Starting A New Job? Don't Just Show Up - Prepare To Stand Out!

First days are always overwhelming. If you've joined a new job recently, you know how it feels to be a completely new to an unknown place with no friends, confusing floor plans, new faces, and different management and working styles. Compound that with the fact that almost every company in today's world has a relatively high turnover, putting the people who have been at the company on edge (For example, per Business Insider, as of 2013, Google has a median tenure of 1.1 years).

You are the fresh blood being infused in the company, in a team, and the expectation is for you to be a "go-getter." And no one knows you. And you know no one. This can be overwhelming, and extremely stressful.

There are so many articles and blog posts that talk about how to prepare for an interview. No one is talking about what to do next. Just show up? No - you can do better! You can stand out from the crowd; you can gain momentum fast, infact, even on your first day, IF you are prepared. Having been through a few 'first days' myself, here's what I recommend on how to prep:

A FEW DAYS BEFORE JOINING THE JOB:

1. Job Description & Interview Notes:  Re-read your job description. When you read it initially, it was for interviewing purposes, so your context was different. You read it with a mind set of 'how would I respond to the responsibilities listed'. Now read it in context of 'how will I satisfy these responsibilities'.
   
   In conjunction, read the interview notes you took, type them up and organize them by job responsibilities.
   
   Create an org-chart.
2. 90-Day Plan: Take a stab at a 30-60-90-day plan. People who interviewed you told you all the problems they are trying to solve - the reason why they are even talking to you. Rank the problems, write down your solution to the problems, and be ready to meet with your manager to review the plan. It may all change, it may become invalid on day 2, but now you have accomplished 2 goals:
• You have started internalizing the problems and got your mind working on the solutions.
• You will demonstrate to your new management that you are someone who takes initiative. You will stand out from the crowd.
  
  (Pro Read: Many moons ago, I read the Michael Watkins book The First 90 Days (2003 edition) - when I read it, it was already obsolete - something I didn't realize at the time, so I went in to my job thinking I had 90 days to get my act together. Fifteen days in, I realized I had already lost the time to get it all together. Michael Watkins published an updated version - which I haven't read, but I am assuming it addresses the challenges I faced)
  
3. LinkedIn is your friend: Use LinkedIn to research each member of your team, your manager, your peers, and your directs. Jot down, not their skill set as much as their traits. Read the recommendations, which will tell you what makes them tick. Have that portfolio handy.  

DAY 1:

Ah the day is finally here! Nervous energy mixed with excitement, mixed with confidence - its a cocktail for exhaustion - pace yourself. Once you settle in your chair, next step is to figure out the answer to the following questions (use this as a checklist):

GETTING STARTED:

1. Do you have a project/body of work ready to go?
2. Who will you be working with? 
3. What stage is the work at?
4. What are the deadlines?
5. What is the budget?
6. How much of the budget is remaining?
7. Do the deadlines and the remaining budget feel realistic to you? 
8. Is your draft org chart accurate?
9. Do you have a meeting setup with your boss?
10. Is the expected method of communication formal or informal?

LOGISTICS:

1. Where's the bathroom? 
2. Where does your boss sit? 
3. Where does your team sit?
4. What do you need in your space to make you more efficient and motivated (plants, water bottle, family pictures, coffee mug, pens, papers, pencils, markers, highlighters, stapler etc.)
5. Who holds the key to the supplies (is it help desk, is it someone's assistant)?
6. Where's the coffee?
7. Where's the cafeteria?
8. Where's the vending machine?
9. Where are the conference rooms?
10. How do you book meetings/conference rooms?

Once you know the answers to the 20 questions up above (and obviously feel free to add more to your personal list), you will be ready to take off! 

Remember - everyone feels lost or overwhelmed, but you wouldn't be there if they didn't want you, and if you didn't like the job, so get organized, stay focused, and get going! 

The better you are prepared, the less time it will take for you to become a productive member of the team. 

Good Luck!

Weight Loss... Simplified!

Wow - I haven't published a post in a LONG time... a whole year to be exact. Well, I was busy losing some weight, so excuse me while I eat my celery. Not exactly.

I lost 35 lbs in about a year, which nets out to about 3 lbs a month, going from pant size 42+ to size 32. A year ago, I couldn't dream of fitting in any clothing that had the word "skinny" or "slim fit" next to it. Infact, my turning point came when I tried to button a brand new shirt I had bought a few months before, and to my dismay, couldn't. I went home that day and looked at all my clothes, and realized that I had belts ranging from size 32 to size 46, and every time I got bigger, I'd just go out and buy new clothes. That was the day of epiphany for me.

What followed was a few weeks of figuring out what to do. There are a million diet programs out there (Weight Watchers, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig etc.), gyms enticing you to join to lose weight, Bowflex-type infomercials where they tell you how someone lost 100 lbs in 30 days by exercising 15 minutes a day, pills, powders, rollers and doctors running their own side business touting how their patients lost weight to become and look sexy - and it is all very confusing.

Many have asked "how'd you do it?" "Did you go to the Gym?" "Did you starve yourself?" "Is you wife not feeding you anymore...?"

I generally don't answer these questions (except for the one where I tell them that my wife actually makes me cook, so I end up starving) - quite frankly, I think most people want the hear the answer but assume they are not being given the whole story.

Then there's the other matter of other desis saying things like "you need to be healthy" (translation: We like our men fat).

Well, here's the truth - I am about to "give away the secret".

Basically, it is a game of simple mathematics. And you don't even have to be good at it. Everyone's body needs x amount of calories to survive. Just survive. You wake up, you sit on your ass, you go to sleep. It's called BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). Whatever. If you actually get up off your ass, walk around, maybe even trek to work or school - your body needs BMR + the energy you spend on these activities. That is the amount of energy your body actually needs. If you eat that amount of energy (and yes, all food can be calculated in energy, its called Calories), you will stay at your current weight. If you eat more energy than you spend, your body will store it somewhere (hence resulting in weight gain). If you eat less energy than you spend, your body will need to make up that energy from somewhere within - and it will look towards the energy reserves you already have (sugar, fat, muscle), resulting in you getting thinner.

That is it. That is the key. There is a lot of hocus-pocus around this because Weight Loss is a $20 Billion industry, with over 100 Million people trying to lose weight, and if they all simply just explained this to you, you'd be doing it on your own, and they'd lose revenue!

To prove this point, let's look at Weight Watchers -
They have a point system. The number of points you can eat is based on your weight, goal, sex and age - the same exact parameters used to calculate how much energy (calories) you should be eating. THEN comes the marketing - they have celebrities telling you how amazing the program is. They have foods you can eat (laced with chemicals btw). So you spend money on their membership, their foods, and are afraid to eat anywhere else. They give you one day to eat whatever  you want - and call it a CHEAT day. Really?

Think about it for a second - eating whatever you want is called cheating. Which means, staying with them and on their program is the only reliable way for you to lose weight. Make it RAINN!

All they have done is convert the energy formula to points, and sold you a lump of coal. Now you are dependent on them and their program, their foods, and their marketing. And for that, you pay your hard earned cash.

And oh by the way, your life style has not changed at all. You become a repeat customer. Mission Accomplished.

Weight loss is not about a short term goal, its about changing your lifestyle. Its about getting into new habits, its about eating like a normal human being, but knowing what goes in, must go somewhere.

Once you figure that out, the rest is easy (well, easier).