Congratulations! You've graduated, you've put what you'd learnt at the Career Skills Workshops to good use, or maybe you've followed the career search advice available on various websites, and you've landed a job. How do you keep it, and more importantly, excel and build a solid foundation for the next step in your career? Obviously the specifics will vary from industry to industry, but here are some common-sense things to keep in mind:​

​

1.  Stick it out for the first few years

​According to a recent JobsCentral survey, 75.5 % of fresh graduates surveyed expect to be promoted within the first two years of their career. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen in most companies, so do try to stick it out if you want to see your efforts bear fruit. Anyway, it doesn't matter if it's your dream job, some parts are still going to suck. And even if it's not your dream job -- let's be honest, how many people are lucky enough to land one -- it will still have valuable things to teach you, BUT only if you stay long enough.

​

2.  If you don't know, ask

Some of you may be lucky enough to get a boss to whom mentoring comes naturally and will carefully guide you through your first months; but if you're like most people, your boss will be busy and may seem to have no time for you. Don't be afraid to ask; sometimes it doesn't occur to people to tell you certain things, but.most people will be happy to share if asked.

​

3.  Respect other people's time

That said, your boss and seniors have jobs to do and are not there for your exclusive benefit; respect their time. If you can, try to store up your questions and ask them at regular intervals instead of sporadically. ​Also, think through the problem before you ask. Bad question: "how do I solve this problem?" Good question: "I think this is the way to solve the problem, is it feasible?" It's best to discuss problems face-to-face, but if you must use email, keep it succinct.

 

4.  Keep learning

As a new hire, you would not have the full story of why things are done a certain way. Instead of making suggestions to "improve" things right off the bat, you may need to spend some time trying to understand why certain processes are in place. Which goes back to point 1, Stick It Out. 

 

 

For those who are just graduating or still looking, SIT will be holding a career fair on 15 March 2013 at *SCAPE. Look out for more details nearer the date!