Landing a new job is an exciting change moment that can set you off on a new career and a whole new you. But how do you cope with all that information overload? Just take a deep breath, and get down to work, writes Garret Brent, who recently landed a new job as an account executive at a marketing company in Cape Town.
Have you ever reached a point where you hope that your nodding and the occasional murmur of understanding – “Oh, yes? Okay!” – are taken as a sufficient measure of the knowledge you’re meant to be absorbing in your first week at a new job?
Information overload is a very real thing. Your ability to assimilate new information is at its threshold, and it gets more difficult to process as the hours tick on.
An hour into a client introduction meeting, with two hours to go, learning about the amazing people you work for, all they have achieved, and all your new company has achieved for them, your mind begins to wander. What’s your best friend doing this weekend? You should message him for just one drink.
Preferably on a Friday, so that when you get home at four in the morning, you still have Sunday to be productive.
Wait, focus, what did she just say about the content pipeline section of the report for that client? Quick, make a note to look it up. Wait, we’re on to the next client already? But I don’t even know how to do a report! Do I even belong here?
It’s perfectly all right to feel overwhelmed in your first week at a new job. If you’re not feeling overwhelmed, you’re not trying hard enough. There’s a lot to learn.
The systems and processes, the clients, the vision and mission. Your mind gets tired.
There is a limit to the amount of information anyone can absorb. When you hit that limit, it takes effort to stay focused, to keep assimilating.
I’ve been anxious that I won’t learn it all fast enough to make an impression. If I’m not the best I can be, instantly, I begin to think I’m not good enough.
But I’m learning to accept that it takes time, and that rushing only leads to a shaky foundation. I force myself to be patient with me, and to see it as taking steps. Not baby steps, but decent, manageable sized steps, on the neverending quest to knowing enough.
I remind myself to be patient. No-one at my new job is expecting me to know everything right away.
It’s important to accept information overload as real, and develop techniques to deal with it. I usually take a walk after an intense download, and I try to keep my mind clear.
I make sure to eat, and drink water too, because intense thinking burns a lot of energy.
Still, it’s been a great week. I made connections that I’m sure will last for a very long time. I took another step on my career path, and I learnt another lesson in my quest for patience and acceptance. Overload is very real, but I’m learning to work with it.
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