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When you start new job, you worry about your
performance, about being able to do what the manager asks you to do, but you
also worry about the relations with your colleagues. How will you get along
with them? What if they don’t like you? Have you ever felt you’re „the new guy”
and your colleagues have already their own way of talking one to each other,
their own jokes? It’s a common feeling and can actually become stressful.
I am Norbert, Middleware Presales Intern in
Hungary and I’ve been working within Oracle for only 1 month. Joining such a
big company has been a challenge from many perspectives. One of them was
adapting with the environment and getting to know all my colleagues. You know
it’s quite difficult to introduce yourself, to try to liaise with them and find
some common topics, so I felt very lucky and comfortable when my manager
introduced me to all of my colleagues. It was easier to accommodate and we
basically we had a starting point for our discussions. We started to talk about
what my position means, for how many years they’ve been within Oracle, other
Oracle related topics, but also more personal stuff like what they do after
work. Having this opportunity of talking with all of them helped me introduce
myself in a proper way and actually I told them many things about myself.
Networking wasn’t my best skill, but these first days were really helpful from
a network point of view.
What else can you
do to get along with your colleagues? One second thing I consider as being
really helpful in networking is asking work-related questions. For instance,
when you don’t know how to do something or don’t understand it, asking one of
your colleagues will also help you to make a connection with him and you could
easily continue the discussion with some other topics which are more personal.
It’s a very effective strategy and in a company like Oracle people are very
willing to help you with your tasks and perform at a high level.
If you see your
colleagues going to lunch, you should join them. It will help you become part
of their community, finding out what’s new in their lives, you’ll, step-by-step,
take part in their conversations and be up to date with the hot topics they
talk about.
One other
opportunity of becoming part of your colleagues’ community are the internal
events. Subscribing to the local free time activities mailing list is very
useful for finding out information about when they’re going out and have a
drink or attending all sorts of events. For instance, this is how I’ve found out about a party within Oracle
that most of the employees here attend. It’s a wonderful opportunity for chatting
and make a stronger connection to some of them. How important is attending
these events? Think about how much time you spend at work. You’d like to enjoy
your work and the environment, so getting along with your colleagues is a nice
thing to have.
I recently attended a corporate party whose
purpose was to facilitate the interaction and communication between employees.
It was a real success and we had a lot of fun, especially because it was a
costume party. All the fancy dresses and
funny clothes we wore made the atmosphere really enjoyable. It was easy to liaise
with colleague with whom I had never interacted with before. There was a
friendly spirit among us, chatting about personal stuff and about various
pleasant things.
Working in an international company is not an
easy thing because you interact with many people and they have different
styles, but all these opportunities of informal interaction are a good way to
adapt to the new working environment.
