Andy Hibel (00:00)
Welcome to the HigherEdJobs Ed Jobs podcast. I'm Andy Hibel, Chief Operating Officer at HigherEdJobs

Kelly Cherwin (00:08)
And I'm Kelly Cherwin the Director of Editorial Strategy. Today we're joined by a member of our own editorial team, Leah Jackson. Leah Jackson is the Assistant Director of Editorial Strategy and a writer at HigherEdJobs where she focuses on career development, workplace issues, and professional transition in higher ed. In her role, she helps shape editorial direction and produces advice-driven content designed to support higher ed professionals build confidence in new roles and develop sustainable approaches to career growth and higher ed.

Leah Jackson (00:43)
Thank you for having me. You're building me up too high.

Kelly Cherwin (01:01)
Today we're going be talking about, actually, a couple of articles that you wrote for us, on preparing for the new job and building momentum once you start that new role. So the articles are four ways to prepare for your new job. The other article is starting a new job. Consider these strategies for success. So Leah, let's start out with why you thought it was important to write these articles.

Leah Jackson (01:22)
Absolutely. So I think this article idea, and I don't know that can take full credit. It may have been out of an editorial conversation that we had. ah But I think really where these articles came from was wanting to give the same weight to starting a new job

preparing and practicing for an interview, thinking about writing thank you notes, all of those things that go into the job search that take so much time and effort and energy. And I think there's this tendency to like breathe a sigh of relief when you finally land a job, which is totally warranted and it's absolutely something to celebrate. But I never want people to think, okay, I can just quit now. When you're starting a new job,

It's almost like starting a new race. There's other things you have to do to prepare to really thrive in a role. And so I think there's a time to celebrate when you've landed the job. And then it's almost like getting that second win to start again, to really set yourself up for success. And I wanted people to be able to think about how they can give that the same attention as the job search, if that makes sense.

Andy Hibel (02:43)
That makes a lot of sense, actually. I think the interesting part is you were offering that answer. It kind of came to me. We spend all this time in the job search trying to tell the story of what we've done and why we should be hired. And it's all about the experience you have working. And now that you start the job, really, what you're starting to do is this is the part that's adding to your professional career. This is what's going to help you get your next job.

Leah Jackson (03:34)
So I think in terms of how I broke up, I think this will be helpful for answering that question is just talking about sort of how I broke up the articles. And I think there's kind of two phases to the preparation phase, if you will. think there are things that you can do leading up to actually stepping foot on campus and starting the role, because there's a lot that you can do before you actually get there. And,

such as preparing a list of questions for HR, ah familiarizing yourself again with the campus, what resources are available, especially in today's age. think knowing what's available on campus, every person serves a role in ah student success and just being able to refer students around campus. And so I think knowing what's available, knowing what's on campus, who you might refer to, what the tools are that they're using, those are the sort of things that you can be doing in advance you know, really make a good first impression. Those are things that you can do before you get there. And then the second article was really more about the strategy for long-term success and

Kelly Cherwin (05:10)
Leah, thank you for helping us set the stage on how you broke up these articles. I think that makes perfect sense. Once you get that job offer and you're excited about starting this new role, you have to do a different type of preparation than you do in the job search. Obviously, you're preparing for the interview and you're preparing your materials. But now that you have the position, like I said, you're preparing in a different way. As you said, you're asking questions and researching, reminding yourself, I guess, again, about the institution's mission. And no, it doesn't sound silly at all to remind yourself that, you know,

weeks or even like a couple days before leading up to it, do a trial run and if you take the train, jump on the train and see how long it takes. If you drive, walk, whatever, run through those so you are, like you said, yourself up for success when you start day one from that job. And then, yeah, like you said in your second article, it takes over from what to do once you're on that job.

Andy Hibel (06:27)
I think this is about setting expectations. And I think there's a couple of schools of thought here that, well, the employer should tell you what they expect. But at the end of the day, it's your best interest to meet expectations. And showing initiative and finding out what those expectations

Should I have a background that's consistent with the branding of the university? What about my dog in Zoom if I'm on Zoom? I mean, even if you work fully on site, you're going to be on Zoom. Knowing the etiquette there is extremely important. I always think attire is extremely difficult. knowing what's expected of me for where I present myself, if you're working in a position, maybe when customers or clients are in the office,

Moving towards your second article, set that sort of best tone you're really looking for. This seems like the natural place to have the transition to how actually being on the job and talking a little bit about some strategies for success. The second article, there was a part in it that just struck me. It was from Eric Ng who said, don't wait for others to reach out to you. Take initiative and introduce yourself to your colleagues.

Building positive relationships with your coworkers from day one is vital for creating a supportive and collaborative work environment. And it reminded me of a great example I can share of what I did, which is an example of what you should not do. When I started my position in 1995 at Penn State, I know that seems like years ago as it was, it was three decades.

