[Careers Foundations, with Dan Gorgone]

[Professional Development - Deep Dive]

It's a great feeling to get that call from a prospective employer

and hear that you got the job.

It can be a crazy mix of emotions.

Sense of success, joy, redemption, and, most of all, relief.

But now it's time to get to work.

But getting the job is just the beginning of your journey ahead.

Your career path still lies before you.

So it's important to take the right steps with your new job.

Every company is different,

requiring you to get acclimated to a whole new culture.

How you interact with other employees, other departments,

managing your tasks, and communicating with others

often determines how successful you'll be.

You may have to change some of your personal habits

or the way that you get things done, but in the end,

don't feel like you're abandoning your individuality.

Being a team player means adapting to the situation

while still bringing the best that you have to offer.

>>Professionalism is very important in any job you do,

whether it's your first or last, and the reason why is

you can be fun to work with, you can be creative,

but if you're not a professional at what you do,

no one will want to work with you.

So to me, professionalism doesn't mean wearing a suit.

Or speaking a certain way or driving a certain car.

It means are you serious about what it is you do.

>>What really matters are finding the people

with the right personality and right attitude.

So every company has its own culture.

And you need to find people that fit in with that culture.

That kind of have the same outlook on life.

Not the same types of people. You don't want everybody to be a clone of one another.

But kind of have the same attitude towards work,

the same attitude towards business, and that kind of stuff.

>>If you've done nothing but hacked code on your own,

working in teams will offer an environment full of opportunity.

Not only can you discover the skills and talents of others within your company,

but you should take the time to dust off those networking skills

and get to know your team members as well.

Networking internally can help you discover opportunities

to work on interesting projects with talented people.

And sometimes all it takes is a conversation to get things started.

Your new company may rely on specific work flows and strict deadlines.

However, working under pressure doesn't mean rushing

and doing as much as you can in the shortest amount of time.

It's about time management.

>>Well, early on in my career, I didn't have a very good work-life balance.

It was really hard to kind of nail down for me.

But early on in your career, you do have to pay your dues,

and you have to work more than maybe that's ideal.

I would go to work for nine hours, and I'd come home and do freelance

or school work or just projects to further my career.

Since then, I've kind of found a way to balance it out,

where I actually dedicate a certain amount of time per week

to work on new fun projects.

So I think it's just—you're going to work more if you want to get somewhere faster.

So you don't have to work overtime, and you don't have to work beyond the 9 to 5,

but if you want to get somewhere sooner

and quicker and faster, and be better, you're going to have to.

>>Work-life balance as a web developer can be interesting.

There is a temptation if you're really passionate about a field

to work on it after hours, too, which kind of goes back to what I said about

putting source code on GitHub.

So you find about a really cool project, and you hack on it in your spare time.

That's great to do, but it's also pretty important to maintain

a work-life balance. But as a web developer, that's something that can get kind hairy at times.

Because, depending on your job, you might be the person that

is called when the site goes down at 2 or 3 in the morning.

So it's definitely important to maintain a work-life balance,

but it can be challenging at times.

>>Understanding how workflows and other processes within your company work

will help you understand what's expected of you.

If you want to take things to the next level

and figure out how you can make your job easier,

don't just figure out the workflow. Improve upon it.

Discovering inefficiencies is an opportunity to improve a process.

But if you can learn how to offer solutions and put them in place,

you'll have a better chance of meeting all your professional goals.

Another important part of the company to understand

is the way its people communicate with each other.

What tools or platforms are used?

Some places rely on email, while others use internal chat boards

and project-management platforms.

Get yourself up to speed, so you know how these platforms work.

And follow the conversations you need to be involved with.

When you do communicate, always be professional.

Consider each internal contact like you would a paying client.

Offer help and provide all the important details.

If you have any kind of experience communicating online,

you've probably received or sent some messages that weren't taken the right way

or understood completely.

Learn from your boss or fellow coworkers' examples.

Make note of the tone and language they use in their messages,

especially to higher-ups or external clients.

Like networking, remember that speaking with others face to face

is often the easiest and most effective way

to get certain messages across.

Besides, they may only be one desk away.

There will be many ways to show off what you can do.

And it goes beyond your coding or design skills.

If you feel you have more to share, take the initiative and offer to help.

Or speak with your boss about more ways you can use your talents

on top of your regular duties.

Just be sure to get your own job done before asking for more.