4 Things to Know When Starting as a New Hire or Intern at Professional Services Organizations
It is just a fact of life that everyone must start somewhere. For many professional services organizations, interns and new hires play a significant role in the organization’s continued operations. Your role as a new hire or intern could have you taking lunch orders, performing administrative tasks, or immediately working on the company’s largest client. No matter what your circumstance is, it is guaranteed that you will not know everything when you first start out. Here is a short list of things you should learn before stepping in the door for day 1 of your internship or entry level position:
Attitude matters much more than it did in school!
While some courses may have a class participation component to them, most of what you're evaluated on during your academic career is tailored to the classroom environment. Your final course grade is likely to be a mix of homework, exams, a project, and sometimes class participation. In the professional world you are being evaluated every single day you show up, not only on your work product but also your attitude. Especially early in your career, will be learning so much through trial-and-error, criticism, and setbacks. Your attitude and the way you conduct yourself in each of these scenarios can dictate your future at an organization because people will notice your working style and seek you out if you have a good attitude, (and avoid you if you have a bad attitude!).
You are still learning!
While earning your degree or completing some hard classes in your major can be a very impressive accomplishment, it is highly unlikely that that knowledge alone will qualify you to walk into organization without training and complete your job responsibilities. In fact, in some disciplines, having a degree only means that you have the basic background knowledge you need to be trained to do the job. This means that you as a new hire need to focus on learning as much as possible on the job and retaining that information as best you can. I find the best way to be proactive about this is to always carry around a notepad and a pen so you can be ready to write down anything important. Especially in your first few months, always come in ready to learn something new!
Try to see the bigger picture.
Especially at the lower levels of an organization it can be hard to see how what you do contributes to the team or organization. But rest assured that if they are paying you, then you are contributing to the goals of the organization in some meaningful way. This could come in the form of processing invoices, analyzing data, performing administrative work, or simply making your boss’ life easier. By taking a step back and seeing how your role contributes to the end goal, you see your role in a new context and hopefully perform your duties more efficiently with less miscommunication between you and your coworkers.
Take the extra time to learn what it means to be professional within your organization.
·While there are some more common rules on professional etiquette in the workplace, some organizations or managers will have their own preferences in the following areas:
Working hours / Remote work arrangements
Dress code at a client
Asking questions
Documenting work
General communication style
·Even with your company policy and manager’s preferences, it’s important to not forget that you are in a professional work environment, and the office is not your home (even if you spend too much time there)! When in doubt, conduct yourself professionally and follow the golden rule.
Did we miss anything on our list? What advice would you have for new interns? Is there a topic that you would like us to cover? Be sure to let us know using the comments or the contact tab.