I went to go have lunch by myself at a local place near where the office was. And I sat down with an actual newspaper back in the day and proceeded to eat my lunch, read the newspaper, and get a break from my work. And I didn't realize it, but there were three colleagues of mine sitting a few tables over. And one of them came over and said, Hey, would you like to come over and eat with us? He saw me eating by myself. And I said, "No, I think I'm good." And I didn't have lunch with them. Do not do that. Go sit with your colleagues. Because I warn you, and this is a cautionary tale, that person was my co-founder, John Ikenberry.

you have that first chance over the first few days, week or two, to make that initial impression. But then you have about three months to kind of establish what people really see the more complete picture of you and just make sure you're doing that. So

Other than not doing what I did, what advice do you have for someone who might feel a little hesitant about reaching out or introducing themselves in those first couple of weeks?

Leah Jackson (10:27)
So, I hate to throw another article in the mix since we're already talking about two articles, but I can't help myself because we have a really, really great article from one of our regular contributors, Justin Zackal, that's called How to Introduce Yourself. We can definitely link it in the podcast description here so you can find it. But

It really shouldn't be about you when you introduce yourself. It should be about the audience that you're introducing yourself to. And I think for me, that helps take a little bit of pressure off. It's less about giving a spiel about you and everything you've done in your whole life. And it's really more about being curious about how you can help them, how you can be supportive of their work, how you can collaborate with them or be an ally. And so I think remembering that, checking out that article, the other great tips that he has in there.

would be one of the first places that I would start. But I think it really goes back to the idea of being curious and getting to know people and really wanting to learn about them and kind of where you fit into things and focusing more on that than getting stressed out about saying exactly the right thing to introduce yourself.

Kelly Cherwin (11:46)
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that idea up and that article. And Andy, thank you for sharing that story. I wasn't sure exactly where you're going with it. Can you expand a little more on that and why you think that's important? Someone takes that mindset coming into

Leah Jackson (12:49)
Absolutely.

I think when you're starting a new role, I think there is real value in being curious, being flexible. I think we all come with our set ways of working, things that have worked for us. We can be set in our ways. I think when you're joining a new team, it's really important to learn how they've worked,

the systems that they're already using because they've already kind of established that. And that isn't to say that you can't make suggestions. You're obviously there for a reason and you will add value once you have built your credibility. And so I think it's just leaning into

Kelly Cherwin (13:46)
love the idea because I don't think anyone wants em to hear from a person's like, well, this is how we used to do it at our old place. I I've been in situations before that people were like, well, this is how we used to do it or this is at my old job, I used to do it like this. Or, you if you like you're saying, Leah, how you're stressed, like just take some time to get that kind of know the lay of the land and be curious and open minded, not judgmental because you might be learning something from them by learning their process. And again, like you said,

Maybe you can offer suggestions, but you kind of have to know when that is. If it's day one, I don't know if I would go out of the gate saying, this is wrong, you guys used to be doing this. But if you're there for a couple weeks, a couple months,

Andy Hibel (14:43)
A couple weeks is early.

Kelly Cherwin (14:45)
True.

I probably... Maybe a lunch. You can suggest a lunch place. nothing like... Yeah, nothing big.

Andy Hibel (14:52)
Touche, touche. But what I do think here, first of all, when you feel like and you hear, well, this is the way we've always done it, ask why before offering any sort of suggestion. Try to understand why it's been done this way. And if the answer is simply, well, we've done it this way just because we've done it this way, that's when you can start asking more probing questions. Do you see ways that can be improved? What do you think works well with it?

get them engaged as to providing some thought behind why it is in that way. I think for me, it kind of begs the question of the word

You are not part of that we anymore. Be very cognizant of it. You want to be part of the group. You are part of the group and to separate yourself out as if you're part of some other group and that group knows better than the group that you're currently in. It's a lot better of a suggestion after hearing something that they've done and you have a suggestion to say, well, I actually think what would help us here is if we focus on those priorities that we don't seem to be meeting that you talked about.

priority one, priority two, priority three, and maybe we could better accomplish those by doing these things a little bit differently. That's what they want to hear. I wouldn't even cite that you did it differently at your old position. People don't want to hear that. They want to hear you part of the team. this kind of goes into another part of the article for me is learning how to learn and make mistakes. You're going to slip on the we, please. Everybody does.

Don't beat yourself up. But how can new hires balance wanting to make a strong impression with being realistic about the learning curve?

Leah Jackson (17:00)
For me, that really comes down to

and make progress going forward. I'm trying to resist the urge to bring up my self-compassion article. I'm not mentioning any more articles. I don't want to overwhelm people.

Kelly Cherwin (17:35)
Yeah.

