We recently interviewed a fellow recruitment colleague on the expectations that he had when he started out his career. He had the impression that he would go and hit the ground running, but after a couple of months he realised it may not be as easy as he first thought. This is what got us thinking about the importance of learning to walk before you can run!

DON’T OVERESTIMATE, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE - BE REALISTIC.

Who really knows what we are capable of better than ourselves? Before going into any new role you should ask yourself if you can be 100% certain of your abilities to perform in an environment that is perhaps foreign to you. Or do you have to give it time and adjust to these new surroundings before you can be truly confident in your ability to excel?

READY TO CONQUER THE WORLD.

A fresh start, a new adventure can make us feel that we are ready to take on and conquer the world. It is important to not get ahead of ourselves – and take a step back and ask yourself whether you are ready for this. Are your expectations realistic? Do you have a long-term goal in place along with the steps to achieve these goals? Yes by all means have big dreams, but also be realistic when it comes to working towards these dreams. We all hear about overnight success stories, it does and can happen, but on average it takes 10-20 years of hard work to really see the fruits of our labour!

OTHERS BELIEVE IN YOU, SO SHOULD YOU!
With a new challenge in front of you it is important to keep a clear head, and not let the situation cloud your judgement. You can do anything you set your mind to, never lose sight of your end goal and always remember ‘you can do this’. Just getting a new job in itself should give you enough confidence as someone other than yourself has faith in you – your employer has put their trust in you, let that be your starting point!

DON’T SET YOUR SIGHTS TOO HIGH, TOO SOON.

Walking before you can run, in this context, means that you should not set your sights too high, too soon! It is all too common to go into a new job and realise how successful others are within the company…but success takes time and a lot of hard work. What is the likelihood of anyone going into a job and becoming a Manager within a matter of months? Not very likely at all! We all need to think about what we can bring to an organisation and not just what the role can do for us. Think about your strengths and the areas you need to work on. Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years? As time goes on the answers to these questions will more than likely change. We would be naïve to think we can be the best of the best without putting in the work to get there, so we need to go back to basics, bit by bit, step by step we can all achieve greatness! What do we need to do to excel? To achieve our goals? We need to work hard! We need to focus! We need to motivate ourselves daily to be at the best of our game! We need to never lose sight of the end goal, regardless of what obstacles may be put in our way! Being around successful people every day should motivate us, not deter us in any way. Everyone at the top of their game started as the ‘newbie’ at some point, day after day they grafted and pushed themselves to get to the top, so what is stopping us from doing the same!? Absolutely nothing!

MASTERING YOUR SKILL.

Take baby steps, master the basics, become an expert in your field and then work, work, work! There are a number of different theories based on how long it takes to become a master of any skill-including that of Malcom Gladwell, journalist and author of the best seller ‘Outliers’. According to Gladwell it takes 10,000 hours of practice to do this! Once you have mastered the skills it is up to you to utilise them to your best advantage, apply them to your work life, daily life, home life, anywhere that can benefit you and help you on your road to success! There is a simple, yet very relevant saying we should all be aware of ‘perfect practice makes progress!’ and it is true!

FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL.

Always have a plan in place. What is it that you want to achieve by the end of the working day? Prioritise your time working efficiently and effectively and have your contingency plan in place for those ‘what if’ situations! Stay focused, be consistent and remember there is a solution to every problem. By working towards a daily goal, no matter how small, you are one step closer to achieving your big dream! Every new day is our opportunity to do better than the previous day, every day we are one step closer to our dreams, yes this may take months, or even years and it will be something we have to work at daily to maintain, but reaching that end goal will be more than worth it! Working your way up may seem daunting and it will take time but keep in mind your vision, your dream, your goal – step-by-step you can and will get there! Celebrate each personal milestone, dream big, think realistic, work hard and we can all achieve greatness!

How did you find starting out in Recruitment? Did you take small steps? Or dive in at the deep end?