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    Your First Year of Work: A Survival Guide
    Your First Year of Work: A Survival Guide
    Your First Year of Work: A Survival Guide
    Ebook152 pages4 hours

    Your First Year of Work: A Survival Guide

    By Shelagh Foster

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    About this ebook

    Are you in your first job? Are you trying to find your first job? Are you stressing about entering the workplace? Are your parents stressing about you finding your first job? Shelagh Foster has seen so many people just like you, battling to get ahead once they've finished matric, college or university. This is a daunting time, but you don't need to go it alone -- let Shelagh guide you through the do's and don'ts of entering the workplace. This survival guide will give you answers to your workplace questions, and to questions you didn't even know to ask! - Write the email that gets you an internship interview - Make a great impression in an interview - Crack the unwritten codes of office culture - Know how your body language impacts on your colleagues' impressions of your performance - Win respect in written and spoken communication - Be professional, no matter how humble your role might be - Interpret the office dress code ... Shelagh will show you the ropes and set you on the road to career success.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookstorm
    Release dateAug 1, 2013
    ISBN9781920434793
    Your First Year of Work: A Survival Guide
    Author

    Shelagh Foster

    Shelagh Foster has more than 25 years’ experience in the communications industry as editor, writer and writing training strategist. She holds an Associateship in Speech and Drama (Teachers) with Trinity College London. She spends much of her time offering workplace preparedness skills to jobseekers and new employees, and is the author of Your First Year of Work.

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      Book preview

      Your First Year of Work - Shelagh Foster

      Bloemfontein

      Sending a message that’s neither heard nor understood is miscommunication.

      No matter how qualified you may be, or what industry you are entering, it can all amount to nothing if you are unable to express yourself appropriately in your workplace. If you don’t speak the ‘language’ of your colleagues or clients, you won’t be heard.

      That’s quite a thought. You might have been top of your class at school, shone brightly at varsity or college, or have the best contacts in town … but if you don’t know how to communicate appropriately, accurately and with conviction – and with your emotions under control – your career path could lead straight into a brick wall before you have even started.

      On the other hand, you might not have done so well academically, but you have some pretty impressive skills and achievements under your belt. However, who’s to know this if you don’t know how to go out there and sell yourself?

      THE WAKE-UP CALL

      Here are just two examples from real life to illustrate the impact of communication.

      The talent that almost got deleted

      Jen was a top achiever: head girl of her school and distinctions at university, with parents who both appear in Who’s Who. She was also confident of her abilities, but one would never know that from the way she initially presented herself. When she first contacted me for an internship, her email read thus:

      Hi

      I’m looking for a two month internship with your magazine. Please get back to me as soon as possibl [sic] if you have a place for me.

      Ciao

      Jen

      The email had been copied to three other companies, with no curriculum vitae (CV) attached. She had no idea what my name was; nor was there any reference to the magazines we published.

      Until that moment, I used to delete the dozens of similar emails, without taking it on myself to find out more. After all, if students and jobseekers can’t even bother to address me properly, use the spellchecker or attach a CV, then why should I bother talking to them? To make matters worse, the human resources (HR) manager of one of the other companies Jen had emailed copied her response to all the recipients, encouraging us to delete Jen’s enquiry, because ‘If she’s always this slapdash and unprofessional, I can’t imagine that anyone would want to employ her’.

      Suddenly I started feeling a little sorry for Jen. What if she was really talented but didn’t have a clue how to approach a company? What if no one had ever taught her? So I emailed her:

      Dear Jen

      I was about to delete your email but for some reason decided to give you another chance. If you really want an internship with this publishing company, I suggest you do the following:

      • Address me in person. My name is not ‘Hi’.

      • Know what titles we publish.

      • Use your spellchecker and reread your email before sending it.

      • Don’t copy your application to other companies. That’s just rude.

      • Attach a brief and up-to-date CV.

      • Tell me why you want to work here and when you’re available to start.

      • Sign off your email properly. I’m not your mate from Wits.

      Regards,

      Was that a bit harsh? I thought so at the time, yet it miraculously paid off. The next day Jen’s reworded email popped up in my inbox, along with an apology. I read her impressive CV and called her in for an interview. She arrived in jeans and slops, smelled of cigarette smoke and was as nervous as a cat, but I decided to give her a chance. The rest is history: she spent two happy months with us and, after completing her Honours degree, came back to work as an editorial assistant.

