A quick guide to the perfect
first day at your new job

First things first: Eat breakfast

Simple advice yet so important. You don’t know the office culture and you don’t know when your new colleagues eat lunch. You don’t want to find your stomach making noises a couple of hours into your first day, so eat a full and healthy breakfast before leaving for work. If you’re travelling by public transportation you can bring some quick food with you to digest during the ride.

Plan your route and arrive early

You don’t want to get lost in the traffic and you especially don’t want to arrive late! Check the route to your new workplace or even better, test the route beforehand if you have the time! This way you can gauge how long it really takes to get to work and you’ll be prepared for the first rush hour to work! Planning for an early arrival allows for delays and traffic jams that won’t stress you out. You want to show up for your first day of work stress-free and without breaking a sweat!

Don’t arrive empty-handed

Have a laptop with you as well as a pen and paper. You never know if something’s missing at your new desk or the courier didn’t deliver the work laptop on time, so it’s better to come prepared, just in case. Also bring any relevant documents or folders you might’ve received from your new employer, be it a code of conduct manual or best practice documents.

Plan your elevator pitch

Everyone wants to meet the new employee and everybody’s going to have questions. Who are you? Where did you work before? What are you going to work on? What is your previous experience in the IT and tech industry? You’re going to be bombarded with questions, so you better prepare your elevator pitch. Make it short and to the point: who you are, where you worked before and what you’re going to be working on in your new position. That way, you’ll be prepared for a lot of the questions before you even walk through the door.

Introduce yourself to as many people as possible

Start socialising from the get-go. It doesn’t matter if you’re a frontend developer or a project manager. Get in there and introduce yourself to as many of your new colleagues as possible to make a great first impression and to learn their names, faces, and positions faster. It’ll help you settle in much faster and it’ll signal to your colleagues and managers that you want to be a part of the social aspects of the working dynamics too.

Connect with your colleagues

Talk as much as possible with your closest colleagues from your team. You’re going to work side-by-side for the most part with those from your team so make sure to get to know them during the onboarding process. It’s important you connect with them since socialising is an important aspect of ensuring great teamwork. You don’t need to befriend them all on a personal level, just make sure you see eye-to-eye with them, respect and understand them.

Listen, observe and ask questions

Be humble and don’t go overboard with unsolicited advice and a know-it-all attitude. Ask a lot of questions and listen to your new colleagues - they know the ins and outs of the company, the current projects, and work processes. Letting them do the talking while you listen, observe and ask questions gives them a positive impression of you while you’ll learn a lot about your team, the company, the clients and the projects. Everybody wins when you ask the questions!

Leave your phone in the pocket and show interest

You won’t have time and probably neither the desire to use your phone during the first day of work. Leave the phone in the pocket or in your jacket during the day, also when you’re eating lunch with your colleagues. Be focused and effective with your time and learn as much as possible about colleagues, managers, the company and clients. The phone can wait until later.

Check-in with your manager

Your first day at the new job comes with a lot of distractions and information overload. It’s easy to lose track of who and what, so don’t forget to check in with your manager from time to time. Make yourself available and if you’re busy talking with your team or HR-representatives, make sure to stop by your manager before heading to the next checkpoint. It’s important that you talk to your manager because you’ll want to get along with your manager, both personally and professionally. The better you understand each other, the better the collaboration and results will be.

Always be yourself

You’ve made it this far by being yourself, so why start building a different character now? You’ll be working with your colleagues for a long time and you’ll build social and working relationships off the teamwork so why not be your real self from day one? Always be yourself on the first day as that will set the bar for the days and years to come at your new job.

Don’t second-guess yourself

You’re getting hit with a ton of information, new faces, and new working dynamics. After the first day, you might have forgotten half of the information and you’ll start second-guessing yourself: “Am I the right person for this job?”. Stop it! There’s a reason they hired you and you know it. All the new faces and information might feel overwhelming for the first couple of days but rest assured that you will adjust accordingly and feel at home very quickly.

Instead of doubting your skills and wondering if you’re going to succeed focus on the positives: you got the job on the basis of a tough recruitment process and the company chose you for the job. Focus on how far you’ve come in your career and take a moment to pat yourself on the back. You beat every other candidate to the punch and you’re ready and set to succeed in your new job!

At some point in the future you will be ready for a challenge, so make sure to check our guide on how to make a great CV and our tips on how to use LinkedIn in your job search!