This article is written as part of my Recent Graduate Series; however, even if you aren’t a recent graduate, the insights below regarding job success are universally applicable.
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My first job out of university was not actually in my field of study. I had moved to Toronto to land a job in finance, and three weeks later found myself working at a small advertising technology startup. I had a blast working there, made friends for life, and was inspired by the founders to pursue my own entrepreneurial path. Looking back, I see now how life-changing that job was for me.
I must admit, though, that while I worked hard there, I was totally winging it and had little understanding of how to be successful in an organization. Hard work is certainly an integral component of long-term success, but there are also strategies you can follow to make your contribution more impactful, your role in the company more meaningful, and your success more likely.
The Product
When I was 18 years old, I worked in a jeans store in a mall. Possibly because I was a part-time employee, management felt I didn’t need to go through robust onboarding and training. The consequence: I knew almost nothing about the jeans I was selling. I only knew the sizes, cuts, and colors: the absolute basics to do bare-minimum sales. Now that I have management experience, I reflect back on that time and realize that if I had known more about the jeans – where they were made, what materials went into making them, what the competitive products were and the respective advantages and disadvantages – I would have been more successful. I would have been much better equipped to understand what matters to a customer and to show them how our products were the best choice for their lifestyle.
Over the years I have had the privilege of observing the career growth of hundreds of people. One of the best predictors of success (and this is something I tell all new people who join our company) is a deep understanding of the product, how it works, and how it solves the problems faced by the customers.
When you join a new company, overinvest in learning the product (or service) inside-out. Make it your goal to become and remain a product expert. Keep up with the latest updates, learn new use cases, and seek opportunities to share that knowledge with others.
The Customer
The concept of “product-market fit” highlights the importance of both the product and the customer. Building on the point above, the customer is the second part of the equation: knowing who they are and why they choose (or don’t choose) your product is critical if you’re going to discover ways to create value for them.
Back to my experience selling jeans: if I had been better supplied with company-wide demographic and psychographic data about our ideal customers and which SKUs they tended to buy, I would have been better equipped to successfully suggest products well-suited to each customer. Customer-centric service of this sort builds loyalty among your customer base and generates greater lifetime value for the business.
Try to gather as much information about the customers as possible. Learn it and use it to better show how your products solve their problems!
The Team
Unlike a sports team, which has a predictable structure and division of responsibilities, a company can be infinitely more complex. No company is exactly the same as any other, and it takes time to understand what teams or employees a company contains, what their mandates are, and how they work together. Having a deep understanding of how teams work together to create and deliver value to the customer is a critical requirement for anyone in a management role. If you are looking to grow into such a role, be sure to continuously invest time and energy to learn how the company works.
Just like a sports team, a company is a team. And in a team, no one succeeds alone. Overinvest in building relationships with your new colleagues – not only with people you work with on a daily basis but also with people from other departments. Doing this will accelerate your understanding of how the company works and allow you to tackle more challenging projects that require support and involvement from many departments.
Invite a random person from your team for a virtual coffee (send them a Starbucks card – it will go a long way) and make that connection!
The Manager
Invest in the relationship with your new manager from day one. You don’t need best friends, but you do need to have a productive, positive relationship to be effective at getting your work done.
Here is a great tip from Jason Lemkin from SaaStr:
If I could time travel back to when I was 18, I would tell myself to sit down with the manager and seek to better understand their priorities and their challenges. And I would ask the manager what I could do to make them more successful. No sensible manager would turn down that offer. Not only will this make you more effective at aligning your work with the company’s objectives, you will likely earn extra points with your manager.
Miscellaneous Insights
Here is an additional medley of insights I’ve learned that don’t fall neatly under one of the categories above:
Become a champion of the company from day one. This is not high school, and being “too cool for school” seriously limits your opportunities to represent your company to the world. To be given the chance to interview candidates, to be sent to conferences to represent the company, to host clients, and to be asked to do nearly anything outward-facing, your management needs to feel confident that you are the best candidate to promote the company. Aside from knowing all about the product and the customers, you’ve got to bring energy and enthusiasm to your job.
Work out a system to acquire and retain new knowledge. Joining a company can be overwhelming in terms of the amount of new things you must remember. Do whatever you can to increase the speed and effectiveness of your onboarding. As much as it’s on the company to offer a great onboarding experience, it’s on you to actually retain that knowledge.
Almost no one stays in one job their entire life. Plan to leave each job you have in a way that causes minimum disruption: give plenty of notice, leave documentation, and take the opportunity to solidify relationships you have formed. The business world is relatively small and your career is long. Don’t burn bridges even if it seems the thing you most want to do in the moment.
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Good luck! As always, if this advice helps you, I look forward to hearing from you. And if you’re interested in learning about opportunities at StackAdapt—ping me!
Footnotes:
Image of the post is generated using Open AI's DALL·E