Getting a job for the first time can be a scary thought for all of us, but you may not realise how much it can teach you. From skills and experience to knowledge and gaining confidence, there’s so much that your first job can teach you, that you may not even realise.
Your first job teaches you workplace expectations and provides valuable work experience. You learn about the company structure, policies and procedures. You will develop your communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills. Your first job can also teach you how capable you are when you apply yourself.
What are work expectations?
Learning what the workforce expects of us is something that comes naturally you’re your first job. You’re suddenly put into a situation, where you need to tap into your existing skills to get the job done to high standards. You’re no longer in a position where you can do what you want. You need to fit in and make sure you comply with company policies such as
- making sure you wear your uniform correctly
- being reliable (showing up to work each day, on time, and doing your whole shift)
- being resilient (not everything will go your way, and you will just need to deal with it.)
- following processes (doing what your boss tell you to do)
- being respectful of how others do things differently to you
These are all basic job-ready skills needed for any job, that will develop over time of being at work.
What can I do on the job to help me build my skills?
Not only does your first job teach and develop your basic job-ready skills, but it also allows you to aim higher and develop even further. In your first job, you will be put in situations you have never faced before and therefore, you will need to use your skills to determine what to do.
This is where you can build your skills up higher and gain more confidence in communication, using teamwork and using your initiative, to judge what needs to be prioritised in certain situations and what the best way to deal with things is.
As well as being caught in these situations and deciding what to do, you may also have targets to work towards in your first job. This will teach you how to prioritise things, manage multiple things at once and also learn how to build your skills higher, in order to reach these set targets.
What are learning and development opportunities?
With any job, can come development opportunities within the role, team or business. Even in your first job, you may be given opportunities to progress and develop. They might come in the form of a course to learn a specific skill, or even ‘on-the-job training” where you learn a skill specific to that role.
Whether it is your first job or not, any additional training can go a long way. Not only will it look good if you’re willing and keen to take on more training and development, but it will also help you out within your role.
You will find that if you are given any opportunities for additional training, then to always take it. This is something to learn from your first job and always use in the future as well. Even if it’s not something you are particularly keen on, you should never turn down any training opportunities.
What Do You Learn From Your First Job?
These may be more of the obvious things you learn from your first job, but they’re all so important and things you will have for life.
Starting off with knowledge. Not only does this mean learning things for the specific job such but many important skills that you develop during your first job are usually transferable to your other broader career. For example, learning how to communicate better, or work well in a team environment can set you up for life, helping you with jobs in the future.
There are so many skills that you can fine tune in your first job.. From communication skills, customer service, general people skills, problem solving, teamwork, organisation, professionalism and so much more. The opportunities are endless and these are all things that will help to build your experience and confidence within the job and help you in the future.
As you build your skills and get more experience, you will gain more confidence which is essential when it comes to jobs in the future.
How can you begin to prepare for your career and develop your interests?
Not only can skills, knowledge and experience be used to help you out with future jobs, but it can help you as a person. By working in your first job, it may come as something big and new, but it can help to transform you into a new person, which can help to shape your future.
Simple things such as responsibility, getting yourself to and from work, dealing with money are all life lessons we will face at some point. Your first job will teach you some life lessons and skills, which you will take with you for the rest of your life.
How can mistakes be beneficial?
One important thing we all learn from our first jobs is that it’s completely ok to make mistakes. We’re all human and it happens to the best of us, especially when it comes down to your first job. It may be something that seems scary, as often mistakes can result in something bad happening, but this isn’t the case. From mistakes, you learn from it and you will find that over time, you will learn even more and prevent these mistakes happening in the future.
One important thing to always remember when it comes to making mistakes, it to always own them. If you’ve made a mistake, be honest and accountable for it, as employers will respect this a lot more, than if you were to hide or deny it. If you deny it, you might learn the hard way and loose your job. No one wants to work with someone who is untrustworthy. It’s completely normal to make mistakes, so make sure to own your mistakes made and in good faith, find out from your employer what you can do to right them
How do I create a network with no experience?
Work relationships are important, as it can help you to build up better bonds within your work team which often results in better teamwork. As well as this, it can also make it a lot nicer to work, as you get along with the people you work with.
Your first job will teach you how to communicate with people and build these types of relationships up. It can be hard at first, but you will find it will help you out so much in the future when it comes to other jobs. Work relationships are something we all have to face with any type of job, so it’s useful that your first job will teach you how to do this and make you feel more confident with it, in the future. And if you work well with people, they will want to work with you again. You know the saying, ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know,’ and you might get job opportunities from within your network.
Your First Job Teaches You About Yourself
It can be a very scary thought of getting your first job, but it will help you out in the long run. Your first job can teach you so much, you very often go into a first job thinking you know nothing but come out actually realising that you have a lot more potential, than you probably thought. The lessons you learn are all things that you will take with you, into the future and can even help you to shape the person you will become. As scary as it may seem, it’s all worth it in the end! All of your experiences from your first job, will help you out in the future.
If this article helped you out, be sure to check out some of our other articles about employment. You might be interested in learning about the best entry level jobs or how a Labour Hire Company actually works.
If you are looking for your first job, give us a call at Canberra Labour Hire. We can give you broad work experience through working on a temporary basis with different companies around Canberra and the surrounding area. Check out our Canberra jobs page for our latest job advertisements or give us a call on 0433 704 567.
