Vade Mecum for Fresh Employees

The anxiety of moving forward in life to a new phase where everyone is all in for themselves. You cant judge if you were a hire to replace someone or are about to. Is your hiring even a political move? If I have infused anxiety in you then I expect you'll read ahead as well. For most of the times we see new fresh graduates being mistreated. It could be through using a few simple abbreviations or jargon that are condiments to the work place but flaunted as knowledge to make new joiners feel uncomfortable and dumb. The first rule to fool you, is to make you believe your a fool. Most of the time they are given a fake bait to hire at a much lower market value. However, this evil character played by employers is through deficiency of knowledge and ample anxiety of the applicant. I've listed a few things in this article that should be every graduate's radar.

• Never sign an Employment Bond

A common practice we see by companies is that they try to retain talent through obligation of contract rather retain them through rewarding them for their talent. You would always be told that an employment bond contract doesn't hold any value. In reality, its illegal for a company to compel you to work for a certain defined years. If it doesn't hold any value then why would the companies want you to sign the contract? The reason being, its a bargaining chip that would be used if you ask for a letter of recommendation or demand a letter of experience. In anyway, they could use the contract in their own benefit. Always demand for logical reasoning behind the employment contract and with a few homework done right, you can stand strong on your ground as well. If the company is investing in you and demands amount exhausted upon the training upon your resignation , then its an entirely different story. Rejecting a bond is

(This is in reference to Pakistani Job Market, Labor laws might vary in different countries.)

• Always consider an offer letter in hard copy with all stipulated conditions.

A soft copy of the letter would do the work as well but a thing in writing holds the most value of all. Promises within a conversation start there and end there. Never take anyone's word until you have any physical evidence in hand. Most probably when your joining an organization your more likely switching to another, so taking the leap on someone's word word is certainly not advisable. Moreover, recruiters talk in terms of ranges rather in definite terms to get the fish in the bait. Once your hooked to their fake deals, they will quickly reel you in with a fake urgency of filling the position. What I mean by ranges are that they wont give you a proper numbers for everything. For example, they'll say we offer 50,000 to 100,000 to our managers. As being self biased humans, we would expect to fall on the beneficial extreme end rather in reality we always fall on the minimum end. The implicit message received by you would be entirely different. Whenever negotiating, try to get everything in writing to keep yourself in a safe spot. This may seem as a bold move but wouldn't bother an employer who has to offer you what he promised you.

• Always know your value (Monetary and Social)

Its not school anymore, you wont pushed or pampered by anyone here. Its very rare to find a helpful boss that would actually allow you to grow and provide you with a proper platform. If you even have a good boss, you might not end up with good colleagues that would allow you to grow and stand with them. Try to follow whats the norm in the workplace. People will try to pull your leg and you may even find amazing people in your workplace but at the start being vigilant is more rewarding. People will try to shoot you down by treating abbreviations as the eternal knowledge to make you feel less confident. In anyway, don't let anyone make you feel less competent.

Moreover, if your not trained for the job, then don't demand above the par. If your equipped with required essential skills then don't undersell. Don't fall for promises of promotions within a year, once your in the system, you wont be in position to negotiate and would be exploited most likely.

• Try staying silent for months and observe for 6 months without any judgement.

Ants might seem as the most powerless of all beings but there are a few lessons that we can pick up from them. Ants are really good at navigating there environment to increase their chances of survival. If you dig into there strategies, you wont be left astounded. There quite plain and simple, such as they use panorama view whenever they enter a new environment. They don't jump into an environment.

As new employee, you should be careful of your surroundings and try to keep your opinions safeguarded until you understand the people around you. There might be some sensitive topics for the recipients that you might not feel as much as sensitive. Variance of tolerance among people should be taken into considerations. Some people of the team might be overburdened and in reaction they might be venting out there aggression. Whatever the situation is, give it time and use a panoramic view. These few months in the start is a golden period for learning as you'll be tossed around everywhere for work and you would have zero baggage against everyone. Work expected from you won't be high importance or urgency. You would be relaxed and would be able to understand your team much better than ever.

• Try understanding the business function and every department's function

This is more relevant to support departments involved in the business but it goes the other way around as well. Understanding the business function doesn't exclude the support functions but actually adds them to the lot. If your a new fresh graduate in the production side, then you should personally push yourself to learn marketing or sales as well in the company. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be a marketing guru, but you should have gist of the work. Reason being, if you understand the business holistically, you would be able to converse and purpose fine tuned ideas with everyone on board. There would be less friction among the departments.

The best opportunity to learn and move ahead is at start. Being a clean slate, a person would be able to pick up things much more quicker and better then people who have baggage of their departments. Environment shapes and forms our opinions in similar ways. If we have an holistic view, we will be able to understand in a better manner.

The last but not least, try to adapt and work accordingly. For some individuals, all these pointers might even be unrelatable or simply useless. We can cannot compress subjective experiences in few pointers but we can find the common grounds to address the issue. You might even land with a good environment and picture perfect to your personality. In either way, be prepared for the worse and hope for the best.