The New Job Not Quite What You Expected?

You've been looking for a new job for what seems forever. You have poured over the want ads, sifted for endless hours through the online job boards, had countless telephone interviews with headhunters and networked until you feel like you've met most of the eastern seaboard. One day you get a call from someone who says all the right things, paints all the right scenarios, who seems to be on the same existential plane as you; an employer who appears to have all the right core values, both towards business direction and family balance. You uproot yourself, both literally and figuratively, and land in your new job. But what should you do if your new nirvana doesn't live up to its booking? Like the Clash asked in their hit song, you ask yourself the question, "Should I stay or should I go"? Should I weather the storm, or run screaming into the night? Should I go back to familiar waters and rejoin my old company? What do I do? I'll attempt to breach these concerns from a real world perception, and bandy hope for those who are battling this affliction of newjobitis. Let's start with the decision making that goes on once a new position appears on the horizon.

When a possible change in work environments appears in the distance, some things start to happen that begin the finalizing process; some long hard thought is given; familial powwows are convened; friends are tapped for advice; parents are sought for sage wisdom. In the end a decision is made to change companies. A decision which, by any account, was not come to easily. Consideration of leaving what you know, familiar territory as it were, can be an overwhelming task.

Giving up any kind of tenure in itself is hard, but then going someplace else and essentially started at the bottom of the pecking order, if not in title but in social knowledge base, (let's face it, it's usually not the job you may not know, but the people who help you execute it. Getting to understand them is paramount to the success of any new position.). Leaving the people you are comfortable working with can be upsetting from the point of knowing what they bring to the table, and the comradery you share. These are the minions who have helped you along the way; the way finders who have been through "the wars" with you. Then there is your boss; the person(s) who have evaluated your growth over the time you have been there. The compass for your career who has pointed you in the direction that they believed would propel you up to the next plateau. Then there is one last consideration when contemplating a job change, (yet it is by no means the least, in fact, it is generally the number one reason why people change jobs or positions), compensation. Compensation is comprised of not only your salary and any potential bonus, but also consists of all applicable benefits that you receive.

But, let's face reality; if you're looking for a new position, something in your previous,

(or soon to be previous), company is dysfunctional. Maybe your compensation is not what you need to "get by", or, your boss(es) are unbearable to work for in some fashion, or, your co-workers are non-supportive to the extent that your job is much more difficult than it needs to be, or, maybe it's some combination of all of these events. It could even be a lifestyle change that initiates your move, (divorce, marriage, foreclosure, death, etc.). In any event, you've decided to change companies and irregardless of the consequence, you've committed yourself to change!

Now, you start with your new company, and the first few weeks are pretty much on par for your expectations. New colleagues, new practices, new procedures, but something seems amiss in your new digs. You start to notice little things that are not as were portrayed during your hiring process. Your atypical day is not the traditional 9-5 as it were, but more like 8-5, or 8-6 or more! The training that you were assured of receiving is more of"catch as catch can" retrieval. The friendly people who greeted you on day one are now the hungry wolves who await you each day, seemingly waiting to flail the flesh from your body, one inch at a time. You expected a transition period to get yourself up and running, but you also expected a little help along the way. Where you may have once been the lion in your old company, you are now the lamb, waiting to be fleeced, or even devoured!

There should be a few sanctions you place on yourself before reacting to any real or perceived negativity concerning your new job. I call them the 5 sanctions of new job survival. They are:

1) Believe in yourself! You obviously have a skill set and some personality that got you in the door, use them. Even if you can't wow em' with your social graces, stay focused on your knowledge base, it will get you through.

2) Give it time! You can't base a life change, (let's face it, a new job is a life change) over the course of a few weeks. You need to give a job at least 1 year to give it a fair evaluation. This time frame allows you to see cycles of the job, time to get to know your co-workers, see your benefits at work, and finally see how the evaluation process works for you, (there are exceptions to the 1 year sanction, but each person needs to evaluate that on his or her own).

3) Remember, you left your old company for a reason! Whatever those reasons were, they drove you out the door. Don't put yourself in a position to repeat the same mistakes again. They may even call you and ask you to come back, but don't, you'll only drudge up the old frustrations again.

4) Talk to friends and family! If they were part of your decision making to change jobs, they may be just the right conduits you need to keep yourself on track and keep a real world perspective. Even if they weren't part of the original process, their perceptions of your situation could help from the "outside looking in" mode.

5) Make a friend at work! Nothing will help with the acclimation of a new job better than a new friend. They don't have to become your social right arm, or even your best drinking buddy, but they may become your professional therapist when you need to understand things or people in your work environment. Who is better to help you than someone who has already been through what you are experiencing?

Change can be very stressful, even more so when entering into the unknown. We search and pander for the right career opportunities, sometimes landing where we want, other times landing on our backsides. We take, what we believe, every precaution to net the perfect position, and sometimes we succeed. Other times, we land a white elephant, and find out that the old axiom is true that, "the grass is not always greener on the other side". Still other times we find ourselves committed to a new venture and because of family obligations, (health benefits, etc.), we become Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea" character, wearing an albatross around our neck.

No matter how much prep goes into a job search, in the end, it's still a crap shoot. Gambling with your livelihood and the well- being of your family can have serious repercussions, but can also have generous rewards. Most people have some doubts about new jobs after some time in position; the trick is to understand what issues are part of growth and which ones are some sort of self fabrication. Remember, a new job is a little like life, it doesn't always go the way we planned, or the way we hoped it would be scripted, it only becomes what we make it, and that depends solely on you.