9 ms·

Tips: When starting a new job

78 points by andima 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- Pacabel 12y ago
  He suggests using it to store some very basic info about the tasks that have been completed each day. So this is maybe a couple thousand rows per year, with several columns each, all for personal use. Are you really suggesting that somebody not spend the 2 or 3 minutes it'd take to set this up in Excel or LibreOffice or some other spreadsheet program, and instead spend far longer using some other database software, for basically no gain? Even just finding, downloading and unpacking a SQLite binary release will take longer, and that's before creating a schema and anything to help make it easier to work with.
- andrewstuart 12y ago
  Actually I think its primary use is as a database. Its only the purist who can't see that's the main use for a spreadsheet.
  - Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
    I rather liked a quote I heard recently saying that Excel is the world's most popular IDE and the world's most popular document layout tool (from Benedict Evans I think) Excel is capable of being many things to many people. It's it's greatest strength (and it's greatest weakness).
- raving-richard 12y ago
  Considering that many many database schemas are basically one table, what's wrong with using a spreadsheet program for them? Why make something more complicated then it has to be?
andrewstuart 12y ago
I would have said, when starting a new job: 1: make friends with everyone, avoid making enemies. Make sure you have read "How to win friends and influence people." 2: make a good first impression, get some big wins under your belt in the first six months and impress. Your reputation at your new company will persist for years and it will largely be defined by your initial achievements. 3: politics: either avoid it entirely, or play it very well. If you're playing, make sure you have read "The Prince". If you're playing, make sure you win. If you play and lose, you should move on. 4: do more listening than talking. 5: if you are ambitious, commence your ladder climb after six months of points 1, 2, 4 above.
- frik 12y ago
  How to Win Friends and Influence People: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influenc... The Prince: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince
- Jimmy 12y ago
  If you're ambitious, climbing the corporate ladder is probably not one of your main goals...
  - michaelt 12y ago
    What alternatives would you suggest? Seems to me moving companies you means losing all the people who owe you favours, and whose respect you've earned by being good at your job. Starting your own company, consulting, or becoming a famous blogger/internet celebrity are all options, but they seem to mean doing a lot of nontechnical work.
    - Swizec 12y ago
      It seems to me (at least as far as my career has been going), that job hopping is the easiest way to climb the corporate ladder. Switching companies is a very good opportunity to get hired a notch or two higher. Even three. Switching companies gives you breakthrough jumps. Staying at the same company will only get you a slow arduous climb.
princeb 12y ago
of the four items here the most important one (to me) is the "rate your work" point. but only because (emphasizing specifically for me) when you want to justify a pay review you want to have a list of things you have done. so instead of rating it based on how i felt about it i rated it based on how much the completion added to the company in excess of the basic requirements of the task. negotiating for a pay review is almost like the interview for the job in the first place.
ozh 12y ago
Interesting idea at the "Rate your work" paragraph. There ought to be an app for this, though :)
- aaronem 12y ago
  Well, were there one, I wouldn't use it, because (I think as most genuine professionals, especially in this industry) I already have a solid workflow in place for capturing and organizing notes on arbitrary subjects at need.
- stephenbez 12y ago
  There is one (at least for work as a whole): https://www.mercuryapp.com/ https://www.mercuryapp.com/
jqm 12y ago
These might be good tips. But don't spend too much time on them at the expense of actual work. Oh, and sometimes a new guy doing "too good of a job" can be a problem. Might want to test the climate before letting it all out. Many a promising young career has been cut short by people who are "threats". This is sad, and doesn't apply everywhere, but certainly applies many places. Help those above you. Help them look good. At least initially. But beware of being locked in the back office in chains while your supervisors take credit for you work forever. That happens all too often as well. Make sure there is a way for you to be recognized and rewarded/promoted for the work you do. Unless you are ok where you are forever... don't stay long if there isn't.
- sokoloff 12y ago
  If you're early in your career and at a place where doing "too good of a job" is frowned upon, IMO, you're better off to find that out early and leave early. No time for that early on. If you're a threat to the established technical team, move elsewhere, because you cannot afford not to build the strongest possible technical basis for your later career. Later in your career, especially if you aspire to technical leadership positions, you might want to reconsider, but just starting out, go find a place where technical excellence is valued and cultivated. Note: what you think of as "too good of a job" is very likely not "too good of a job" if you're just starting out. Porting an entire enterprise system to Rails because it's cooler and easier (for you) to maintain and getting told "No!" is not an example of you trying to do too good of a job...
  - jqm 12y ago
