The First 90 Days in Your New Job

Do you want to have a successful start in the first 90 days in your new job?  Here are some ideas to help you achieve success during that critical time in working for a new company.

In the book “The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter,” Michael Watkins writes about the situations an executive should focus on when beginning a new job.

“Transitions are a critical time for leaders.  In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face.  While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability.  Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success.”

The 30-60-90-Day Plan for Jobs and Job Interviews

6 Steps to Success in the First 90 Days

My Personal Experience

When I went from Procter & Gamble to Polaroid, I made similar adaptations.  The products I sold at Procter & Gamble had different sales cycles than the products I sold and at Polaroid.  Procter & Gamble’s products are fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG): toothpaste, laundry detergent, facial tissue, beauty aids, etc.  At Procter & Gamble, one month was similar to the next month.  Consumer buys these products at the same rate year round.

At Polaroid, I was selling seasonal products.  Summer travel season was an important period for sales.  The winter holiday season was the largest sales period for Polaroid.
The sales team sold seasonal film orders in the spring for shipment in the summer.  They sold cameras and film in July for shipment from August through November.  As the holiday season approached, the sales team would make additional rounds through their territory to sell film.

Retailers sold as much Polaroid film in one day in December as they sold the entire month of January.  The transition for me required adapting to different selling cycles and new methods of projecting sales.

Are you interviewing with the wrong company?  Use these follow tips to avoid your time to avoid wasting your time.

As the owner of a recruiting firm, I worked with applicants who dealt with troubling issues during the interview process.  Here are some of the things I learned from my experience in helping these applicants

The company location is unsafe.

In major metropolitan areas, office and factory spaces are expensive.  In an attempt to keep costs in line, some companies locate their offices in inexpensive locations.  In major metropolitan areas, the less expensive locations are often in high crime locations.  I have had three clients whose offices were inside chain link fences that had barbed wire on the top.  Even though these companies had highly recognizable brands, the companies were small and the cost of safe locations was a challenge to their bottom line.

If you do not believe that the location is safe, you need to ask yourself whether you are interviewing with the right company.

The interviewers fail to keep their commitments.

In some cases, interviewers have valid reasons for cancelling an appointment, and they explain those reasons to you.  An easy way to handle the situation is to show understanding and simply reschedule.

However, sometimes failing to keep commitments is a red flag.

• The interviewers cancel appointments without attempting to reschedule.
• The interviewers cancel appointments more than once.
• The interviewers completely fail to call you or to meet with you without calling to cancel or reschedule.

Interviewers take calls during your interview, or they allow people to come into their office to interrupt your interview.

This type of behavior is a sign that the interviewer is not interested in you or, perhaps, simply does not respect your time.

Remember that the way an interviewer handles an interview is a sign of how a company deals with its employees.  This behavior is uncommon, but when it has happened, applicants have often complained to me about it and rightfully so.

The company withholds details on benefits and salary range during the interview process.

The company benefits and compensation are confidential information.  For competitive security issues, companies must protect the details of their operations.  However, to avoid wasting their own time and the applicant’s time, the best interviewers provide general information on benefits and compensation.  Often, companies include information on benefits and compensation on the job description.

Whenever I talked with an applicant about their job interviews, I always asked the applicant what the interviewer had said about next steps.  Based on this information, I could know whether the person had passed or failed an interview.

If the interviewer scheduled another interview before the applicant walked out the door, the applicant had a successful interview.

If interviewers summarized by saying they needed to compare notes before reaching a decision, the applicant very likely had an excellent interview.

If the interviewer told applicants that they were speaking with several applicants and would get back to the applicants in a few weeks, I knew that the applicants had very likely failed the interview.

5 Interview Questions Hiring Managers Must Avoid

I am not a lawyer.  I am a writer and corporate recruiter.

It is illegal for an employer to base a hiring decision on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.  An employer can’t ask whether a person is a citizen.  However, employers must verify that all employees are eligible to work in the United States.

If you are interviewing for a job and the employer asks you a question about one of those factors, you may find yourself in an awkward spot.  You can always ask the interviewer what the question has to do with the qualifications of the job.  You may also ask yourself whether you want to work for a company that would ask you any of those questions.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency that oversees employment discrimination.  (1)

“The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to discriminate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.”

The guidelines from The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission specifically lists the laws pertaining to the factors that are illegal requirements for consideration for employment. (2)

• “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;
• The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination;
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older;
• Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, and in state and local governments;
• Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government;
• Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), which prohibits employment discrimination based on genetic information about an applicant, employee, or former employee; and
• The Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.”

However, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires that all employers verify their employees’ legal status to work in the United States.  The specific method of verification comes from the requirement of all employers to complete the following form for all of its employees. (3)

“Form I-9 is used for verifying the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must ensure proper completion of Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and noncitizens. Both employees and employers (or authorized representatives of the employer) must complete the form. On the form, an employee must attest to his or her employment authorization. The employee must also present his or her employer with acceptable documents evidencing identity and employment authorization. The employer must examine the employment eligibility and identity document(s) an employee presents to determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the employee and record the document information on the Form I-9. The list of acceptable documents can be found on the last page of the form. Employers must retain Form I-9 for a designated period and make it available for inspection by authorized government officers. NOTE: State agencies may use Form I-9. Also, some agricultural recruiters and referrers for a fee may be required to use Form I-9.”