen.
• Communicate effectively: Build strong relationships with your team members and supervisors by communicating clearly and frequently. You may feel you are bothering or annoying the team, but you are not. You are responsible for your own learning; sometimes, that requires asking a lot of questions and ensuring understanding.
• Be a good listener: Listen carefully to instructions and feedback (do not interrupt people when they talk) and ask questions when you’re unsure. Didn’t I say that you need to ask questions? yes, you need to be comfortable asking a lot of questions.
• Be organized: Stay on top of deadlines and priorities by keeping track of important dates and tasks. I personally love organizational apps, such as Notion and OneNote.
• Take ownership of your work: Take responsibility for your work and be accountable for your actions. Be okay by making mistakes and admitting them. No one expects you to be perfect in your first few weeks in a new role, but they expect you to be responsible for your actions. This speaks more about you than what you can imagine.

It was not until my junior year of university when I was looking for an internship, that I realized how important it was to build a network. I was a transfer student from a community college, so my circle was nonexistent at my school. To top that, after my first semester in Business school, we went full online due to a world pandemic.

I had been involved in a business club in the community college, where I got the chance to meet great people, so I knew I could find a club at my new school. After some research, I learned that my new school had an ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals for America) chapter on campus, so I was up to a great start there. I knew a little about the work that ALPFA does from the local professional chapter, so I quickly got involved as much as possible with the student chapter.

Some benefit of this type of clubs or organizations:

• Surround yourself with like-minded people, in my case, business students with a similar background. This helps you socialize faster and feel more comfortable sharing your ideas and goals.
• Learn new things. We may all be similar as a group, but you can see our differences on the individual level. Early on, I made it a hobby to always go to this event with an open mind and always assume that the person you are talking to knows something you don’t.
• Develop your people skills. Conversation: You start getting better at talking to people and expressing yourself.

By attending my student chapter meetings, I became more confident, learned of opportunities, and made long-life connections with like-minded people. Those people opened the door to me now as a professional, and I will be forever grateful to them. I started seeing the power of networking and growing your network and became passionate about the idea. I became so passionate that I eventually became the president of my student chapter; I wanted everyone to know what a network can do for them.

There are many ways to grow your network. Student and professional organizations are just a few of them that have worked for me. Search your school or local website for professional organizations, and you may be surprised by the list size. Pick one that draws your attention and fits your personal needs, and start connecting.

Thank you,

Loymi

Finals are around the corner, your friends started planning a graduation trip, and your lease is almost over at your college apartment. You are ready to finish school but started to think, now what? What I will do now without a set schedule from Monday to Friday. My parents already motioned that they would like to stop paying for my housing and food, or just like in my case, you want to stop taking student loans.

Well, I brag about going to business school because they are constantly reminding you that you need to find a job after school there. However, to my surprise, that is not the case for everyone, and that statics (not made by me) show that almost 53% of recent college graduates have no job after graduation or end up working in a job that does not require a bachelor degree. How does that happen? I found out through my short experience as a student leader that those students share a few things in common:

• They don’t have a network
• They are unaware of the resources offered by the school for professional developed
• They are unsure of the path they would like to pursue after school
• They don’t know how to leverage their skill or background

I know what you are thinking. School is already hard, and now you are telling me to do extra work to get a job. Well, the short answer is yes. In a world where you only get what you ask and work for, I encourage people to work hard to get the best out of the best (because you deserve it). So what should I start working on? I have a small list for you below, and I will be breaking each item in the list in upcoming posts.

• Know yourself. Know what you like to do or, in the worse case, what you don’t like to do. The early you know where you want to take your career, the faster you can get there (spoiler alert: it is a work in progress).
• Get involved with organizations. You need to get involved with people that have similar goals in life to you. This would start building your support system (you will need one).
• Grow your professional network. Universities are the best place to start creating your network because you may be taking classes with the next Jeff Bezos at the end of the day, and you don’t know it YET. I recommend you to listen to others. You can always learn.
• Do the extra work. It may be 2 hours networking event at school or 30 min job search, but trust me, the jobs would not knock on your door.

Navigating life after undergrad should not be stressful, but it does require some work from you. I hope this helps you start your out-of-school journey and that you come back as I share my ever-growing experience on how I went from being a community college student to working in Corporate America.

Best,

Loymi