Graduate Development Programs

IT is easy to be swept up in the excitement of starting your job in the Graduate Program and begin devising your climb up the ladder.  However before you can move anywhere, take some time to address the most pressing objectives.

In order of importance, the following should be your priority in the first 3-6 months in your new job:

1.    Gain acceptance by neutralising the perceived threat to your colleagues
There are a number of things you can do to encourage your colleagues to accept you:

-    Acknowledging your starting point and deficiencies when seeking assistance
-    Your ability to establish rapport with colleagues by sincerely relating to shared interests
-    The sincerity of your interactions with each colleague on a personal level
-    The consideration and respect you afford your colleagues
-    Expressing gratitude for any assistance that you receive
-    Demonstrating your value through competence and being useful to others
-    Winning public statements of approval by opinion leaders through your efforts and work

Your initial goal is not to jump up in the hierarchy, but to gain acceptance in your capacity as a graduate.  It is important to accept that there is no hurry and furthermore, it is not to your advantage or within your abilities to rush this process.

It will take time and you will be working to someone else’s timeframe.  Much like forgiveness, people will accept you in their own good time, but you need to help build that bridge of trust.  Some of your colleagues will immediately accept you, whilst others will take longer.  A few may never truly accept you and that is OK too.

The above mentioned points will encourage your colleagues to accept you, but we should also be aware of how we conduct ourselves.  Sometimes, it is not what you say, but how you say it.  So please be aware of the following in your communications in the office:

-    Body language
-    Language
-    Tone
-    Manners
-    Respect

It’s possible to fill many pages on each of these factors of communication, but I will save you from that and just say that for most people, our intentions are generally reflected in how we communicate.  If you are genuine and sincere, you may still have some misunderstandings with your colleagues, but after a while your “style” of communication and intent will reflect your intentions.

Note: there is a difference between being liked and being accepted.  Your aim is not to be liked as such, but for your colleagues to lower their defences and treat you like they would treat anyone else in the office.

2.    Integration in a functional capacity by demonstrating your value to the team.

As well as eventually being assigned to some high profile work, initially you will be given plenty of “grunt” work as a graduate that you won’t find particularly stimulating.  Importantly for you, they provide you with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your value and also increase your understanding of the business you are working in.

The best way to demonstrate your value is to put yourself in a position where other people rely on your work or knowledge.    So become the expert in something nobody else wants to touch and as a graduate you will find yourself with plenty of this kind of opportunity!  Volunteer for as much work as you can get done, even if it is grunt work.  If you have finished your work, ask for more.  Just don’t overload yourself with work you can’t complete!

Why would I recommend you put your hand up for more boring work?  Well, there are a number of reasons, but first of all put yourself in your manager’s position.  If you had a graduate who was eager to do more work and another who only did what they were given, which would you favour when there was an interesting piece of work to be done?

The other thing that grunt work allows you to do is build deep knowledge within a very narrow spectrum of the business, thus helping you become knowledgeable in that space rather quickly.  This gives you a legitimate space where you could become the subject matter expert on which your team will depend on you for advice.

Once you have developed this niche, you will be drawn into other discussions and projects that will further expose you to high level developments as they are being formed.

The more work you do, the more opportunities you have to impress and demonstrate your value, the more you learn about the business, which in turn means you can make more meaningful contributions to discussions and productive outcomes.  The only downside is, yes, have to do some work!

Nobody will care about how good you are until you can provide some benefit to them and grunt work gives you the perfect place to begin.  It won’t matter that you are clever.  Everybody thinks they are.  Join the club !

One concern some graduates have about volunteering for work is that it may not take them in a particular career direction.  To begin with don’t focus too much on trying to direct your career in a particular direction in the first 6 months, unless you are actually offered the choice of opportunities.

The risk of narrowing your career options is quite insignificant at the start of your career, though you should keep an eye if it is trending over the medium term into areas you have little interest in.  Of more importance is to demonstrate your value to the team and management in the course of developing your knowledge base and skill set.  This will give you a platform to demonstrate your talents and establish a list of achievements to support your future endeavours

The next few articles will be focusing on perhaps the most critical topic of all; Building Relationships in the early stages of your career. Make sure you don’t miss out! Remember to subscribe by clicking here.

Tags: climb up the ladder, colleagues, competence, gain acceptance, graduate program, rapport