Taking Some Time to Think About Your Job as If It Were Your First Day
I always feel a mix of three things when we bring someone new to our team:
1) Inspired
When someone starts a new job, nothing can keep them down! They’ve (hopefully) been spending a lot of time researching during the interview process and likely already have a ton of thoughts on the kinds of projects they want to tackle. The world is their oyster, and they aren’t going to let anyone get in their way.
2) Introspective
When I see that enthusiastic spirit in our new hires, I start wondering where my enthusiastic energy went. There are a lot of things that can beat you down over time the longer you stay somewhere, and it can be hard to have the energy to continue to fight those feelings off.
3) Busy
As those negative feelings continue to linger, we tend not to build off that positive energy joining the team and revert to the status quo. It’s not intentional. It’s because we’ve either had the same ideas (and seen them crushed) or need to go back to putting out the millions of fires that are currently burning.
It’s such a waste of energy and potential to get to that third feeling. Instead of feeling busy, we should take that introspective energy and use it to gain some perspective on how to make our jobs better.
So, how can we harness that energy into something that allows us to approach our jobs with a fresh perspective? We force ourselves to take some time (say, once a quarter) and think about our jobs as if it were our first day. When you think about the work that does into getting a job, a lot of the same principles apply:
Researching the company
Obviously, you’re going to know a lot more about your company after working there for awhile, but think about what it would be like to research your company for the first time. What are some of the questions you’d ask?
What’s your company’s POV on the industry?
What kind of company are they trying to be and how are they going to get there?
What are some of the key projects that have defined the company?
Getting ready for your interview
Now, start putting together the questions you’d ask during your “interview.” You’re not going to be interviewing for your job every quarter, but you can (and should) set some up some time with the people that matter to get those questions answered.
What kind of questions are we talking about here? When applying for a job, you should always be asking more than the stock interview questions you find online like: “Why do you like working here?”
You should be asking thoughtful, critical questions about their company and their industry. Something that demonstrates you’ve been doing your research and have a unique perspective to share. Something that demonstrates you’ve found a problem they haven’t thought of yet. During an interview, you’re trying to start a discussion that shows you have some ideas about how to make things better.
Starting your action plan
Now, you can think about how you’d make those most out of your research and interviews. Your mind will likely be racing with all kinds of ways to improve things based on the conversations you’ve been having. And what’s great is, as opposed to just starting a job, you’re most likely in a position where you can start making some of those things happen.
And before you know it, you’ve found some of that optimism from when you first started and are using it as fuel to keep things fresh and interesting. You’ll never be able to relive your first day at work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t act like it.
