A
female
age
30-35,
anonymous
writes:Can anyone give me abit of advice for starting a new job. I know its not a relationship question but its really getting me down. I'm by far a confident person, infact I'm worried that I won't be able to do the job properly and perform as they had expect. I'm going from working in retail since I was 17 to working as an administrator/receptionist. I've left some of the best people I know behind at my old job and I'm scared that these new people won't like me. I did a business degree at uni so my new manager has said I have to expect to be getting the chance to put everything I learnt at uni into practice. This scares me. Main reason being is that I did very well at uni, and when I know what I'm doing I can do it to a very good standard, but I'm not the intellegent individual hes told everyone I am. I actually take quite a while to learn and sometimes need things explaining in a different way or more than once for me to "get it". I never stated this in the interview as its never cropped up. I have been tested for dslyexia and it came back negative as it was all basic questions like left and right. I jsut struggle to take things in and understand espeically under pressure. I know I shouldn't be saying I work well under pressure in my interview but if you don't your pretty much wiped off the list for consideration. Everyone has to exagerate abit to get their foot in the door.He asked how I felt with various programs and I was honest in respect that micrsoft word and outlook im pretty good with, however excel I only know the basics. he never asked what these basics were but when he said can i do something, for example validations I said no I had heard of them though. When he expalined I said I think I had done them once at uni years ago but wasnt confident with them now. Which is true I cant even remember what they were for infact theres a chance it was something similar I did. Problem is my new manager was an IT teacher so what I consider a good standard of knowledge for whatever program he probably assumes I can do more as he will know of things I"ve never even heard of.He just seems to be expecting alot from me. Hes also asked me to get involved with an online project after I've settled in which I'm very excited for as this is the one thing I am confident with doing.Is there anyone who has a similar job in reception or administration that can give me some tips or some of the tasks they get given so I can research and practise them. I have no idea whats going to be asked. Please Please Please help me, I'm terrified and I NEED this opportunity. I hate my other job and I would hate to know that I'm born to be stuck in a dead end position like that. Reply to this Question
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Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
female
reader, WhenCowsAttack  +, writes (14 February 2014):
You'll be fine, Darlin'. This is a huge step up from retail.
LISTEN. Take notes. Do not ever be afraid to ask questions or admit you don't know something. You will excel at your new job!
A
female
reader, ImListening +, writes (14 February 2014):
Congrats on getting this new job.
Being organised is a big thing, as Honeypie said write everything down & have different sections for different tasks.
Also, with excel, there are a lot of online courses you can take, if you're from the UK like me, theres currently a good deal on a Microsoft course on one of those 'daily deal' sites- I'm not sure if I'm allowed to name it here? & the course raanges in excel from basic to advanced. But if you don't want to do those, most tasks in excel you can google- for instance if you wanted to know what formula you need to use, or if you're doing a sheet for statistic and data purposes and you wanted to do an automated colour coding system for this. Google is amazing for this, theres so many different things you can do in excel, and Google usually has all the answers!
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A
female
reader, Honeypie +, writes (14 February 2014):
 Are you being trained or just thrown in the job?
If you are being trained, take notes - don't just nod, and pretend you understand everything - ASK if you aren't sure, then JOT it down. Rather ask the same question twice then be clueless. Take your job serious, don't take yourself TOO serious. :)
After the first week or two you should have notes good enough that you can do things on your own, I would suggest that you ORGANIZE your notes as soon as you get home each night.
I have in all the jobs I have had. made a folder/binder with stuff that was USEFUL. For instance as a receptionist you would need to learn how to work the phone system, forward calls, maybe call out for stuff, book stuff - so take notes and have a section in your binder that is about the phone.
If you book plane rides, hotels, travel - then have a section for that. You should have a contact person (that the last receptionist used) who can help you with the booking and so forth.
And so forth. BE organized it will help you feel like you can do your job better.
EVERYONE embellish their CV a little and pretend they know stuff they don't. The thing is to see WHAT things (like software) they USE and learn to use it, again if someone SHOWS you, take notes, ASK questions.
YOU will do fine.
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