Lee, I agree with all that, being okay to make mistakes and like you said in your article, fail forward. But another thing I want to bring up is oftentimes I think people have this imposter syndrome or imposter feelings and we were plugging articles and past podcasts, but RJ Jenkins did a great podcast on imposter feelings. But get out of your mind and be okay with knowing you were hired for a reason. Like you went through this search, they chose you for a reason.

It's okay if you don't know everything and it's okay if you make a mistake, but believe in yourself that you're there at that institution in that role for a particular reason.

Andy Hibel (18:21)
I should probably be clear now as a disclaimer to those of you who are listening.

Leah Jackson (18:31)
Kelly, I love what you said though.

Kelly Cherwin (18:39)
And don't expect perfection. No one's perfect. They didn't hire you because they're perfect. As I look over to our producer Mike's like, wait, what? You are perfect. m So as we wrap up the discussion about starting a new job and preparing for success, let's boil it down to if you guys had to give

Andy Hibel (18:50)
Mike is perfect.

Leah Jackson (19:09)
I think for me, if I had to pick kind of one thing from these articles, because I think it's listed as a bullet point in here, but I think it applies across the board is the curiosity and the flexibility. think that is the right mindset to approach a new job with. think Andy touched on this with

going into it with this curiosity, flexibility, willingness to learn is going to set you up for the best success.

Andy Hibel (19:45)
I would second that. think that that is absolutely the spirit by which you need to go into the position. I'd also really, really pay attention to feedback. If you're getting feedback, it's a gift. Do not see it as anything but that. Even if it's negative, even if it's kind of harshly delivered, you're getting real feedback. That means you're engaging your coworkers in what you're doing. Take it seriously. Don't get defensive with it.

listen to it and respond to it. But if you aren't getting feedback, which is sometimes the scariest of all scary things, understand why you're not getting feedback. How much are you really engaging with your colleagues? How much are you being curious? I would posit if you are curious, you're going to get feedback. If you're not being curious, you're not going to get feedback. Curiosity usually creates more curiosity. If you're getting that from your colleagues,

that's what you're striving for and listen to it. ah I would put one exception to that rule if you're not hearing any feedback. And sometimes that's more reflective of the culture. There may be a reason why you have no feedback is because the culture really does not promote people being curious and being open. If you're starting to see that, I would try to keep your eyes open. That might be a situation you need to deal with and better understand.

What I would say is with time and trust, eventually you're gonna hear that from some of your colleagues. Once again, pay attention to it.

Kelly Cherwin (21:22)
So I will say I'm kind of cheating here because I have two pieces of information, but one is based off what you guys just were talking about and being curious and getting feedback. I want to encourage people, if you're not getting the feedback, don't just wait for them to express their feedback. I think in the beginning stages, definitely in that first, maybe it's not necessarily that first day, but in that early first week or two, clarify the expectations with your supervisor.

Do they expect out of you in the first 30 days, the first 60, 90, you know, a year?

because then that can set the expectations uh and encourage feedback. So that's my little comment on what you guys were saying. But my other piece of advice is actually piggyback on uh kind of the ideas of what Justin was talking about introducing yourself and Leah, what you saying before is when you are introducing yourself, try, and I am far from perfect on this, but try to remember someone's name. So when you see them again on campus or you see them in the cafeteria or the common space,

you can give them a little smile and say, hi, Andy, you know, it's nice to see you because I'm kind of, you know, going back to that Maya Angelou quote...

Leah Jackson (23:02)
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

Kelly Cherwin (23:10)
So, know, introduce yourself and say, you know, hi Andy, it's nice to see you again because if you give them that warm smile, people will remember that. They will remember how you made them feel.

Andy Hibel (23:19)
I absolutely agree, but I feel like we just lost half of our audience there, like me, who can't for the life of them remember people's names.

Kelly Cherwin (23:28)
I get that, but then there's a tip for that. Then just don't wait for a whole six or nine months to go by and then it's really awkward. Just be like, I am so sorry, I can't remember, can you remind me your name again? There's nothing wrong with that.

Andy Hibel (23:37)
And I would tack onto that. Do not intentionally become a serial reintroducer at that point, expecting them then to say their name again. Say, I know we've met. I'm really sorry. I met a lot of people at once. Can you just share your name with me again? And I will tell you after the second time, you need to remember the name. The third strike, you're out. Remember.

Kelly Cherwin (23:59)
True.

Well, Leah, it was fun having you join us today. Thank you so much for jumping on the podcast with us. enjoyed this conversation and we hope that our listeners find it useful when they're starting

Leah Jackson (24:14)
Absolutely, it was great talking with both of you about this.

Andy Hibel (24:17)
Thanks, Leah, and thank you for listening. We'll make sure to link both of Leah's articles to the podcast notes and also Justin's article about how to introduce yourself and RJ's article about imposter feelings or the imposter syndrome. If you have any questions or thoughts you'd like to share from today's podcast, like your own tips or your own thoughts on starting a job,

Thank you for listening and we look forward to talking with you again real soon.