5 Important Things To Look Out For In Your New Job
By: Venezia K
Tags: Job Search, Job Interview, Job Hunting, Employee Experience, Employment

I have read an abundance of articles about what skills a person should cultivate to become more employable, but I rarely see discussions of what employees should look out for when searching for a job. Is it possible I missed them? Of course. Do I still care to give my opinion on this because I should have found this advice online by now? Definitely.

As a young person trying to start a career, you may find yourself open to any opportunity you find. Little to no experience will not open as many doors as having three different internships and qualifications beyond a university degree will. That is a harsh reality that we all have to accept very early on in our search for work.

However, going for a job that will demand more from you than what you are supposed to know without offering any professional training may be one of the worst choices you could make at this point in your life. It may seem like the easy way out and a good opportunity to get some much-needed experience, but it could also destroy your confidence.

My first office job was at a small lettings agency, managed by one landlord and staffed with their daughter and one more underqualified person who had to learn on their own how to run the business. Their daughter left for bigger and better things before they hired me, someone with a few good qualifications but no experience in lettings or knowledge about the property market.

You would think that under the guidance of the manager and my colleague I would be able to learn and grow in the business. It’s not like I have no skills to apply already, or that I wasn’t eager to learn. The problem was that the manager had very limited knowledge of how the business should run, little desire to actually supervise and no way to offer help in gaining that knowledge.

Not to mention that the other employee left the business only a few months after they took me in, which effectively made me the most senior member other than the manager. In a business I didn’t know.

The result was that when I needed guidance, the answer I usually got from my manager was “figure it out yourself”, washing their hands off the issue and accepting no responsibility. When I did try to figure out something and give them all the details, there was little attention to detail to make sure what I did was correct or in accordance with what they wanted.

This experience made me second guess all my work-related decisions because even two years later I felt that I was not qualified for it. If I wanted to join a different agency and continue with this career, I would bring very little to the table in terms of knowledge and confidence because I didn’t have experience in a truly professional environment to teach me how to go by the books. Everything was trial and error, with the error being the result more often than not. And having such results more than 50% of the time is definitely not good for your confidence in your abilities or even your intelligence.

So if I had to summarise what to look for when you begin your search for a job would be this:

Ask your potential employer what qualifications they have.

Your qualifications are important but so are theirs. Are they well equipped for the job? Do they have professional experience that is beyond winging it and hoping things work out? If you don’t have much experience yourself, make sure you are in an environment where the head has it. You will benefit more from someone who is taking their job seriously enough to train themselves first before depending on others to run their own business.

2. Ask about what kind of training they offer.

Sometimes, the only training you get in a new company or business is shadowing other members of staff. And most of the time, that should be enough. However, it’s always better to have options for professional training inside your work environment that can get you to the next level of your career with actual qualifications and not just hearsay.

3. Ask about the other employees.

The other source of experience and knowledge inside the work environment is the people you will be with most of the day: your fellow employees. Ensuring that you enter a place of professionals with the skills and knowledge to do their job correctly and efficiently will boost your confidence as you will learn how to do what they do. Joining a team of employees who are confident in what they do will offer you better chances at growing your own skillset.

4. Ask your employer how the business is kept organised.

You may be the most organised person in the world. Lists, logs, journals and calendars are your best friend. But if you enter a working environment in disarray, your organisation skills may not help you as much as you think. You will need a simple and forward-thinking system of office administration if you are to go into a job you have no experience in. The company’s log will update you on what work has been done already and give you details on what your workload may look like in the future. Past schedules, drafts, files, online drives, they will all allow you to explore the inner workings of your new job and give you an insight into what will be expected from you. If the company still works with pen and paper, God help you.

5. Once employed, make sure to always ask.

When faced with a new challenge at work, you will want to make sure you complete the task with the best possible result. This won’t come on its own, especially if you have limited experience. You will question yourself a lot during the project and even doing your own research won’t help much if you don’t have someone with experience in the company to guide you. Tell your manager and coworkers about the skills or experience you don’t have and ensure that they understand you are not giving up, but merely requesting that you are given all the information you need so that you can offer them the desired results. Asking questions about details may seem like it will annoy your team, but what it does is show that you are interested to learn and grow.

You may think that you are lucky to even find a job with no experience and they are doing you a favour. The problem here is that they know what they are doing when they employ someone with no experience and not enough qualifications. The responsibility then lies with them. They should be able to give you the tools needed to progress and offer them the services they need. And if they don’t, ask for them. Your only responsibility will be to listen carefully, learn, implement correctly and always show interest.