Musings on a job switch
By: Alok Simha
Tags: Job Search, Career Advice, Job Switch, Musings, Introspection

It’s been a month since I joined a new role in a new organization, in that relentless pursuit of making a career. With an overall industry experience of close to 8 years, this is my first job where I can safely say I’ve joined laterally and would no longer be considered a “blue-eyed graduate”. There is no time or pampering to grow into the role. With a job shift during the pandemic, there are no other frills either.

This piece is an attempt to crystallize my experiences in the last one month.

The old and the new: It’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing the soft aspects of your old and new employer. Or may be even some of the hard aspects. People, processes and culture in both organizations would have evolved over time. And specially if one is changing industries, what could make an organization thrive in one industry could be totally different from what drives another organization in a second industry.

I had the freedom to say to “No” to the customer in my first organization. In the present organization, there is the freedom to say “Yes” to the customer and figure out how the “Yes” can be realized subsequently. Both different philosophies. Both necessitated by different market, customer and organizational realities.

Gauging the expectation: KPIs and KRAs are the easier aspects to gauge — they’re objective and expressed through statements and metrics with clear timelines. However, gauging the unwritten norms and expectations becomes key as well. Is there hierarchy or not? Are you told what to do? Or are you expected to figure out and initiate the conversation? Is it death by Excel? Or death by Word and Powerpoint? Can you work quietly through your objectives and expect the results to make noise? Or do you have to draw attention to leadership with your own cacophony to match that of the others?

I have been all ears in the first month, without trying to be too exuberant about what I know or what I’ve done in my previous organization. For one, since I’m pivoting industries I’m extremely cognizant of the fact that I need to learn the language of the industry. That could be a year long project — and like with any other language you’d never be able to master all the nuances even in a lifetime.

Which leads me to the next realization that I’ve had:

Getting overwhelmed is progress: I now realise what my manager meant when he said “I don’t want to overwhelm you too much in the first week”. A couple of days ago, I joined a couple of customer calls as my colleague’s shadow and went blank after the first ten minutes. When new terminologies, both technical and commercial showed up in the first ten minutes, I was excited that I would soon be learning something new. But when the barrage of jargon rained incessantly, I drew a blank. I just couldn’t focus and switched off.

And then I realized, that this too was part of the process. Drawing a blank would happen, inevitably. Contrary to that spurring me, it would even demotivate me and make me question my choice. It’s part of the awareness journey. I also realized that I would not always like all parts of my new job — like when it got way too technical for my liking. It’s akin to a personal SWOT analysis. There would be my strength areas. And areas where I’m weak and need to learn to manage.

Image courtesy Soulsana on Unsplash

Onboard From Home Blues: Well, I still don’t feel part of the new organization completely. Thanks to the pandemic. Again, it’s a moment of awareness and recognition. My new boss has been extremely nice. My colleagues are helpful. I’ve had almost a dozen induction sessions. But the truth is that I haven’t shook hands with anyone from the new organization — and I don’t know when I would be. I tried switching on the video for the first couple of calls, in the hope I’d receive some reciprocation from the others. That didn’t happen. To be fair, I never switched-on video when I was speaking with the team in the previous organization. Zoom/Teams fatigue is real. But when I get on calls without knowing the face of the other person speaking with me, it feels downright weird. And it felt so good to be part of a virtual “happy hour” in the last week, where everybody had to turn on their videos. Even virtual smiles made me feel that I know the organization a lot more now.

A couple of my friends have a template on approaching new jobs, that I find useful to state here. In the first year, it’s all about learning. Be open and learn as much as you can. The second year is when you start delivering on your own. The third year-if you’ve learnt the ropes in the first two- you’ll start exceeding expectations and/or getting bored — which is when you might consider adding new responsibilities to your role or consider switching the role or the job itself.

Amidst all this, I’ve also realized that a new job is a chance to start with a clean slate. There are no old habits, baggage or notions. You are neither a star performer nor an underachiever. It’s a great opportunity to be curious all over again and enjoy the freshness while it lasts!

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are my personal opinion and have no bearing on the organisations I’ve worked for