    "If you're early in your career and at a place where doing "too good of a job" is frowned upon, IMO, you're better off to find that out early and leave early. " -agreed 100% Leave unless you need the job. This scenario applies less to the startup (and probably IT worlds) than it does to other places but unfortunately I believe it is pretty common in older established companies. You might not be told you are doing "too good of a job" but if you are threat to your supervisors there is good chance life could be rough at this stage. So make sure you are helping them look good and not appearing to be gunning for their positions. That was my point. And I hear you on newbies thinking their inexperienced pivots are game changing paradigm shifters. I think we have all seen that as well but it wasn't specifically what I was referring to.
raving-richard 12y ago
These are all very important points. I think that writing down what you learn, and (also very importantly) what you do is a really good thing. When you leave, having written down what you have done will enable you to quickly and easily update your CV/resume. Tagging, and filtering emails, and generally organizing yourself and your information is also a good habit to get into. Whether your are starting a new job or not.
collyw 12y ago
Don't be afraid of asking stupid questions. My first job out of university didn't go so well, as the office was fairly introverted (including my team lead) as well as smart. Things were not explained to me well, and I felt like I would look stupid having to ask them to explain the same thing again afterwards, so tried to do things by myself. Anyway, after a while I looked for another job eventually and got one, and decided to learn from my mistakes. Asked a lot of possibly dumb sounding questions, but got along a lot better at the second job.
FiddlerClamp 12y ago
1. Make friends with the receptionist or office manager. This goes a long way. 2. Bring goodies for the first major holiday/celebration (i.e. Halloween, Valentine's Day) that comes up. 3. If think of things that could be changed or improved, write them down, then sit on those notes for at least a month. 4. Avoid gossip. The best reply if someone says something gossipy to you is a non-committal "Ahh" or "Hmm." 5. Be relentlessly positive. No mention of anything bad going on in your non-work life. 6. Avoid saying things like "TGIF" or "at least it's Wednesday."
- thisone 12y ago
  > 5. Be relentlessly positive. No mention of anything bad going on in your non-work life. This helps in many situations. There are the times, bad times, when a team is put in a terrible situation. Admitting this can let people stop dwelling on the pain individually, and pull together as a team to make the best of the situation.
- buckbova 12y ago
  > 5. Be relentlessly positive. No mention of anything bad going on in your non-work life. This is great advice. Negativity by a few can really drag down a department. But don't go around like a Ned Flanders and smiling like an idiot. Be positive towards the work and the team.
- linuxlizard 12y ago
  All excellent advice. I especially like #4,5.
- frostmatthew 12y ago
  > 6. Avoid saying things like "TGIF" or "at least it's Wednesday." Since switching careers (I'm a former banquet manager turned software engineer) I've always advised people who spend their entire week looking forward to the weekend to change careers to something they'll enjoy more. Sadly too many people feel work is something that must be hated.
  - normloman 12y ago
buckbova 12y ago
Don't insist on any drastic changes in your first 4-6 months. Don't bad-mouth the current set-up. Don't bad mouth anyones work, even if it is legacy. It shows bad form. Learn and do the current process. After that suggest those changes to the right people.
Fuzzwah 12y ago
I currently have a whole stack of thoughts about this as today kicks off the 2nd week of a new job for me. I'm a sys admin who has worked in a range of environments big and small. My new job is once again returning to a "big" environment. I feel that the tips which would help me in this role are completely different to tips which would have helped in my last role which was in a small environment. The one which I'm 100% confident is good for both is: record every piece of work you do. The tip from the link here about rating each piece of work is something which I'd overlooked, but will start doing. I've used trello religiously since I became aware of its existence. It was a real challenge to build the habit, but as I've matured and gained experience in various work places I've set aside my youthful ideas which went somewhere along the lines of: "I know I'm good at my job, my work should speak for its self. If people up the chain of command can't realize my worth based on my output then I don't want to work under them anyway." Now I'm more focused on doing the following: #1 - find out what my manager thinks is the #1 priority I should be working on - ensure that his/her boss thinks the same thing - crush the hell out of that task #2 - look for opportunities which are too "low level" for my manager to think about - bring them to his/her focus Far too often I used to have those around backwards.
Fuzzwah 12y ago
Also, as much as it sucks..... - get in early http://qz.com/209513/no-matter-what-the-boss-says-about-flextime-get-to-work-early/ http://qz.com/209513/no-matter-what-the-boss-says-about-flex...
- philbarr 12y ago
  Completely true, and also one of the most annoying things about work. I always find "morning people" to be incredibly annoying. I understand that there are morning people and there are night people. However, as a night person I don't feel the need to quote what time I got up to everybody I meet that day. You'll see it in blogs on HN sometimes too - "I've been so successful ever since I started getting up at 5:30am blah blah blah..." What kind of honour is there in getting up early? Really? You went to bed at 9pm so you could get up at 5am. That's 8 hours. I went to bed at 1am and got up at 8am. That's 7 hours. Surely I'M the one that should be getting the plaudits? I've seen it used in arguments amongst team members when trying to assert blame: "I was here at 7am trying to fix this!!!"
normloman 12y ago
When starting a new job, avoid actually doing your job; obsessively record your thoughts and feelings instead.
- buckbova 12y ago
  And try to be sarcastic all the time and be sure to add nothing to the conversation.
  - normloman 12y ago
    Exposing the stupidity of someone's advice by restating it in plain English is adding to the conversation.

