It’s safe to say that from the time we were pretty young our parents, our teachers, and maybe even our first employers have always stressed that for any job we need the same basic skills. Communication skills, organizational skills, leadership abilities, teamwork experience… you know what I’m talking about. However, from my own personal experience, there are a lot of things (silly somewhat embarrassing to admit that you don’t know how to do things) that nobody will ever say that you need and unfortunately these are the things that you will most likely be asked to do on your first day. Below, I have listed some that I have come across and how I’ve discovered to handle them.
Make Coffee: I know, that sounds incredibly stupid but think about it. Imagine it’s your first day working for a real design firm and you really want to impress your coworkers and do everything right to prove that you belong there when your boss asks you to make coffee. Simple enough, sure you can do that, child’s play right? However when you approach the coffee machine and realize you have no idea how that particular one works, that’s where the trouble starts.
How to Handle it: Whatever you do, do NOT ask someone how to “work it.” Instead, do one of these two things: 1.) Look for the instructions or 2.) Google it! Chances are if you Google the brand of the coffee maker, you’ll find instructions on how to work it. A bit of advice: do NOT simply “figure it out” yourself. It won’t leave a favorable impression if you break the coffee machine or flood the kitchen area with coffee.
Create an Excel Spreadsheet: Sure we all claim we can do this on our resume, and yes it is not difficult to open up Excel and start typing the information. But your boss wants it formatted a particular way and you have no clue how to replicate it. Also, if your company primarily uses Macs, you may have to use Numbers (a similar software to Excel but different enough to stump you) then what?
How to handle it: Yes you could click around and figure it out….and take your whole first day to do it! Yes, you can also Google step by step how to create it, but assuming it’s more complicated (in the design world it usually is!) that could be just as time consuming as simply clicking around. My advice? Look on the company server. Spare yourself the time and effort, find an existing spreadsheet that is formatted correctly and use it as a template. Word of caution: Do NOT replace your “template” with your new spreadsheet. To avoid this mistake, immediately save the document with a new name.
Call XYZ and Verify Information: Time after time I’ve been asked to do this or have seen a fellow entry-leveler assigned to do this and there always seems to be a slight panicked look in there eyes. Imagined you are asked this. Mostly likely a slew of thoughts will run through your head: “You want me to talk to a person? I went into design to avoid this! What do I say? Will they be able to tell that I’m new and be annoyed?”
How to Handle it: Relax. This will hardly be an involved or complicated conversation, but it IS important! Ideally, you’ll have used phone etiquette several times but in case you haven’t, here’s some advice. Be very polite and put on your “grownup voice.” Do not mumble, use slang or “uhs and ums.” What helps me most is writing down what I’m going to say (a script if you will) and just refer to it. Do NOT simply read from it…you may be hung up on for fear of being a recorded message. Also, remember to sound friendly. It’s okay to make a little joke and if it’s a client or corporation that your company works closely with, introduce yourself.
So there you have it. Three Simple things that you’ll most likely be asked to do on your first day that you can now be completely comfortable with. As some parting advice, I’d like to leave you with a thought. Think of your first week as an on-the-job interview. You want to show that you are the best candidate for the job and that the company has made the right choice in hiring you. This is the best way to build relationships with your coworkers and overall transition well into the team.
What do you think? Leave me a comment 
