Robert had finally settled into his new job, but it hadn’t been easy. He felt like everything that could go wrong with his transition had gone wrong. He also realized that most of it was his own fault. Robert hadn’t thought through his transition. Things had been much more complex than he had expected, when if he’d just given it a little thought, he could have seen those things coming and prepared better to address them. Robert wished someone who’d been through a few job transitions had warned him. He knew he’d do better next time, if he had a next time, but he sure hoped that next time wouldn’t be soon. If his next job transition was soon, he was going to prepare for it as soon as he saw it coming.
Period
Think of your transition from your old job or school program to your new job as an important period in its own right. How you manage transitions in life can have a lot to do with how well you do in life. To have a smooth and helpful transition that cleans up loose ends while preparing you for the new job, give your transition some thought and planning. This chapter reminds you of some transition issues to consider and address, while giving some clues for how to address them. Expect to have more transition issues and harder transition issues than you first imagined. Plan for those issues, and arrange extra resources and backup plans in advance, in the event they arise. That way, you’ll save yourself embarrassing and disconcerting hardships along the way, smoothing and easing your transition. You want to start your new job fresh, not frazzled and weary. You also want your new employer to see how well you can manage yourself and your matters in transition.
Budget
One thing for which to plan during a job transition is your finances. As soon as you see a job transition coming, budget for it, and begin to plan and put in place the finances. First, estimate the period that you’ll have without employment income during the transition, taking your longer rather than shorter estimate. The difference between a few days without work and a few months without work is vast, when the question is your transition budget. Then, estimate the funds you’ll need to cover that period. Then, examine and plan your savings to build those funds, even if it means cutting back on other usual expenditures. If you cannot close the gap, investigate family gifts or loans, interim gap employment, and other sources. Try to avoid credit card debt to fund employment transitions. The interest costs can be enormous. Credit cards are easy for withdrawal, hard for repayment. Better to find other, less painful means.
Move
If your new job will require relocating, plan for the physical, not just the financial, move. Determine who is going and when, if you have family members moving with you. Sending family members ahead or leaving them behind for a brief period to finish their school year or while you secure housing or furnishings may help. Make a sound plan, involving family members in your planning. Also determine what is moving and when, such as pets, furniture, equipment, and vehicles. Determine viable means of getting those things there, while estimating the cost of doing so. Get quotes from moving companies, and find out how far in advance you need to schedule the move with them. Develop a budget for moving expenses. You may need that information for negotiations and agreements with your new employer to cover moving expenses.
Housing
If your anticipated new job requires relocating, treat housing as a priority contingency in your move. You must live somewhere. Determine as best you can where you’d like to live at your new location and the cost of that housing. But don’t feel as if you must immediately purchase a permanent or long-term home in your new location. Just the opposite: lean toward interim rented housing. You may not know the new area adequately to make an informed purchase of preferred housing. Even if you do know the area, you may need to live and work there in your new job for a time, to learn and adjust to commutes, shopping, schools, neighborhoods, the real estate market, and other aspects before knowing your best housing in which to live long term. Your new employment may also change. Short-term rented housing gives you valuable flexibility, even if you may be delaying by a year or so your dream of a permanent home in your new location. Budget for both interim and long-term housing, before accepting the new job. You need to know that living there is affordable.
Transportation
If your new job requires changing your locale, consider whether your transportation needs and opportunities may also change. Determine whether public or private transportation will be your means of getting to and from work and for other moving about. If you will depend on public transportation, ensure that your housing and workplace are near enough to the public routes. Will you need to acquire a motor vehicle or second motor vehicle, or sell a second motor vehicle or all motor vehicles, in your new location? Or will you need to downsize vehicles to save on commuting costs, secure a more-reliable vehicle for a longer commute, or move from a sedan to a truck for job-related transport or a van for new family needs? And is parking cost and availability a concern at your new downtown job? Budget for transportation costs in your new locale.
Family
If your new job requires changing locale, also consider the impact on your family and help your family members plan accordingly. If your spouse is employed, the two of you will need to ensure that the move accommodates your spouse’s job plans, too. If you have children at home, then their daycare, preschool, or schooling may be a primary concern. Investigate options before committing to housing so that your children are in your preferred school district or near enough the school or preferred daycare and preschool providers. Keep your family members involved in family decisions on housing, schools, transportation, lifestyle, and other things that most affect them. Remember that the move is not all about your job or even primarily about your job. It is instead about improving your family’s circumstances and outlook.
Starting
Your employer’s offer letter should have indicated a start date or range of start dates for you to choose, unless the employer communicated that information in your interview or by other means when tendering the offer. Some employers have urgent needs to fill a position, while others may have reasons to delay a start date for a period. In either case, the employer should communicate that expectation. Otherwise, if no one communicated a start date, you should expect a relatively brief period for transition. The employer may also expect you to let the employer know how much time you need. In that case, plan and choose wisely. Don’t be overly optimistic about your ability to make the move and start, nor project more time than you truly need. Make your best estimate, and listen closely to the employer’s reaction, adjusting accordingly if needed or wise.
