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How to "Ace" Your Freshman Year in the Workplace With C's: Culture, Competence, & Consequences
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by: Paul Hettich, PhD, DePaul University (IL)
Categories: Career Preparation
When you start to feel comfortable
and confident as juniors and seniors
often do, having declared the best
academic major in school, established solid
friendships, mastered multiple-choice
tests, and “psyched-out†the tough teachers,
it is time to think about becoming a
freshman again.
Graduates seeking a career with a
bachelor’s degree in psychology and fortunate
enough to obtain a full-time job or
better part-time employment (either a truly
challenging position or a mind-numbing
white collar assembly-line job) will enter
a new organizational culture with new
responsibilities, new relationships, and new
challenges at a critical and long-anticipated
life transition oft en characterized by high
expectations, uncertainties, and self-doubt.
You will be a humble freshman again but
one now armed with a college education. Do
not expect miracles from that degree during
your first few years in the workplace but do
expect life to be different from college. As
you read, count the times expect or expectation
appears; understanding how these terms
apply may be critical to your success.
There are several important issues
involved in the college-to-workplace transition,
especially in an economic climate
when bright, motivated graduates enter a
poor job market carrying high loan debt
and equally high hopes. Space does not
permit me to address career planning,
psychosocial and cognitive development,
or managing finances. Instead, I will focus
on three important but often ignored
practical topics: culture (the customs,
practices, and expectations of your new
organization), competence (skills and
qualities your employer expects you to use),
and consequences (promotion, discipline,
or termination which are based on your
behaviors). If you have held full-time or
several significant part-time jobs, you may
know what I am talking about; if you have
not, be ready to adjust your expectations and
attitudes about the workplace even if you
are a revered campus leader with a magna
cum laude GPA. Organizations diff er vastly,
so many of my remarks are generalizations
that may or may not apply to your particular
situation as a student or a new employee.
Culture
One of the best insights I can share was
articulated by Holton and Naquin (2001)
who maintain that college and work are
essentially different.
The knowledge you acquired in college
will be critical to your success, but the
process of succeeding in school is very
different from the process of succeeding
at work. Certain aspects of your
education may have prepared you to
be a professional, but evidence from
the workplace indicates that this is not
enough for professional success (p. 7).
Several processes they refer to are embedded
in your new organization’s culture and
practices. Study the 16 general comparisons
contained in Table 1 that summarizes results
from a survey Holton (1998) conducted on
college graduates. For example, students
have been conditioned to expect frequent
and specific feedback, but in most companies
formal reviews are conducted only two
or three times annually unless you fail in an
assignment. In college you can choose to do
“B†or “C†level work in some courses, but
your supervisor will expect “A†level work
continuously (and don’t look for “make-upâ€
or “extra credit†assignments). In college
you expect detailed syllabi; in your job
expect less structure and more uncertainty.
Your course grades are based primarily on
individual eff ort, but teamwork is very common
in the workplace. You can sit passively
through most courses and earn “C†or better
grades; in the workplace your supervisor
and coworkers expect you to be an active
participant and problem-solver (Aft er all,
you are a college graduate as are most of them). Perhaps most important, in college
you focus on your development (intellectual,
personal, moral, and social); in the workplace
you concentrate on productivity and
making your boss look good.
How do these comparisons apply to
your current job? Will you be able to adapt
quickly to specifi c practices that challenge
you? Adaptability is a quality employers
seek in new hires. I have encountered some
graduates who adapted well and others,
having entered with limited experience and
unrealistic expectations, who described their
experience as “a slap in the face†or “hitting
a brick wall.†Be ready to quickly extinguish
many habits and expectations to which you
were conditioned since grammar school and
rapidly substitute new behaviors.
Competence
The most revered measure of success in
college is grades. Grades are an important
criterion to over half of the companies
participating in the annual NACE (National
Association of Colleges and Employers)
survey, and a GPA of 3.0 is the typical cut-off
(NACE, 2009). Do not be surprised, however,
if recruiters (sometimes called Talent
Sourcers) show more interest in your ability
to identify your specifi c competencies and
apply them to their organization’s needs.
