Five Steps to Self Confidence Building for Newly-Hired College GraduatesNow that you have landed that big job, self confidence building is an important aspect for your new career. Here are five steps to building your confidence. I think that if you concentrate on these five steps, you are well on your way to becoming a confident person and your future looks bright. Here are the five important steps:
These are the Five StepsFive Steps to Self Confidence Building #1If something you’re required to do is new or frightening to you, screw up your courage and do it anyway. Your willingness to do this is essential to your self confidence building. If you have to practice doing it beforehand, do so on your own time and don’t complain about it. My first job out of college was as an assistant to a sales manager in a garment company. I remember being really afraid of making some of the phone calls I was required to make. There were times when I had to act for my boss in contacting some pretty scary sales reps who were older than me with a lot more experience. We had a lot of turnover in our company and one of the big issues was to get the sample line of dresses returned to us when one of the sales reps quit as the sample line was worth several thousand dollars. My job was to convince the resigning rep to send them back without a hassle. The first of these calls went really badly, I’m sure. But I gathered up my courage and did it anyway. Soon I was known in the office as a really tough cookie that could get the sample line out of the most hardened sales rep. This did wonders for my reputation and self confidence building. Five Steps to Self Confidence Building #2 Learn how to dress well and dress just a cut above what is expected. Only a few workplaces require suits and ties nowadays, but if they do you must comply. For other workplaces, there are certain rules for both men and women. Ladies, even if the company dress code says you can wear flip-flops, don’t. Save them for fun after work. Men, if you are allowed to wear t-shirts to work, don’t. Set yourself apart by wearing a shirt with a collar and wear an occasional jacket to work. This will work out better for you if you find your particular style and build a wardrobe around it. Seek out some help from a personal shopper (most of these are free at major department stores) and have them help you develop a “look” and an economical mix-and-match wardrobe. If you’re the kind of person who looks great in vintage clothes, wear them but make sure whatever you wear is appropriate. I’m always amazed by people fresh out of college who think that it is some kind of a badge of courage to rebel against the establishment by dressing like they did on campus. As a former tech manager, I’m speaking specifically to those in high tech. It doesn’t matter how great your coding is, management is not amused by this behavior and it will cost you at review time. If you are having a hard time with having to buy a working wardrobe, think of it as a uniform that you are required to wear and an investment in your future. Five Steps to Self Confidence Building #3 Learn how to develop an executive presence. How does one do this? Developing an executive presence means that you are perceived as someone who has authority and is perceived as being intelligent. If you had a speech class in college or high school and did well, this should help you along. If you ducked this course, however, it’s time to face the music and take a course at a community college or class to help you. You are going to be required to speak to people all the time, everyday, both in person and by phone. It’s important for your self confidence building that you learn how to gather your thoughts and speak on your feet. You will be meeting customers, internal clients, high level executives and colleagues every day of your exciting new career. You will be speaking in meetings and you will be judged by the questions you ask and the comments that you make. Learn how to speak and speak well. If you are in any type of sales or customer service, this becomes even more important. Knowing how to give a first class speech will give you the confidence to speak on your feet. You can only develop this presence through practice. Joining a local Toastmasters Club in your area will help you practice out of the sight of your work colleagues so you can make all your mistakes at the club and not in the workplace. You will learn a lot of other valuable things for your career through Toastmasters. Five Steps to Self Confidence Building #4 Learn how to write well. Every job now requires one to write at least the occasional business report or formal email. If your writing style is poor, you will be immediately dismissed as someone who doesn’t matter. It’s better to bring this skill to your first job than have to learn it on the job. If your college experience didn’t include a good writing class and you know you need help, once again check out the local community classes for a good business writing class. If you’re not sure if you need help, write a business report and have someone in business that you trust give you a critique. This should be someone with more experience than you outside of your current company. Take their advice graciously to heart and thank them for their evaluation. The ability to learn how to communicate will be essential to your future career. Learning how to speak and write well is essential to self confidence building. Five Steps to Self Confidence Building #5 Keep your reputation intact. Your new job may have lots of people hiring in who are your age and will become your friends, but this is not your fraternity, sorority or circle of drinking buddies. In my first job just out of college, I worked with a large group of women who were my age. We were all full of energy and loved to party at the local pub to let off steam from a high pressure job. I shudder to think what my career options would be if I had stayed with that company because I engaged in this activity. At the time it just seemed like good harmless fun and a way to relax. It is even more critical now for you to watch this kind of behavior because of social networking. If you were hired at all, it’s most likely that you have dodged this bullet. A young relative of mine recently “de-friended” me on Facebook. I was confused at first because I thought I had offended her in some way. I found out later (after she re-connected with me) that she was purging her page of any and all partying pictures or alcohol references because one of her friends had recently been hired as a teacher and everyone on the Facebook friends list had to clean their pages. It’s a brave new world out there and technology has made all of us public figures, even if we don’t want to be. In conclusion, I hope that the above five steps are of help to you. I wish you well in your new career and much success. If you have any comments or questions about this article, I would love to
hear from you.
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