I’ve switched jobs — not counting freelance and contract work — twice in my career.
Three times, now, once I start my new job on Monday. My last day at my previous employee was Friday, so you can say that I love cutting things close.
Now, clearly this is an occupational hazard, but a UXer’s gotta UX, you know? So I’ve cobbled together some objectives I want to test out for my new job.
Schedule regular one-on-one catch-ups with the manager
This should probably be self-explanatory.
Earlier in my career, I was more than happy to shy away from these, believing that my work would speak for itself.
Obviously, that’s a naive belief.
I’ve also had managers who were too busy, and these sessions usually got pushed and postponed and eventually, canceled. I’ll have to figure out what to do if this situation happens again, but fingers crossed it wouldn’t!
The plan: Schedule weekly check-ins (at least for the first month), set expectations, and check in often to see if I’m missing the mark.
We go around recommending the notion of launching fast and failing fast, so why not translate that for my own development?
Get to proactively know my new colleagues
I’m a textbook introvert, and some days, I’d rather be at my desk, hunkering down on the actual work. Not to the point of being anti-social, but I’m definitely more charming on a one-on-one basis than a group of more than 30 people, staring expectantly at me.
The plan: Have lunch/coffee with at least one new person every week, unless I’m away in a project/agile team. And even then! The team will be new to me and vice versa, so it will be helpful for everyone.
The 2019-nCoV might hinder this plan if things keep escalating. We’ll see, though! I’ll still try my best.
This leads in nicely to…
Find mentors
One glaring thing that I’ve definitely lacked in my previous jobs was diversifying the mentorship I was getting.
I haven’t really branched out beyond direct management, even though I’ve always meant to find mentors outside of my team.
The plan: Identify at least three mentors within the organization, and see how I can help them with their own goals and metrics.
So, there’s that to cover for the first quarter. There will be plenty to learn as I try to hit the ground running, but it’ll be a fun adventure nonetheless.