8 Ways to Onboard Yourself Into a New Job

There's a cautionary tale going around TikTok about a girl who was fired on her 6th day of employment. There are a lot of opinions about WHY this happened and perhaps we'll never know for sure. But one POSSIBLE reason is that some environments, especially at small organizations, are "self-starter." No one has time to put together training or even tell a new employee how to help. The best employees just magically START making an impact.

I have been here. Both on the employee side and employer side.

So, I've detailed specifically what kinds of things a self-starter will actually DO in a job where there is very little to no onboarding materials.

1. You must FULLY explore the resources provided to you.

The way we navigate the internet has made the consumption of internal documents follow that same behavior, but you need to think about it differently. Although you likely NEVER click into a link which dives further into a concept when you're on a random article online, you MUST do that when onboarding.

There is nothing more frustrating than sending someone to read an article and they ONLY read the article. Most internal articles link to a bunch of other resources. One two page article with 20 links and 3 videos, which each have 20 links and videos, should take hours, if not days to consume and absorb, not 20 minutes.

Find the END of each path. Go to the ends of the earth. On everything that IS there. But just consuming is not enough - you must retain. And in order to do that you must...

2. Take COPIOUS notes

As you're consuming, use this chart to take notes:

Track what you're consuming, what you're learning and what confuses you (labeled "Wait, what?" in the above example) and either send to or review with your boss daily.

The next few tips are how you'll fill out the "resolution" column.

3. Search through folders and your intranet

Most trainings will reference internal "things." Maybe it's a client. Maybe it's a way of thinking or doing a task. A book the VP who wrote the article really loves. Try to learn more about these things via your internal resources.

For example, if you're new to an industry or position and don't understand all the acronyms, you could search one of them, like ICP above, in your internal systems to see what kinds of references are made to the term throughout things like past company meetings, customer-facing decks, etc.

If you're in a professional services capacity, go look at client folders and decks to see what was sold to the client and how we have presented to them in the past. Compare it to other clients.

Poke around. Absorb.

4. Google it ... for the love of all that is holy.

And of course, especially with acronyms, Google terms you don't understand.

Easy, right? Yes, the easiest.

Yet, the lack of "Googling it" is truly insane. Has been for as long as I've been teaching people things.

5. Ask Someone

Your "Copious notes" step sets you up for SO MANY good things.

a. For starters, it just makes you look like a boss. It SHOWS you aren't just going through the motions, but actually taking the task of onboarding seriously.

b. When it comes to things like acronyms, if they aren't already somewhere, they just should be. So your documentation of them should mean you can quickly go through and update where they aren't spelled out. Depending on the vibe of your organization, you should be able to do just this or ask for permission and likely quickly get it. This is day 1 value.

c. Where you still have outstanding questions, use your early 1:1 time your boss, or an HR person, or a peer (spread your question-asking love*) to ask.

*Spreading who you ask questions in and of itself is SUCH an undervalued strategy. First, it widens the number of people that you can engage with and SHOW your awesome work to. Second, if you do feel like you "should know" certain things and "feel stupid" asking, it spreads it out so you aren't asking 20 questions you think you "should know" to one person, but 5 to one, 5 to another, etc.

6. Listen to calls

Ideally your org has Gong or Chorus so you don't have to wait to join live calls AND you can listen at 1.5x speed AND AND you can go back and review areas that confuse you. Again, as you're listening, take those copious notes and use your same resolution and next steps.

7. Watch over a shoulder

Chiefs of Staff will commonly learn their new CEO (or other exec) in this manner. They'll pay attention to the things they do and say, of course, but also the WAY they execute. How much time they spend on certain areas. What seems to be more important and less. Do they hit Slack more than email? Prioritize texts?

If you truly have NO documents or recordings to review, use the copious notes template to watch, notate and then do research.

8. Ask why

Eventually, you can observe and consume all day, but TRUE knowledge will come from understanding what's happening in peoples' brains. Using the assumption laid out at the beginning of this article that this is a company where folks are extremely strapped for time, you may need to CREATE opportunities to grab their time.

Start with on-the-clock options. Try to setup meetings. Ask questions while they wait for their coffee from the machine. But if they just don't have the time, don't be afraid to offer them coffee, lunch or happy hour to ask your questions.