Start on the right foot

By VIKKI BLAND

With the competitive nature of today's job market, first-time employees need to be well prepared. Besides getting the required education, enterprising young people are likely to have part-time job experience and have been involved in team activities, sports or community events. Many are used to working with others and have honed their communications, interview and CV skills to a fine art.

But are their jobs well prepared for them? What's it like being the new guy - or girl - in a first job? Is the first-time employee typically treated with respect or condescension until they learn the ropes?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that depends much on the employer, and there are lessons to be learned.

One former corporate communications employee, then 24, married, and with a university degree, tells of a first-time employer who spoke to her as if she were a child. While the employer was kind, he consistently changed the wording of her written communications and assigned her a number of inane public relations exercises, including taking chocolates to mollify a cross customer.

"The job should have been perfect. But through his lack of trust and patronising manner, I left that position with little belief in my own abilities," says the former employee.

Fortunately, not all employers undermine the strengths of their first-time employees.

After a month in her first job as an office administrator with Mike Pero Mortgages, Nicola Hill, 22, feels valued and accepted.

"I have a lot to offer and I do know it's hard to find good office administrators," says Hill.

Like many young people, Hill came to her first job confident, self-aware and with "a number of odd jobs" under her belt. She says her strengths are personal and people skills.

"I love working with people. If they are angry or upset about something, I can keep calm and be helpful."

Hill says the hardest thing about being new is the need to multi-task and move quickly.

"It can be quite stressful getting things done when people need it, but it is also a good challenge," she says.

Nor is she afraid of what she doesn't know.

"If people tell me something I think I know, I listen anyway in case they say something new. They know I am happy to be taught."

Hill says young people need to be careful not to become over-qualified academically and under-qualified in personal and life skills.

"We get ourselves qualified with a whole lot of educational certificates and diplomas, yet there are a lot of life skills to learn and it sometimes takes a lot of falling down to learn those. If you have them, you can almost guarantee you'll get the job."

Anna Kemp would agree. Just 20, Kemp was promoted from receptionist to a sales support and promotions role at Auckland's More FM radio station after five months on the job.

"I sometimes think to myself: I'm still 20, but I am being given more and more responsibility at work. I think it's great, I grabbed the opportunity," she says.

A graphic communications graduate, Kemp says her job is dynamic and fun.

"There's always something happening. Now I'm in radio, I really love the media and am discovering and learning so many good things. I am heading in the promotional direction of the company and that's the direction I want to be headed in."

She says fitting in has been easy, thanks to the support of her work colleagues and management.

"Even though I haven't been there as long as the others, I am listened to and treated as an equal."

However, she says, people didn't know what she was capable of initially and were surprised at what she could do.

"[New employees] need to take everything on board and take in everything going on around them. Before, you might have been on your own and developed your own habits and ways of working. Now you have to adapt a new environment."

Like Hill, Kemp says early challenges included getting used to the pace of the job.

"Going from being a student to a full-time job ... well, the pace is different."

Getting off to a good start

* Be positive, always have a smile on your face, keep going, be good with people.

* If someone gets angry, stay calm - don't get angry along with them.

* Present well - you represent your employer by the way you dress and behave during working hours

* Show potential. They hired you for your ability to learn. Let them know you're on the right track

* Be punctual.

* Don't be continually anxious. Ask questions and create them. Your employer will be thrilled at your willingness to learn.