What is the hardest obstacle to overcome when beginning in a workplace?

Start by getting to know the area and culture you will be working such as dress code, modes of transportation, travel times, traffic, where to get a bite to eat. Taking care of the fundamentals ahead of time allows you to focus on the workplace and your new position.

Introduce yourself and what you will be doing. Seek contacts relating to your position and organization and how you can help. It takes time learning a new job, what are the expectations and deliverables, tools and resources, who to contact, the hierarchy. Educate yourself in areas you lack knowledge or want to improve upon. Be curious.

Eventually, as you become familiar with your job and workplace, things will fall into place. You may very well be the next "go to" person that helps the next new employee.

Aside from learning the job itself, which obviously varies depending on your position, it would be practical networking. I don't mean just getting chummy with people in authority, but getting to know all the people you work with, what they're good at, and what they know. And then make yourself useful in some way to them. This is fitting in with the work environment and knowing how to optimize your efforts. And also getting to know those things that will benefit your co-workers in ways not officially part of you own assignment. This sort of activity makes the entire workplace operate more smoothly and with less anxiety for you and people around you. Don't forget to ask others' opinions about anything that happens in the workplace, from necessary skills to knowing what frustrates people most and see what you can do to help, if anything. Another thing that many people don't know is a particular trick of human nature. It's counter-intuitive to most, but the best way to make a friend is not to do a favor for them, but to ask them for a favor. For some strange reason -- actually it's not strange at all if you think about it -- people are positively inclined to be comfortable with folks they've helped. And when I say "think about it", consider that we are social animals, and a lot of our positive self-image comes from feeling valuable and useful to the group. When a person does a favor for someone else, they subconsciously need to rationalize why they did it to reconcile it with their mental image of that person. "I did something nice for this person, so I must have had a reason for it, and therefore that person must have been worthy of help." Try it out. It's pretty amazing. Once you've "greased the social wheels" of you fitting into the team, your effectiveness will be multiplied. Cool, huh?

Hi Meagan!

I would add to Linda's list that trying to learn the ins and outs of your new team and how they fit into the bigger picture can take a while.

I work for a very large employer so I am still learning even after 9 months on the job! The best thing to do when you first start a new job is to jump in and start learning. It can be overwhelming, but know that you are not expected to learn (or remember) everything as a new hire. One of the ways you can show initiative is to ask questions. Use your fresh perspective as an outsider coming in to ask questions like 'why do you do it this way?' or 'have you ever thought about doing it this way?'.

Learning what your team does, what your role looks like, and how that all fits into the puzzle that is your company can be like drinking from a fire hose. Don't be afraid to ask questions!