78 points by andima 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Pacabel 12y ago
He suggests using it to store some very basic info about the tasks that have been completed each day. So this is maybe a couple thousand rows per year, with several columns each, all for personal use. Are you really suggesting that somebody not spend the 2 or 3 minutes it'd take to set this up in Excel or LibreOffice or some other spreadsheet program, and instead spend far longer using some other database software, for basically no gain? Even just finding, downloading and unpacking a SQLite binary release will take longer, and that's before creating a schema and anything to help make it easier to work with.
andrewstuart 12y ago
Actually I think its primary use is as a database. Its only the purist who can't see that's the main use for a spreadsheet.
- Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
  I rather liked a quote I heard recently saying that Excel is the world's most popular IDE and the world's most popular document layout tool (from Benedict Evans I think) Excel is capable of being many things to many people. It's it's greatest strength (and it's greatest weakness).
raving-richard 12y ago
Considering that many many database schemas are basically one table, what's wrong with using a spreadsheet program for them? Why make something more complicated then it has to be?

andrewstuart 12y ago

I would have said, when starting a new job: 1: make friends with everyone, avoid making enemies. Make sure you have read "How to win friends and influence people." 2: make a good first impression, get some big wins under your belt in the first six months and impress. Your reputation at your new company will persist for years and it will largely be defined by your initial achievements. 3: politics: either avoid it entirely, or play it very well. If you're playing, make sure you have read "The Prince". If you're playing, make sure you win. If you play and lose, you should move on. 4: do more listening than talking. 5: if you are ambitious, commence your ladder climb after six months of points 1, 2, 4 above.