Orientation
Expect a period of orientation at your new workplace, introducing you to personnel and processes. Engage fully in your orientation. You are no longer a candidate but instead an employee. Take notes, ask questions, and be sure that you understand what your new employer is showing you. You need and want to get off on the right foot. Employers can make significant judgments, positive or negative, about new employees within the first few days of employment, affecting assignments, supervision, resources, and other terms and privileges of employment. You want those first few days to be all good days. Your new employer may require that you undergo training including on-site, off-site, or remote video classroom-style education. Generally, employers must compensate for training time, where they control the training content, hours, and conditions. You may, though, also benefit from studying your employer’s manuals and materials on your own time. Once again, first impressions and early impressions can have outsized influence on your job opportunities, evaluations, and security at your new job.
Credentials
Be aware as early in the recruiting, hiring, and orientation process as possible of any credentials you may need to begin your new employment. If you need a state or local license or certification that you do not have, even though you have an equivalent license or certification in your home locale, you may be able to work on a temporary basis in your new job under state or local regulations for employees in transition. But find out, and ensure that your new employer remains closely involved in your credentialing. If it turns out that you face weeks or months of delay before acquiring the credential you need to work in the role your employer offered you, you need your employer to know and approve of that delay, from the get-go, as early as you learn of it, preferably pre-hire. You and your new employer should have addressed credentialing time and costs in your negotiations over your hiring.
Navigation
Navigating your new job may take significant adjustment, compared with the job you left, especially if you’re in a new field. The customs, conventions, culture, and norms can be subtly or starkly different from field to field. Things can also differ a lot from employer to employer within a field. One way to conform more adroitly to a new work culture is to discern its level of formality. Formal culture stands on hierarchy, protocol, status, and ceremony. You don’t go doing your own thing in your own way in a workplace with a highly formal culture. Constantly consult and conform if your new workplace involves formal culture. By contrast, informal culture operates instead on competence, familiarity, community, and trust. An informal workplace may expect and permit you to just get the job done without substantial concern for conformity. Find mentors in your workplace as quickly as you can, and let them guide you in navigating your new employment. Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut, while extending grace to all around you, not just superiors but also subordinates. Avoid cliques and factions trying to recruit another member to their cause.
Attitude
Throughout your job transition, keep in mind the condition in which and attitude with which you want to start and should start your new job. Don’t start your new job stressed by the transition and anxious, concerned, or weary. Plan to be as rested, excited, inspired, hopeful, and positive as possible. Your transition will challenge you to some degree. Change can be disruptive, confusing, disorienting, and hard. But stay positive. Banish unduly negative and obsessive thinking. Express to yourself, your family members, your new employer, and others a sense of gratitude for the new opportunity. Avoid taking on other extra commitments that might tire and distract you, until you adjust to the new job and have the new job under control.
Break
If you don’t feel ready and excited for your new job, and reasonably rested and refreshed, then consider taking a break before you start your new job. Transition periods may be the only significant opportunity you have, other than brief vacations, to recharge, travel, or get something important done like addressing a health condition with surgery or other treatment. Transition periods may also be the only time you can get something necessary or helpful done like repair or improve your home, or just rest. If you can tell that your job transition will burden or stress you more than is good for you, then try to build in an extra few days or more for recovery and refreshment. Once you start the new job, you won’t likely find an occasion to catch your breath, at least not for several months or more. Start your new job fresh, if you possibly can. You’ll need it to adjust to your new job.
Journal
Title My Transition the next section of your Career Journal after the section on Deciding. Record all thoughts you have about your transition from your current job or schooling into your new job, as soon as you have those thoughts. Don’t wait until you receive or have accepted a job offer. Instead, record those thoughts now so that you can deliberate over them, make transition plans, and act on those plans. Budget for the transition. Give extra attention to this Transition section if your new job entails a change in your locale, so that you and your family have clear ideas about housing, transportation, your children’s schools or daycare, your spouse’s job, and other issues impacting your family. As job offers near, review and adjust your thoughts and plans on transition. Do so once again when accepting a job offer. Don’t let transition issues bark and bite you. Instead, plan, plan, plan.
Key Points
Treat your transition into a new job as its own important period.
Plan for your transition as soon as you begin thinking about a new job.
Develop a realistic transition budget and fund the budget in advance.
Plan housing, schools, and physical aspects of the move if relocating.
Secure a starting date that allows you reasonable transition time.
Start your new job rested, refreshed, and excited, with break time.
Treat the orientation period at your new job seriously as an employee.
Arrange in advance to secure necessary licenses or other credentials.
Find reliable mentors in your new job, while avoiding cliques.