      Jen was lucky that I was feeling generous that day. If she had approached me the previous week, her enquiry would have gone straight to the Deleted Items folder.

      The Jen affair wasn’t only her wake-up call; it was also mine. I wrote up a short standard reply for all such enquiries and used it every time I needed to, which was often. Occasionally I had no response, but I often received a ‘thank you’.

      Somehow, however, that wasn’t enough. As the months went by, it dawned on me that thousands of young jobseekers and internship applicants must be falling through the cracks, simply because no one had told them how to communicate in a professional environment.

      This aha! moment was my motivation for writing this book. Back to the examples.

      From assistant to studio owner

      Thando was a 31-year-old who had worked as a props assistant and driver for seven years. He was chatty, sociable and a self-proclaimed ‘babe magnet’. He was also bored and would spend much of his time bemoaning this to anyone who would listen. He wasn’t bad at his job but was often late and frequently forgot things.

      Eventually his manager called him in and gave him a verbal warning. At that meeting Thando told his manager that he didn’t want to be a humble props guy any more. He wanted to be a photographer. His manager was sceptical but asked Thando to bring examples of his work, along with a written motivation of why he wanted this position.

      When the manager saw the photographs and read the motivation he nearly wept. This young man was both a talented photographer and a concise writer, but he hadn’t shared this valuable information until he found himself facing disciplinary action. When asked why, he said, ‘I was too shy to say anything. I would have just sounded stupid’.

      Too shy? This chatterbox?

      Yes.

      Over four short years, Thando progressed from being a photographer’s assistant to opening his own studio. He also attended an assertiveness training course, wrote a photography manual for a local college and married a beautiful model. His words to his manager when he left the magazine were, ‘I just wish I hadn’t been such a late starter’.

      Do you see what I’m getting at? Poor communication skills can – and will – hold you back. Good communication skills can – and will – propel you onwards and upwards. (You can read more about how to market your talents and achievements in Chapter 3.)

      WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?

      Communication is a two-way interaction between one person and another person or people. Read that sentence again. A two-way interaction. This means that saying, writing or suggesting something to someone means nothing unless you know that they have received your message and understand its meaning. Sending a message that’s neither heard nor understood is miscommunication; something to be avoided at all costs. (If you choose to remember only one thing from this book, let it be this.)

      Communication can be verbal (spoken), written, or via body language.

      The spoken word

      Verbal communication is extremely powerful. Not only do you use words, but you also use tone of voice, pitch, pace, volume and inflection:

      •Tone: The ‘light and shade’ quality or mood of your voice

      •Pitch: The distinctive quality of your voice based on sound frequency (high, low or moderate)

      •Volume: How loud your voice is

      •Pace: The varying speeds at which you speak

      •Inflection: The alteration in pitch and/or tone.

      For example, your natural speaking voice may be high pitched, with a light tone and with very little inflection, moderate volume and a fast pace (think Disney’s Minnie Mouse). Or your voice may be low pitched with a dark tone, varied inflection, moderate-to-high volume and moderate-to-slow pace (think James Earl Jones, the actor who played Darth Vader in Star Wars). To find the ideal balance, try listening to your favourite radio talk show host, or television newsreader. How would you rate them according to their tone, pitch, volume, pace and inflection? How would you rate yourself?

      To be able to speak and express yourself clearly, you also need to avoid the pitfalls of mumbling, gabbling and muttering! (There will be more about this in Chapter 2.)

      The written word

      Written communication often fills people with dread, particularly if the language in which they are writing isn’t their home language. You may wonder how you can write properly if you’ve mastered only 60 per cent of the language. What if you’re not sure of the right words to use? And why can’t you just write to business people the way that you write to your friends and family?

      These are all good questions. Let’s address the last one first.

      A great deal has been said about electronic communication: email, text messaging, and comments on news sites. All of these media can be wonderful, instant and effective, but they take on a whole new set of responsibilities when used at work (see Chapters 8 and 9).

      From the moment you leave your place of education and enter the work environment, you need to establish a new, professional way of writing, and separate this from your more informal way of writing. The reasons for this are threefold: you need to appear to be professional; you need to respect your new environment and the people in it; and you need to be understood.

      Initially, until it becomes second nature, appearing to be professional is like taking on a role in

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