frik 12y ago
How to Win Friends and Influence People: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influenc... The Prince: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince
Jimmy 12y ago
If you're ambitious, climbing the corporate ladder is probably not one of your main goals...
- michaelt 12y ago
  What alternatives would you suggest? Seems to me moving companies you means losing all the people who owe you favours, and whose respect you've earned by being good at your job. Starting your own company, consulting, or becoming a famous blogger/internet celebrity are all options, but they seem to mean doing a lot of nontechnical work.
  - Swizec 12y ago
    It seems to me (at least as far as my career has been going), that job hopping is the easiest way to climb the corporate ladder. Switching companies is a very good opportunity to get hired a notch or two higher. Even three. Switching companies gives you breakthrough jumps. Staying at the same company will only get you a slow arduous climb.

princeb 12y ago

of the four items here the most important one (to me) is the "rate your work" point. but only because (emphasizing specifically for me) when you want to justify a pay review you want to have a list of things you have done. so instead of rating it based on how i felt about it i rated it based on how much the completion added to the company in excess of the basic requirements of the task. negotiating for a pay review is almost like the interview for the job in the first place.

ozh 12y ago

Interesting idea at the "Rate your work" paragraph. There ought to be an app for this, though :)

aaronem 12y ago
Well, were there one, I wouldn't use it, because (I think as most genuine professionals, especially in this industry) I already have a solid workflow in place for capturing and organizing notes on arbitrary subjects at need.
stephenbez 12y ago
There is one (at least for work as a whole): https://www.mercuryapp.com/ https://www.mercuryapp.com/

jqm 12y ago

These might be good tips. But don't spend too much time on them at the expense of actual work. Oh, and sometimes a new guy doing "too good of a job" can be a problem. Might want to test the climate before letting it all out. Many a promising young career has been cut short by people who are "threats". This is sad, and doesn't apply everywhere, but certainly applies many places. Help those above you. Help them look good. At least initially. But beware of being locked in the back office in chains while your supervisors take credit for you work forever. That happens all too often as well. Make sure there is a way for you to be recognized and rewarded/promoted for the work you do. Unless you are ok where you are forever... don't stay long if there isn't.

sokoloff 12y ago
If you're early in your career and at a place where doing "too good of a job" is frowned upon, IMO, you're better off to find that out early and leave early. No time for that early on. If you're a threat to the established technical team, move elsewhere, because you cannot afford not to build the strongest possible technical basis for your later career. Later in your career, especially if you aspire to technical leadership positions, you might want to reconsider, but just starting out, go find a place where technical excellence is valued and cultivated. Note: what you think of as "too good of a job" is very likely not "too good of a job" if you're just starting out. Porting an entire enterprise system to Rails because it's cooler and easier (for you) to maintain and getting told "No!" is not an example of you trying to do too good of a job...
- jqm 12y ago
  "If you're early in your career and at a place where doing "too good of a job" is frowned upon, IMO, you're better off to find that out early and leave early. " -agreed 100% Leave unless you need the job. This scenario applies less to the startup (and probably IT worlds) than it does to other places but unfortunately I believe it is pretty common in older established companies. You might not be told you are doing "too good of a job" but if you are threat to your supervisors there is good chance life could be rough at this stage. So make sure you are helping them look good and not appearing to be gunning for their positions. That was my point. And I hear you on newbies thinking their inexperienced pivots are game changing paradigm shifters. I think we have all seen that as well but it wasn't specifically what I was referring to.

raving-richard 12y ago

These are all very important points. I think that writing down what you learn, and (also very importantly) what you do is a really good thing. When you leave, having written down what you have done will enable you to quickly and easily update your CV/resume. Tagging, and filtering emails, and generally organizing yourself and your information is also a good habit to get into. Whether your are starting a new job or not.

collyw 12y ago

Don't be afraid of asking stupid questions. My first job out of university didn't go so well, as the office was fairly introverted (including my team lead) as well as smart. Things were not explained to me well, and I felt like I would look stupid having to ask them to explain the same thing again afterwards, so tried to do things by myself. Anyway, after a while I looked for another job eventually and got one, and decided to learn from my mistakes. Asked a lot of possibly dumb sounding questions, but got along a lot better at the second job.

