Out of all the people you will meet during your first week, the most important relationship you need to establish is the one you have with your boss.
“A very high percentage of people will leave their jobs because of the relationship with the boss,” Schwartz said.
To build that foundation of trust between you and your boss, you need to align your communication style and get on the same page about what’s important.
Ideally, your boss is checking in with you during your first week to have that conversation. But if they are not, you should proactively ask for a one-on-one meeting before the week is over.
“A lot of times bosses don’t reach out because maybe they just got busy, they didn’t hear from you or they’re managing a lot of people,” Abbajay said. “But this is why you should not take that as a sign that they don’t want to talk to you.”
Here are strategic questions career experts previously told HuffPost that you should ask your new boss to understand them better:
- What’s the best way to approach you with a question?
- How would you like to communicate day-to-day and week-to-week?
- What work, project or priority is top-of-mind for you right now?
Observe if you get lukewarm or enthusiastic support for your questions. Managers are evaluating your early performance, and you should be too.
The first week is “so much information. It’s really overwhelming,” Schwartz said. To learn what’s important, she suggested taking notes about how staff talk about their jobs and your experience being there, or debriefing with a friend to get a second opinion.
She also said you should reflect on whether your manager is playing their part or if more of the responsibility to get up to speed keeps falling on you.
“Usually the first few months [are] often a probationary period. So the employee also is determining, ‘Is this a good match for me?’” Schwartz said.
By asking the right questions and paying attention to the culture of your new company, you can figure out if your new job is or isn’t a good fit sooner rather than later.
This post originally appeared on HuffPost.
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