Your first day (and week) on the job is just like being the new kid on the school playground. You don’t know anybody so you’re probably scared.  You don’t know the “rules” of the teeter-tooter (or how the coffee pot works).

You’re in a foreign land and you need to start learning the language, the little cliques, the personalities and people behind them, the rules and most importantly, where the snack table is.

It’s a nerve-wracking time because you often don’t know what the expectations are. So here are some tips for How to Navigate Your First Week on the Job:
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Someone should tell you this and it might as well be me: You haven’t “arrived.” You probably won’t ever arrive. Neither will I. At least I hope I don’t. I always want to be improving and honing my craft.

And just because you land some fancy title doesn’t mean you’re set for life or done learning or growing.

Graduation is simply the first step in a journey that’s called your professional career. Now it’s time for you to use that base knowledge and those experiences to build your career.

It means constant improvement. And if you want to make more, do more, then that means you hone your skills on nights and weekends (yes, on your own dime!).

Let me be clear: Getting better at night and weekends is an investment in yourself.

My best illustration of this is our iThemes COO Matt Danner.
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This should be implied but I’ve realized it’s not. You must:

Show up for work on time, every time, and even before time.

When in doubt, ask what the expected times are. And be early and stay later. It adds up. People see it. It shows commitment.

And by the way, just because other people on your team don’t respect this and are habitually late doesn’t mean you follow the herd.

For many of my jobs, I got in 15 minutes early (and often left 15 minutes after “quitting time”). People see that. It makes a big difference to others, especially your boss.

When you walk in consistently late, it shows a lack of respect for everyone else. That you value your time more than any other person or group’s.

Plus, the excuse that you’re “just always late,” or “can’t be on time,” like when you say it as just a fact of life that everyone should except, will not cut it in the workforce. Although some businesses are offering flexible schedules for people (like we do), when you set a time for something with another person — whether it be for a meeting, or a scheduled work time — BE THERE ON TIME and honestly, slightly BEFORE that time.

If you can’t be on time, people will start to adjust their own schedules in return. They will see sloppiness and unreliability in you. They may not offer you a spot on an important project because of your inability to respect time in all facets.

The key here is also dependability.

Can you be counted on to show up if you can’t make it to work or a meeting on time?

In organizations, we need people who can be trusted and counted on … and who value each other’s time. Not heeding this is a recipe for career disaster or mediocrity.

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This is part of the 5-minute Career Nugget series at Purposeful Paychecks. Share your best career advice here!

I might be biased in this regard, but most career professionals should have some set of basic web design and coding skills.

Although I think it’s equally useful in large corporations, if you’re in a smaller organization, where there isn’t an “IT department,” “webmaster” or someone whose primary role is to maintain the web presence, you’re going to standout.

More and more the Internet is the hub for all business interactions. Being familiar with HTML and CSS as well as content management systems, social networks and other web software will only help set you apart from others.

And basic HTML and CSS skills aren’t hard to pick up. (If I can do it, so can you!)

In fact, we’ve got a number of getting started HTML and CSS classes at WebDesign.com.

Action Steps: The best way to learn HTML and CSS (or anything else) is to use them in a real-life project. And for career pros, that means building your own blog using WordPress and then learning how to edit your design. You’re going to need to tinker and tweak your own blog or website at night and on weekends. It’s one of the most fun things I’ve learned in my career.

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This is part of the 5-minute Career Nugget series at Purposeful Paychecks. Share your best career advice here!