10 Ways To Be Sensationally Successful At Your New Job

By Dharmesh Shah

April 29, 2013

You just got a shiny new job, at a great company. Congrats!

Your first day at a new job can either be the first day of the rest of your life… or the first of a series of endless “Groundhog Day” type experiences, where every day feels the same and your new job quickly seems just like the old job.

To make sure that doesn’t happen, here are ten things to do differently and help you stand-out:

1. Behave as if you’re still being interviewed. Once you’re hired it’s natural to feel a sense of accomplishment. It’s easy to assume you belong. After all, they hired you, right? You’re awesome! And the company is brilliant for having recognized your awesomeness. High five! Not so fast. Sure, you got hired, and in fact you may be awesome, but you haven’t actually done anything for your new company yet. All you’ve really shown is that you can get the great new gig.

Now you need to prove you deserve it.Think of your first 30 - 90 ninety days as an extended interview. Show up every day thinking you need to prove you deserved to be hired. You’ll work harder, work smarter, won’t take anything for granted… and in short order you will prove you belong.

2. See your manager as a person you help, not a person who tells you what to do.

Yes, in theory, your manager gets to tell you what to do. In practice, that’s probably not why she hired you. Here’s a better approach: Your manager has things she needs to get done. See your job as helping her get those things done. The more you help her achieve her goals and targets the more highly you will be valued.

Plus you’ll find it’s a lot easier to work hard when you feel you’re helping someone instead of obeying them. And you’ll enjoy your work more too – it’s a lot more fun and an infinitely more rewarding to help than to comply.

3. Build relationships based on performance, not conversation.
Great companies with great culture welcome new employees to the fold. Other employees go out of their way to meet and get to know you. That’s awesome, but work still involves work, not just conversation. Be nice, be friendly, be yourself – but always remember that the best working relationships are based on respect and trust, and respect and trust are based on actions and performance, not just on words.

Prove yourself. Pitch in. Help out. Follow through. Meet every commitment. Earn the respect and trust of others and you will build truly great professional relationships. And you’ll build some great friendships, too.

4. Go the extra mile early – and often.

Early on you probably don’t have all the skills you need. You probably don’t have all the experience. You probably don’t have all the contacts and connections. But you can have the willingness to work extremely hard. Work hard and everyone around you will forgive a certain lack of skill and experience. They’ll know you’re trying – and sometimes, at least for a while, that’s all that matters.

5. Spot the high performers and mimic them.

Every organization is different, which means the key attributes of top performers in those organizations are different, too. Maybe the top performers work more – or different – hours. Maybe relationship building is more important than transactional selling. Maybe flexibility is more important than methodology.

Pick out the top performers and study them. Figure out what makes them tick. How they approach problems. How they make decisions. There’s no need to reinvent the high performance wheel; save that for when you are a top performer and want to go an even higher level.

6. Think three moves ahead.

Great chess players think many moves ahead. The current move builds a base for future moves. You can do the same at work. Think about where a task might lead you. Think about how you can leverage your current responsibilities. Think about what skills you can learn, visibility you can gain, connections you can build… every task, every project, and every job can lead to a number of great possibilities.

Think of your current duties as one piece in a puzzle, a puzzle that you get to put together and ultimately build.

7. Find a way to stand out.

We have remarkable employees at HubSpot. We feel they have a super-power that makes them stand out in some way. Maybe they’re remarkably smart, or remarkably creative, or remarkably resourceful, or remarkably successful… each of our employees stands out in some special and unique way.

Work hard to be known for something specific. Be known for responding more quickly or following up first or always offering to help before you’re asked. Be the leader known for turning around struggling employees or creating the biggest pool of promotable talent or building bridges between different departments.

Pick a worthwhile mission – one that truly benefits the company and other employees – and work to excel at that mission. Then you’ll stand out in the best possible way.

8. Create your own project.

Succeeding and even excelling at the projects you’re assigned is expected. Excelling at a project you create yourself is exceptional.The key is to take personal risk with a new project (while making sure the company and your colleagues shoulder most of the risk).

For example, we had a member of our sales team believe passionately in building a partner channel. It wasn’t an area that anyone on the exec team was particularly excited about. But, he did it anyway. He did it on his own time, working late, trying different things… and ultimately figured it out. He is now running one of the fastest growing and productive teams in the company. He has also helped create the model for how experiments are run and managed at HubSpot.

I know what you’re thinking: “Wait. He did it on his own time?” Yes, he did. He decided to prove himself. If he had failed, there was little cost to the company so really there was nothing to lose.

But for him – and the company – there was a lot to possibly be gained.

You don’t have to wait to be asked. You don’t have to wait to be assigned. Pick a side project where, if you fail, there’s no harm and no foul, and take your shot. You never know how it will turn out… and what it will do for your career.

9. Find people to help.

You’re new. People are supposed to help you, right?
Right…..and wrong.

You can start helping people now. If you see someone struggling and you don’t know what to do, say, “I’m new so you may have to tell me what to do… but I would love to help you.” If you’re in a meeting and someone else was assigned a seemingly overwhelming project, stop by later and ask if you can help. Even if you’re not taken up on it, the offer will likely be appreciated.

Or volunteer to help in an area you’d like to know more about. Work in sales? You could volunteer to help your marketing team create a new piece of content. Work in marketing? You could help your engineering team do some user testing on a new product. Just make sure you don’t become the guy who helps others but doesn’t get his own stuff done.

No one likes that guy.

10. Never forget why you were hired. Yes, you want to learn and grow. Yes, you want to build a career. Yes, you want to feel happy and fulfilled. And yes, you were hired to help advance the goals and mission of the company.

Dharmesh Shah

Founder and CTO of HubSpot