You’ve landed a new tech role – congratulations!
At this point, you will have made a success of your interview, and connected with the hiring manager; the next stage is to make sure you get the best start possible within your team in your new organisation.
In this article, I will share the steps to take to make sure the first 60 days in your new Tech role go as smoothly as possible.
Get to Know Your New Manager
First of all, the best piece of advice I give successful tech candidates is to get to know your new manager.
During these first two months, your new manager will be your lifeline to the rest of the company and your team. Tech companies are generally fast-paced, innovative working environments, and getting your head around a new culture can be daunting.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and to share any thoughts and ideas you have about your new role and your new company – as Tech is still an emerging sector, the sharing of ideas is encouraged and championed.
Establish Your Role (and Priorities)
Even the best-laid onboarding plans can fail to cover everything, so during your first two months, be on the lookout to establish what your role entails; what you need to do and when.
By the second month, you will be more familiar with your daily, weekly and monthly recurring and new tasks.
It is during these inaugural months that you should aim to look out for any strategies you can adopt to help you manage your workload or to pick up best-practice tips for your role. If you notice that two tasks seem to overlap each week, or that you sometimes don’t have the right information from a colleague to complete a specific job, bring it up with your manager in this initial period.
During this first 60-day period, you should also plan and set deadlines for the activities you will need to complete to deliver on your key priority tasks.
Think about –
- What are the goals of the organisation as a whole?
- How can you contribute towards the success of these goals?
- What is the goal of your specific role within your department?
- What can you do every day to help positively influence these goals?
Reach out to Your Team
As a recruiter of Tech talent, I always ensure the candidates I place are a great fit, culturally, for the organisation. There is no point in a candidate taking a role they are more than qualified for but in an organisation where they won’t fit in with the pace and the style of working.
Hopefully, both you and the hiring manager will have identified if you are the ‘right’ fit for the team you have joined, this will make your working relationships so much easier.
Of course, you don’t have to make great friends with all of your new colleagues, but you will likely have some shared interests – a love of tech, for example.
It can be hard to remember everyone’s names when starting a new role – it’s a good idea to keep a careful note of the names of people in your team, plus the wider organisation, in your phone or personal notepad.
Learning people’s names enables you to fit into the role and start making an impact at a faster pace; your manager will notice if you are on first-name terms with your team quickly; they will view you as an integral and influential part of the team.
Take Note of Your Development Areas
No-one hits the ground running in a new role, even if it’s an area of Tech you’re familiar with.
Your new manager might ask you to identify areas you wish to develop – development plans usually span the one month, 3-month, 6-month and 1-year timeframe.
It might, however, be the case that in your new role, you are left to your own devices.
It is essential in your new role that you make some of your own development goals; being able to demonstrate growth in the first 60 days will prove that you are on a great development trajectory.
To do this, write down a couple of areas which you would like to work on, perhaps you are working with a new Tech system or process which you aren’t familiar with. For example ‘I’m not very familiar with this CRM, but in two months, I want to be able to understand the basics of the system to a good standard’. You can then present this self-motivated development to your manager during your next review.
Next Steps
Securing a new Tech role is an exciting time in your career, but it is becoming more difficult for great candidates to get in front of the right employers.
If you are looking for a new Tech or cybersecurity role in the Middle East and you need help from the experts on how to secure a great new position, we can help.
Thanks,
About Flow Talent
Flow Talent have been sourcing the best Banking, Technology & Financial Services professionals locally and internationally for leading organisations across the Middle East region since 2018.
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