Anticipate interviewers’ questions such as:
“What would you do in the following situation?â€
Table 2 lists in descending order of
importance the top 10 skills and qualities
employers seek (NACE, 2009). Although you
may not think of these everyday behaviors
as transferable skills, you should be developing
them directly or indirectly in your
coursework, cocurricular activities, jobs,
and interactions with others. Because syllabi
and assignments in most schools seldom
articulate competencies, your challenge is to
identify particular situations in which such
qualities are cultivated and subsequently
translate them to resumes and job requirements.
Fortunately, a strong correspondence
exists between the NACE list and the benchmarks
recommended for undergraduate
psychology programs (Dunn, McCarthy,
Baker, Halonen, & Hill, 2007). I encourage
you to read the Dunn et al. article and compare
the fi ve student-related benchmarks to
the NACE skills.
Ironically, although communications is
regularly listed as the most important skill
set in the NACE survey, employers report
that new hires enter the workplace deficient in face-to-face communication, writing,
teamwork, presentation, and overall interpersonal
skills. Other defi ciencies include
the absence of a work ethic, time management,
multi-tasking, realistic expectations,
loyalty, maturity, and business etiquette
(NACE, 2009). Review Table 2 and critically
examine your coursework, job, and nonacademic
experiences in which these qualities
and competencies can be strengthened or
are absent. Also, log on to the NACE student
website at www.jobweb.com/studentarticles.
aspx?id=2121 and explore these and other
job-related issues. To rephrase a popular
political slogan: It’s the skills, stupid (not just
your GPA)!
Consequences
As a workplace freshman you are excited
about your new challenges and relationships,
but the bottom line will be the consequences
of your actions (i.e., what you should do
to avoid costly mistakes and earn promotion).
Among the questions contained in his
annual survey of employer hiring practices,
Gardner (2007) inquired about factors that
lead to the disciplining, fi ring, and promotion
of college graduates. Table 3 presents
the top 10 reasons why new employees are
disciplined, ranked in order by mean score
and listing the corresponding percentage at
the high end of the scale. All 10 behaviors
are an integral part of the overall college
experience (e.g., work ethic/commitment;
avoiding unethical behavior; inappropriate
use of technology) or coursework and nonacademic
activities.
In short, the behaviors that get new
hires disciplined are those they should have
avoided during college. Th e situations may
diff er and some differences are critical. For
example, recall from Table 1 that in college
you focus on your personal development.
If as a student you lack commitment, fail
to follow instructions, fail to take initiative,
miss deadlines, communicate ineff ectively,
and are late for class or work, the consequences
of your actions usually aff ect you
alone. Th e same behaviors when exhibited
in the workplace, however, can have
negative consequences for your supervisor,
coworkers, department, and possibly the
whole organization—as well as your family
who may depend on you. No wonder
these behaviors are causes for discipline! If
your fi rst job is mind-numbing, you might
respond as you did in college to that mindnumbing
course. If you reacted in a negative manner think twice before you respond
similarly in the workplace. Your job and a
bad start to your career may be at stake.
Note that six of the causes for discipline
(Table 3) are the same reasons new hires are
terminated. Are there counterparts to these
behaviors in college? Depending on the
situation(s), perseverance of the behaviors,
and other factors, such acts may contribute
to low grades, academic probation, and even
expulsion. Students who strive to develop
the positive habits opposite those negative
behaviors will be rewarded in many ways.
On the positive side, Table 4 presents
a cluster of qualities Gardner compiled
from employer responses that lead new
hires to promotions and new assignments.
If you log on to www.ceri.msu.edu, link
to Publications, and locate the Gardner
(2007) study (see references), additional
information is available, including specifi c
defi nitions for many terms contained in
Table 4. Th at list should not surprise you
because these characteristics contribute to
your success in the classroom, your job,
cocurricular activities, and your relationships.
