Your First 90 Days
By


By Andy Wang
Forbes.com

You’ve landed the job you’ve had your eye on for a while. Now the
difficult part begins. Forget the idea of a honeymoon period. It’s time to
get to the hard work, right now, because the first 90 days of any job can
mean everything. They can be the difference between a quick, linear path
to a seat on the board of directors or years stuck in cubicle world,
lunching at your desk, toiling for little reward. How to make your first
90 days count:

Before You Start

“You need to hit the ground running two weeks before you walk in,” says
Michelle Smith, senior vice president and in­vestment officer at Wachovia
Securities. Not preparing properly, Smith says, is a recipe for disaster.
“At the minimum, did you read last year’s annual report? There is no
excuse for not having information when you walk in.”

At Goldman Sachs, Fiona Erskine-Smith, vice president of learning and
professional development, notes that senior new hires within certain
departments receive a book about the company, as well as a book about
navigating the first 90 days of a new job. She advises studying resources
like those, along with company information that can be easily found on the
Internet, to help you enter your new job on a good note.

Get In Shape

Because the early days of any job can be a grind, it’s important to be
physically prepared. Eat well, sleep well, exercise, do anything you can
to keep your energy level up going in. “It’s like getting ready for a long
race, a marathon where you’re sprint­ing at the beginning,” says Laura
Berman Fortgang, president of life coaching company InterCoach and author
of the book Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction (Jeremy P.
Tarcher/Penguin, 2005). “If there’s any way you can reorganize your life
to make it easier to get through this, do it.”

Do Your Homework

Learn all you can about your new employer. Researching your company and
industry can help you predict trends and make your name by delving into
areas your co-workers and competitors haven’t considered or wouldn’t ever
consider. “I started thinking about ways I could make a difference, went
to the company Web site, talked to people in the company, read all I
could,” says Gloria Johnson Goins, vice president of diversity and
inclusion at The Home Depot. The key is also to get help from the right
people and put yourself in the position to get these opportunities

Lunch, Lunch, Lunch

The first weeks of a job can be difficult because you don’t know what you
don’t know. What are the company’s unofficial policies, how do you weave
your way through politics that predate you, how does most communication
occur in the company? Make sure you understand how things work before you
try to change things. “We encourage people not to do too much too soon,”
says Erskine-Smith of Goldman Sachs. “It’s a very strong culture here, and
it’s working as a team that will get someone ahead, as opposed to acting
in a counterproductive way. You don’t want to come in and try to change
the world until you know what the world is actually about. We want people
to ask lots and lots of questions.”


Get a Mentor

It’s vital to have an ongoing dialog with somebody who knows the company
well. Within the first month of her job, Johnson Goins reached out to The
Home Depot’s longest-tenured senior officer and asked him to be her
mentor. “I have met with him monthly for two and a half years,” she says.
“He’s really made the difference in my career in terms of navigating a
very large company.” It’s imperative to quickly identify the people at
your business who can help you and figure out how to get in front of them.

Say it Right

It’s also important to know what to say and how to say it. If you’re not a
good speaker, practice or get coaching. “Men are more likely to invest the
time and money to develop speaking skills and seek out opportunities where
they can gain visibility,” says Catherine Kaputa, founder of brand
strategy company SelfBrand and author of the new book U R a Brand!: How
Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success (Davies-Black
Publishing, April 2006). “I’ve worked with a lot of executives. Men have a
much better network in place. Women generally don’t have the same kind of
network.”

Know Your Strengths

Know what your strengths are and how you can use them to quickly make an
impact. “One thing that can set you apart immediately is taking charge in
just the right way,” says Laurel Touby, founder and CEO of media
networking and job-search Web site mediabistro.com. “It’s a fine line
you’re walking, because too often people take charge and overstep, and
they look like an idiot when they don’t deliver.” Touby recalls one
salesperson who came in, promised to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars
in banner advertising, barely sold enough to cover his salary and is no
longer employed at mediabistro.com.

After 90 Days

Yes, there’s a lot of sizzle involved in the first 90 days, but ultimately
it’s about the steak. Women looking to advance their careers can’t simply
wait for things to happen. They have to make things happen. “We all know
smart, talented people who are not successful and who are maybe
unemployed,” Kaputa says. “It’s about people who harness their assets.”
And if your first three months have already ended, then now is the time to
begin.