Sometimes when we are excited we leap before we look. Just make sure that when you fall you are landing on your own two feet.
When you leave education and plan to join the workforce you may see jobs specifically advertised for early-career starters, that is, people who are just starting out in their professional lives. The roles advertised will be junior in nature and will likely give the successful applicant foundational knowledge that will pave the way for the rest of their career.
Starting positions are not just for school or college graduates either, but are also an ideal route through which experienced professionals can transition careers and begin working their way up the ladder in an entirely new field. However, not every job advertised as suitable for an early-career starter is going to give applicants the opportunity to expand their skillset. So, if you are thinking of applying for an early-career role, what do you need to know?
Research could make all the difference
These days, many organisations incorporate early-career recruitment on a much-larger scale, for the purpose of positively impacting long-term retention. Before you align yourself with a company, post-education or even before you leave your current place of employment, be sure to look into the organisation’s history regarding how it attracts new hires and essentially how it chooses to market itself.
Industry events organised by the company could be a great way to determine if you would be a good fit and it also gives you the opportunity to meet with industry leaders in-person. A real-life conversation without the need for phones and screens can still go a long way in a world that is becoming increasingly de-personalised due to the advancement of modern communication technologies.
It may also help to do a deep dive of past and present employees to see just how often early-career hires, who aren’t brought on as a regular hire but rather as an intern or graduate, are kept on in a full-time capacity.
What’s your name?
Many of the people who join a company through an early-career starter programme often join as a current student, an intern, a recent graduate or a standard new hire, but it is important to know the difference in expectations. Even at this early stage, someone who has been brought on as a regular hire or as a transitioning employee may have a clearer idea about how their career might progress than an intern would.
So, if you have a title that separates you from your co-workers, or if your role has a limited window, make sure that you know what title you could potentially leave with come the end of the programme. If you are moving on, it should always be at an upwards trajectory. Just don’t lose sight of the end goal, which is to progress professionally in a tangible way.
Map your route
Joining a new company is a great first step towards establishing yourself as a competent, trusted and qualified expert in your field, but often it can feel as though the journey to becoming that version of yourself is a long way off. And while in some regards it is, that doesn’t mean that the choices you make, the challenges you overcome and the tasks you accomplish every day are without value.
By mapping a route towards your end goal via skills to learn, milestones to hit, degrees to earn or networks to build, you essentially upgrade yourself as an employee and an individual. Before you know it, you are right where you always envisioned yourself to be in your career.
So, if you find yourself in a company that sees you solely as an early-career hire and therefore less deserving of resources such as time, training and additional benefits, then see it for what it is – a major red flag confirming that this organisation will never fully invest in you.
How responsible are you?
It’s fair to say that virtually every employed person, regardless of how much they like their job, will have issues with some of the tasks they have been assigned. You aren’t always going to love your job, however, if it is the right one for you the good should frequently outweigh the bad.
Early-career positions are often a low-risk space for professionals to test the waters of their new career. It is essentially a chance to learn how to do the job in a real-world environment with some of the protection afforded by inexperience. So, if you are being pressured to take on tasks of a high importance too soon or if you are being under-utilised and are essentially doing grunt work, it is a clear sign that the organisation is not going to guide you successfully.
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