When most people land the job that they want, and often times usually it's their first job that they ever get, and they just go in with their foot on the gas pedal 100%. They are maxing themselves out every single day.
Personally, I would not recommend that.
For most people, and I am sure most can relate:
Understandably you are grateful for the opportunity that somebody reached out and somebody said “we value you and here is an offer”.
- You were amazed and you want to do everything that you can to show them that you are worth that hire.
- You know that the potential that they saw in you is that “you are worth it”, and you want to verify that.
- Oftentimes, you might feel you owe it to them when you get your first job so you feel indebted to them. You want to make sure that they can say to themselves “ Right, we made the right decision hiring this person.”
That should not be your default mindset to have
Yes, you should be grateful for the opportunity of being hired there and appreciative of it. However, that does not mean all of a sudden you feel the sudden need to work 90 hours a week. You should not trade your entire life for your job.
Do this instead
When you get your first job it is time to set standards, similar to negotiating money. When you set your standards and when you set your rates, people know that you value yourself as you would when you go into these negotiations.
Stop worrying
It can be really tempting to just eat lunch at your desk, stay late and just work, work and work. Looking at spreadsheets, charts, reports, and codes and not doing any fun things on-site or getting to know the people around you.
They hired you based on your potential, they didn’t hire you based on what you could do (that is the reality of the situation if that is your first job). If it's not your first job it takes 6 months to a year before you are fully ingrained and familiar with the new company processes, culture, business, etc.
You might be worried because:
- You don’t think it is a good job.
- You don’t have the self-confidence in yourself yet.
The 9- 5 hours
When you come in at 9 am and you finish work at 5 pm and leave it shows them that you value your time and they should value your time as well. After all, “I am here doing your job for 8 hours, after which I’m out”.
I respect my time, and they should respect your time too.
If they guilt trip you into doing what is more than asked of you, that says something else about a company.
If a company wants to work you 10 hours a day, and squeeze in 10–11 projects in a month, well then they need to pay me more.
Chances are they are not going to pay out more money because they are rolling on their lack of wanting to spend more money as responsibilities onto you disguised as providing you with added experience, or just because you are the new guy.
Here is the reality
Similarly, if you think of a startup. Startups usually are new, small, and growing so you might have to work extra hours. If you say “Can I have more money?”, they will typically say “they can’t afford it”.
It is not your fault as an employee of the startup that they did not secure enough funds to be able to pay you properly. It is the business's fault for not securing enough funds. Hence, they push off the responsibility to you disguised as doing you a favor by providing you with more responsibility and experience.
The more that you bend to their wishes without asking for compensation, the more that they are going to ask from you without even offering compensation.
The more you give, the more they will take.
The real world
It's just like in school, and when you finished your work the teacher gave you more work (which you knew very well wasn’t part of the grade) but needed to keep you doing something so you weren’t left doing anything. Well, this happens at work too, welcome to the real world.
Finish all your work super quick. Guess what? You get more work to do. It is not like you can pack up and go home. You will burn yourself out if you keep pressing down on the gas pedal 100% all the time. You need to pace yourself.
Keep your feet on the pedal at 20%, that way when you need to take a step back there won’t be a noticeable difference. If your feet are on the gas 100% when you start from day 1, which becomes the baseline, when you ease up on the gas, management will notice the difference and will wonder why aren’t you working as hard as before.
In summary, be grateful and add value, but respect your time. Don’t burn yourself, remember that work is a marathon, not a space. Remember to always pace yourself.
Remember by respecting your time and others will respect your time as well.