From an Undergraduate to a typical employee: Here’s what they don’t tell you…

Great you secured a job offer, and you are starting your placement, huge congratulations! Next challenge is the transition. The ‘transition’ from university to work is essentially your probationary period to see if you can work in the team doing the job they need you to do (note this works both way, you don’t have to stay!).

Companies don’t tell you is how to readjust to the change of environment. A willingness to learn can be beneficial.

In this article, I will explore some aspects that change when you start working. These include the transition from studying to working and free time, housing arrangements, communication and language, prioritising the workload and teamwork and stepping up.

Studying to working and free time –

It’s easy to become accustomed to a long summer holiday after studying from the September to May. I struggled to balance the additional workload in second year, I used to think even if I did 20 minutes of studying instead of swim training, for example, I could learn something I wouldn’t have learned that day.

A placement have me an understanding of working life that demonstrates how, for most people (who aren’t teachers in schools), summer holidays don’t exist in the working world.

Studying every day at any hour changes to a schedule of working 9-5.30 (which isn’t enforced so out of self-respect consider swiftly switching off outside these hours). At work you get your evenings and weekends back (in theory). This is where you can get your work life balance and explore other interests (if you still have the energy after your working day).

Housing arrangements –

Wanting to save money I looked at house sharing and having the experience I did I recommend you check out the existing tenants to prevent any surprises. Try making a list of pros and cons of house sharing/commuting to see what would work for you.

Communication and language –

At university I picked up slang. But slang was not useful for a placement. Therefore, by being ‘professional’ I was able to portray a version of myself that others could work with. This human perception is important for gaining trust, respect and expanding your remit.

Prioritising the workload –

As a student I went from balancing writing up lectures, preparing revision materials, reading and writing coursework to as an employee, making sure I was ready for meetings, had my actions as up to date as possible, and that I was on top of my emails as much as possible.

In both cases, time is the biggest factor for how much gets done which isn’t a big surprise, but a placement helps you work more effectively as you have more deadlines. For example, working at 80% to make sure you do what you need to do and working the other 20% thinking about what’s coming up. Whereas at University there is arguably fewer consequences for not spending ‘enough’ time studying.

Teamwork and stepping up –

At university a lot of the work is independent and group work may difficult as people may not contribute equally.

However, at work teamwork is essential to work continuity, productivity and service delivery. During placement you will be working in part of a team under supervision, taking responsibility for tasks regardless of your level of interest, therefore you will need to communicate more frequently than you may have been doing at university, at times which may not suit you.

Conclusion –

Whereas in university you will be responsible for turning up to lectures and paying your rent on time, at work you will be responsible for being punctual and being on top of your workload.

Unlike university where you don’t have to build trust and respect among your peers and lecturers, you will have to do so for your teammates. Therefore, work needs you to have a range of interpersonal skills that university doesn’t necessarily prepare you for.

From a university undergraduate to (neurodiverse) employee: How to adapt to change and settle into a new environment…

Naturally with a new job there is a lot of potential change – moving to a new location, renting a different property, making new friends, moving further away from home and loosing what is familiar.

The question is what can be done to ease that transition?

In this article I will explore what an individual and what an organisation can do to ease this process.

How an individual can adapt to a new environment:

Firstly, being ready for change is going to set you up nicely for the experience of a new lifestyle and potential challenges ahead. It is normal to not have this immediately because if change was easy there would be no need for probation periods, arguably designed for people to settle in.

Remember, an organisation has a vested interested to get you settled in quickly. This is because of the time and resource already invested in finding you in the recruitment and selection process. Therefore, you should feel comforted knowing the company have your back and believe you are the best person for the job.

Personally, keeping up hobbies helped create the new bridges that would become the concrete foundations for the change ahead as well as providing multiple goals or contexts which act as insurance or reassurance when things don’t go well in one context of your life.

Upon reflection, instead of spending so much time trying to fit into the organisation I went to work for, I would have benefitted earlier on to show more empathy and ask some reflective questions that would have helped me understand my colleagues earlier and quicker than I did. 

 How an organisation can help employees adapt to a new environment:

A company would do well to exercise an open-door policy for you to speak to someone when you have any questions or doubts.

Additionally, encourage introductions among people around the business who may have similar interests ie undergraduates/graduates or through social activities. This will help new people feel like they belong in the company and will be a step closer to securing tacit knowledge, commitments and discretionary effort.

Try to be open to new ideas and willing to challenge ‘the way things are around here’ so that new employees can voice opinions in an open environment.

Host a team meal as an ice breaker and again throughout the year to act as a touch point within the team so people can see each other outside of the work environment. This may help people feel more connected and patient with one another. Therefore, the team may have higher empathy towards each other which will help for overcoming adversity.

Think about the increased cohesion if you consider offering secondment as a benefit to high performance or to add a flavour to a placement or graduate opportunity, the individual may excel and perform even better in a different role and this way top talent and specialist skills can be retained at low cost.

Conclusion:

Fitting in to a company isn’t necessarily a straight forward process, there are a lot of factors to consider but if you think you could use some help or see someone who could use some help, be confident and reach out. The only silly question is the one not asked.