6 Things NOT to Expect from Your First Job

Most of us have high expectations of our first job out of college. We create a vision of where this first job will take us, even creating timelines for achieving success.

Others share our visions of grandeur, with high-fives from friends and huge sighs of relief from parents who can finally claim they are now fiscally responsible for one less person.

It’s great to have a career vision and strategy; the problem is that often our expectations for our first job are unrealistic. We fail to think of what NOT to expect from our first job.

Not sure where this comes from; it may be a combination of information gathered from college career centers, professors, other students, social media, and even parents.  Add a bit of imagination, some hope and desires and you’ve got a recipe for disappointment.

Some will be quick to blame Millennials, as clearly they feel “entitled” and obviously are to blame for any misunderstanding of the work world. Not so fast; I’m pretty sure most of us were at least a tad bit disappointed by the ugly truth that was our first job.

If there’s blame to be placed, it’s on the rest of us who have gone before – including parents – for not setting the record straight.

This is for anyone who is about to graduate, or who has recently joined the workforce.

6 Things NOT to expect from your first job

1. A Huge Salary. This is all relative. Many starting salaries today seem exorbitant to us career veterans who had to eat Ramen noodles with our starting salaries.  Yet I know better than to argue with a recent grad. The point is this is your first job; you have little to no skills yet that command a large salary.  Work hard, make yourself invaluable and the salary will follow.
2. Quick Promotion. Somewhere it became popular to promise candidates a quick rise to the top, or at least the next level. Reality Check: The only thing you are promised at hiring is the job you are being hired for. Period. After that, the clock starts ticking again and you have to prove yourself to a company full of people that don’t know you.
3. Praise for a Job Well Done. Parents of Millennials have done kids no favors here, encouraging them in all endeavors even if they performed terribly. It’s nice to be told “Good Job” at work, but it’s rare. It’s your job to do a good job; that’s why you were hired.  So don’t expect any special recognition for it.
4. Control of your time. Others are counting on you at work, which means you are not able to come and go as you please 100% of the time.  Be considerate; arrive on time to morning meetings; stay late if necessary; possibly work weekends despite the fact that your friends are out on the town. Even your vacation needs to be taken with the consideration of your boss and teammates in mind. Someone has to be available in case of a crisis, right?
5. Doing the Work vs. Reinventing the Wheel. Armed with a freshly minted degree, it may be difficult to understand why the company isn’t anxious to have you completely revamp the way it does business. Sometimes it’s best to listen and learn first, then once you’ve got a real understanding of how it works, make a suggestion based on experience.
6. Your career will be defined by this job. Who came up with this? While your career will be influenced by EVERY job you have, you are not defined by your first job. If that were true, I would be an engineer, despite the fact that I’ve had a successful career in marketing and PR, and am now a Certified Professional Career Coach.  Don’t put this pressure on yourself. Accept your first job; work hard at it; learn from it – the good and the bad – and apply those learnings to your next opportunity.

It’s okay to have high expectations. Just try to avoid unrealistic expectations that may lead to disappointment.

Dig in to your first job. Learn from it. Grow.