Transitioning From College to Work

As recent grads may agree, transitioning from college to the professional world is not always easy. And, we’ve all heard “you only have one chance to make a first impression”. What can you do to make sure that first impression is a good one?

1. Dress appropriately. Unless you are very conservative, office attire will be much different than what you wear when you go out on Friday night. It is always ok to ask Human Resources about proper office attire before you report for work on your first day.  
2. Be on time – for work, for meetings, coming back from lunch.Do not text or email or Facebook or Tweet while you are at work.
3. The same goes for shopping or just goofing around on the internet in general. The company is paying for your time. They deserve your full attention.
4. Be courteous of, and respectful to, everyone you work with. No one’s job is any more important than another. Everyone is valuable.
5. Do not share in office gossip. You might talk about someone only to find out they are close friends with …yes, the person you just bad-mouthed.
6. Do more than what’s expected of you. Never ever ever say “that’s not in my job description” – with body language or verbally.
7. Don’t appear too eager to walk out the door when your workday is over. I don’t mean you need to work through the dinner hour (unless that’s your assigned shift), but also don’t knock anyone down on your way out of the building.  

Not that hard. And, the payback will be well worth the effort.

“Professionalism: It's NOT the job you DO, It's HOW you DO the job.”