Finally, search for the overlap between
Table 3 and Table 4 behaviors and their
positive or negative counterparts on the
Table 2 skills list. Informally compare these
tables to the expectations your teachers and
your employer have of you. What do you
conclude?
Concluding Comments
How many times did the words expect and
expectation occur in this article? Like your
next boss, I’ll let you fi nd the answer. I have
met several employers who consistently
report that for most new graduates, their
unrealistic expectations pose a major
problem.
You can succeed during your freshman
year in the workplace with C’s. Your corporate
culture will diff er from your college
environment in numerous ways that you
must become aware of and adapt to quickly.
Competencies and skills replace GPA as the
measure of your success; several of these you
acquire during college and are very similar
to the ones employers are seeking in their
candidates. Finally, many consequences of
positive and negative behaviors exhibited
in college and workplace are identical, so
continue to accentuate the positive habits,
attitudes, and competencies; eliminate the
negatives; and enjoy the journey into the
next chapter in your life.
References
Dunn, D. S., McCarthy, M. A., Baker, S., Halonen, J. S., & Hill, G. W., IV. (2007). Quality benchmarks in undergraduate programs. American Psychologist, 62, 650-670.
Gardner, P. (2007). Moving up or moving out of the company? Factors that influence the promoting or firing of new college hires (Research Brief 1-2007). Retrieved from Michigan State University Collegiate Employment Research Institute website:
www.ceri.msu.edu
Hettich, P. I., & Helkowski, C. (2005). Connect college to career: A studentÕs guide to work and life transitions. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth Publishers.
Holton, E. F., III. (1998). Preparing students for life beyond the classroom. In J. N. Gardner, G. Van der Veer, & Associates The senior year experience: Facilitating integration, reflection, closure, and transition (pp. 95-115). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Holton, E. F., III, & Naquin, S. S. (2001). How to succeed in your first job: Tips for new college graduates. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). (2009). Job outlook 2009ÑHow you fit into the tight job market. Retrieved from www.jobweb.com/studentarticles.aspx?id=2121
Additional References
Arnett, J. J., & Tanner, J.L. (Eds.). (2006). Emerging adults in America: Coming of age in the 21st century. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Carducci, B. J. (2000). The successfully shy worker. In Shyness: A bold new approach (pp. 308-337). New York, NY: Quill/Harper Collins.
Fisher, S. Y., & Shelly, S. (2005). The complete idiotÕs guide to personal finance in your 20Õs and 30Õs (3rd Ed). New York, NY: Penguin Group.
Furman, E. (2005). Boomerang nation. How to survive living with your parentsÉthe second time around. New York, NY: Fireside.
Landrum, R. E. (2009). Finding jobs with a psychology bachelorÕs degree: Expert advice for launching your career. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Levit, A. (2009). They donÕt teach corporate in college: A twenty-somethingÕs guide to the business world (2nd Ed.). Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press.
Peterson, C., Park, N., Hall, N., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2009). Zest and work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 161-172. doi: 10,1002/job.584
Robbins, A., & Wilner, A. (2001). Quarterlife crisis: The unique challenges of life in your twenties. New York, NY: Penguin Press.
Smith, W. S. (2008). Decoding generational differences: Fact, fiction Éor should we just get back to work? Retrieved from Deloitte Development LLC website:
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/article/5abf899a961fb110VgnVCM100000ba42f00aRCRD.htm
Wilner, A., & Stocker, C. (2005). QuarterliferÕs companion: How to get on the right career path, control your finances, and find the support network you need to thrive. Retrieved from http://www.quarterlifecrisis.com/about_qlc.shtml
Paul Hettich, PhD, Professor Emeritus at DePaul University (IL), was an Army personnel psychologist, program evaluator in an education R&D lab, and a corporate applied scientistÑpositions that created a Òreal worldÓ foundation for his career in college teaching and administration. He was inspired to coauthor Connect College to Career: A Student Guide to Work and Life Transitions (2005) by graduates and employers who revealed a major disconnect between university and workplace expectations, cultures, and practices.