Accepting a job offer is obviously the eventual goal of a job search. Once you’ve got the job offer in your hand and have the specifics of the new job worked out and in writing, you can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Interestingly, the first few weeks in a new job is when people tend to start thinking that they may have made a mistake leaving their previous employer.
Some people might start having trepidation about leaving their current employer before they’ve even left!
This is especially true if you were with your current employer for a significant period of time or are particularly close with your manager and co-workers. Sometimes, when it comes time to resign, it can be difficult and you wonder if it would just be easier to stay with your current employer.
Changing jobs is most likely something you’re going to do several or more times during your career. The days of a job for life tend to nothing more than a distant memory now. My dad worked for one company during my lifetime for over 30 years before retiring. I can’t imagine too many people doing that these days unless they were self-employed.
The best thing to do when you’ve got a job offer in hand and start thinking about whether or not it’s the right decision is to think about why you started interviewing for a new job in the first place. Perhaps there is something “wrong” with your current employer, maybe you’ve hit a ceiling and can’t progress any further, maybe it’s a money issue, maybe it’s the commute, maybe it’s a combination of things.
Chances are there is some reason(s) for wanting to switch jobs. There must be something that your new job and company offers otherwise presumably you wouldn’t have accepted the offer!
Once you’ve handed in your letter of resignation, you’ve pretty much cut the ties and have made it official. Chances are when you do this, you’ll start to realize that you really are leaving the company and are moving on. The next step is to confirm that you actually know all the specifics concerning your new job and more specifically, your first day on the day.
In fact, you want to ensure that you already know the answers to the following sorts of questions before you’ve resigned from your current employer:
- What is your start date?
- Who should you ask for when you arrive (Should you ask for your manager? An HR rep?)
- What time should you arrive on the first day? (People often forget this one! On your first day, perhaps they want you to arrive for a training or orientation session that is at a different time from your normal start time.)
- Where should you sit or report to? (Maybe your manager isn’t going to be in the office when you arrive so you’re probably going to want to know where you’ll be sitting or working beforehand.)
- Knowing what work you’ll be doing for the first few weeks on the job.
Having an idea as to what you’ll be doing the first few weeks on the job is an important one and is handy to know because it can help to alleviate the issue I mentioned above where people start to question their decision to take a new job after they’ve been working at the new job for a few weeks.
If you know in advance that the first few weeks on the job will see you getting to know the company, your colleagues and other members of the firm and that you won’t be expected to do anything overly strenuous, you’ll be prepared for it.
Conversely, if you’re going to be thrown in right away and will immediately be working long hours and contributing in an important way, you’ll be prepared for that too.
Either way, it’s just nice to know in advance. It just helps to prepare you for what you’re going to experience in a brand new environment amongst people you don’t yet know and who don’t yet know you. The last thing you want in a new job is a surprise.
Of course, not every job offer gets accepted. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about declining a job offer.
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