New grad, big world: Your survival guide to navigating the corporate jungle with confidence
So you’ve just graduated from your course. You’ve survived sleepless nights of writing papers, drinking 4 a.m. coffees and memorizing question patterns on past papers. A weight has lifted from your shoulders that you didn’t even know was there. After an endless number of CV tweaks, cover letters lost in the corporate void, and email replies that started with “Unfortunately”, you’ve finally received an offer.
Few people are prepared for the transition from university to their first proper 9-to-5 job. It’s turbulent and unpredictable. There’s a harsh letdown from the success of graduating and landing a job to the reality of starting as a small fish in a big pond all over again. It’s not too long since I myself graduated, full of confidence in my academic achievements and feeling lucky for landing my dream role here at IBM. But then, suddenly, I experienced a distorted and weird accumulation of defeatist emotions that I couldn’t quite decipher or understand. I had just checked off the LinkedIn bucket list by making it to where I was — a junior designer at a major tech company — so why did I find myself feeling more anxious, dumb and misplaced than ever?
As I look back on the past two years of what feels like a second degree (in design experience this time), I want to share a list of to-dos for any new grad entering the overwhelmingly scary corporate world. Let me see if I can leave you a bit more reassured, and with some tools to handle your imposter syndrome.
You’re going to be tired. Extremely tired.
A good place to start is to recognize that your fatigue is not a coincidence. In university you used to be able to pull an all-nighter to deliver a project, or go to a party until 5 a.m. and still be at your first lecture by 8 that same morning. So why does your 8-hour workday completely wreck you?
In university you could work on your own, very flexible, schedule. You had the freedom to sacrifice an hour because you’d just punch it out in the library between classes, in the morning or by coming back early from pre-drinks. You were free to follow the natural surge of inspiration or willingness to work whenever it suited you. The difference is that now you have to force yourself to stay switched on exactly between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Don’t be surprised if it takes your brain and body time to adjust to this consistent work output, not to mention sitting at a desk in front of a screen for so many hours in a row. My advice is first to recognize this. Then take your time during this period to rest and do the things that your body needs. Perhaps it’s taking a lunchtime nap, or an early morning yoga class or sacrificing the big weekend birthday party. Let your body get used to your new routine and I promise it will adapt.
There are no stupid questions. No, really, there aren’t.
As much as we don’t want anyone to perceive us as a junior, unfortunately absolutely everyone does. It’s a strange experience because your grad-brain is slowly realizing it doesn’t know everything while you’re trying to maintain the image that it does.
It’s good to accept, as early as possible, that you’ve actually started the equivalent of a completely new degree. Accept that you actually don’t know anything and everything you do know (from school) you’ll have to re-learn in the context of your new role. Realizing this is not a defeat. Approach it with curiosity and eagerness as opposed to self-criticism (that’s the beauty of the junior free pass).
Everyone expects you to have a couple of years of making mistakes, stuttering during your presentations, submitting the wrong thing and even accidentally sending the wrong email to the wrong person. Accept your junior status and let your mistakes disseminate and disappear from your brain as quickly as they do in the company — so fail fast, fail often and move on.
Find someone who reminds you of you.
We are essentially storytelling, social beings. We bond, digest mistakes, and create connections by tittle-tattling about our little lives. Finding someone at work who you can see yourself in is crucial to creating a system of information dissemination (gossip) that can help you get out of your head and defuse your imposter syndrome. Did you accidentally make a complete fool of yourself on a call? Tell your person and you’ll have made an inside joke about it in 10 minutes time.
If you can’t find someone near your desk, most companies have junior social groups or junior groups on Teams or Slack. And if there aren’t any, don’t be scared to start one yourself. Now that you’re corporate, you’ll be highly rewarded for this type of initiative. It’s so important to find someone at work who can understand and let you offload work-specific things that people at home will never understand. I’m sure many people will tell you to get a mentor, which I agree with, but here I am telling you to make a friend.
Take on something big.
If you hit rock bottom and are completely crushed by your own self-doubt, ask for a big project to own. I’m aware this seems contradictory; if I can’t do what I’m being asked to do already, why on earth would I ask for more? In university we were used to submitting something, getting a grade and knowing how we performed. This isn’t the case in the job world. You work hard on something, submit it and get a new thing to do. It’s hard to receive the same type of validation without the clear academic scoring system you’re so used to. Without that, and with the number of junior mistakes you’re probably (and should be) making, your confidence might chip away.
My advice here is to ask your manager, or your lead, for a big chunk of a project that you have to deliver on your own. There’s no doubt you’re capable. Remember all the solution making, improvisation and trust in your own abilities you had in university and when applying for jobs? You need something to prove to yourself what you can do, and give yourself a good grade for creating and delivering something you’re proud of.
In conclusion, the transition from the last months of university to your first months at your new desk are recognizably a hard adjustment period on your mind and body. Remember that:
- You’ve been yanked out of your comfort zone into a completely new world led by much scarier fish in a much bigger pond. Take solace in knowing your thoughts and imposter syndrome are a reflection of this change, not of your abilities.
- You’ve been chosen and hired for your role based on the hard work you’ve already done and the potential you’ve demonstrated. You’ve already proven yourself, now comes the awkward, but expected, period of relearning how to walk.
Have self-awareness of this and you’ll be armed to handle things with open-mindedness and curiosity instead of self-doubt and anxiety. You’ve got exactly what it takes to thrive in this new world, and it won’t be long until you give this very advice to the next grad coming through your office doors.
Sofia Gervasoni is a UX Designer at IBM based in Dublin, Ireland. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