FiddlerClamp 12y ago

1. Make friends with the receptionist or office manager. This goes a long way. 2. Bring goodies for the first major holiday/celebration (i.e. Halloween, Valentine's Day) that comes up. 3. If think of things that could be changed or improved, write them down, then sit on those notes for at least a month. 4. Avoid gossip. The best reply if someone says something gossipy to you is a non-committal "Ahh" or "Hmm." 5. Be relentlessly positive. No mention of anything bad going on in your non-work life. 6. Avoid saying things like "TGIF" or "at least it's Wednesday."

thisone 12y ago
> 5. Be relentlessly positive. No mention of anything bad going on in your non-work life. This helps in many situations. There are the times, bad times, when a team is put in a terrible situation. Admitting this can let people stop dwelling on the pain individually, and pull together as a team to make the best of the situation.
buckbova 12y ago
> 5. Be relentlessly positive. No mention of anything bad going on in your non-work life. This is great advice. Negativity by a few can really drag down a department. But don't go around like a Ned Flanders and smiling like an idiot. Be positive towards the work and the team.
linuxlizard 12y ago
All excellent advice. I especially like #4,5.
frostmatthew 12y ago
> 6. Avoid saying things like "TGIF" or "at least it's Wednesday." Since switching careers (I'm a former banquet manager turned software engineer) I've always advised people who spend their entire week looking forward to the weekend to change careers to something they'll enjoy more. Sadly too many people feel work is something that must be hated.
- normloman 12y ago

buckbova 12y ago

Don't insist on any drastic changes in your first 4-6 months. Don't bad-mouth the current set-up. Don't bad mouth anyones work, even if it is legacy. It shows bad form. Learn and do the current process. After that suggest those changes to the right people.

Fuzzwah 12y ago

I currently have a whole stack of thoughts about this as today kicks off the 2nd week of a new job for me. I'm a sys admin who has worked in a range of environments big and small. My new job is once again returning to a "big" environment. I feel that the tips which would help me in this role are completely different to tips which would have helped in my last role which was in a small environment. The one which I'm 100% confident is good for both is: record every piece of work you do. The tip from the link here about rating each piece of work is something which I'd overlooked, but will start doing. I've used trello religiously since I became aware of its existence. It was a real challenge to build the habit, but as I've matured and gained experience in various work places I've set aside my youthful ideas which went somewhere along the lines of: "I know I'm good at my job, my work should speak for its self. If people up the chain of command can't realize my worth based on my output then I don't want to work under them anyway." Now I'm more focused on doing the following: #1 - find out what my manager thinks is the #1 priority I should be working on - ensure that his/her boss thinks the same thing - crush the hell out of that task #2 - look for opportunities which are too "low level" for my manager to think about - bring them to his/her focus Far too often I used to have those around backwards.

Fuzzwah 12y ago

Also, as much as it sucks..... - get in early http://qz.com/209513/no-matter-what-the-boss-says-about-flextime-get-to-work-early/ http://qz.com/209513/no-matter-what-the-boss-says-about-flex...

philbarr 12y ago
Completely true, and also one of the most annoying things about work. I always find "morning people" to be incredibly annoying. I understand that there are morning people and there are night people. However, as a night person I don't feel the need to quote what time I got up to everybody I meet that day. You'll see it in blogs on HN sometimes too - "I've been so successful ever since I started getting up at 5:30am blah blah blah..." What kind of honour is there in getting up early? Really? You went to bed at 9pm so you could get up at 5am. That's 8 hours. I went to bed at 1am and got up at 8am. That's 7 hours. Surely I'M the one that should be getting the plaudits? I've seen it used in arguments amongst team members when trying to assert blame: "I was here at 7am trying to fix this!!!"

normloman 12y ago

When starting a new job, avoid actually doing your job; obsessively record your thoughts and feelings instead.

buckbova 12y ago
And try to be sarcastic all the time and be sure to add nothing to the conversation.
- normloman 12y ago
  Exposing the stupidity of someone's advice by restating it in plain English is adding to the conversation.