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How long it takes to adjust to a new job is about four to six months, according to Nicole Milazzo, who watches new hires go through exactly that timeline for a living. She leads entry-level Learning and Development at Publicis Media, and that's the timeline she shares with every new associate convinced they should already have it all together.
Nicole Milazzo, Associate Director of Learning and Development at Publicis Media, coaches people through year one, so I asked her what normal actually looks like.
How long does it take to adjust to a new job?
After watching the timeline repeat for years, Nicole settled on one thing to tell every new hire, and she sticks to it. "It takes a good four to six months to feel settled and feel like you understand what your work is," she said.
By the second month, most expect to be running it themselves. That expectation is the problem, not the timeline.
The first few months, you absorb. You don't output. Ask the questions, sit in on the trainings, and give yourself the runway before you judge your own progress.
New in the industry? I sit down with people a few seats ahead and bring back what they wish they knew in year one. Subscribe on YouTube.
Is it normal to feel behind in your first months?
For her grad school capstone, Nicole studied Gen Z onboarding. The finding that stuck with her: fewer new hires show up with prior in-office experience than previous generations had at the same point in their careers.
Her read isn't a knock on anyone. "They don't often have that opportunity to get the norms of office life under their belt before they start working full-time," she said. That gap gets closed on the job, not before it.
Which soft skill and hard skill should new hires build first?
Her soft skill pick, no hedging, is over-communication. "Being as explicit and clear as you can in the way that you communicate is a better use of your time," she said. It's a skill she says took her years to build on her own.
Her hard skill pick is PowerPoint, not because new hires are bad at it, but because of timing. Associates live in Excel and build those reps automatically, while PowerPoint becomes a much bigger part of the job once you're a supervisor, when there's a lot less time to learn it cleanly.
How do you volunteer into a role that doesn't exist yet?
Nicole got into L&D, and a job posting wasn't how it started. She volunteered on the training program for years as a side project before getting hired full time to manage it.
Can't find the role you want? Find where that work is already happening at your company and start doing some of it yourself, on your own time. As she put it, "most people want you to succeed."
Watch the full conversation
Watch the full episode with Nicole Milazzo on YouTube for her take on imposter syndrome, why she calls networking with your peers just as important as networking up, and the planner system she runs her whole life on.
Watch next: Stop Blending In: Advice For Your First Marketing Job
New in the industry? I sit down with people a few seats ahead and bring back what they wish they knew in year one. Subscribe on YouTube.