5 Practical Tips for Starting a New Job Remotely

Starting a new role is challenging enough as is but with today’s remote working norm added to the mix, there’s a new set of hurdles to overcome. Like trying to introduce yourself and your entire career backstory... while on mute. To help those who have recently started a new job or who may land one soon, we’ve rounded up some key advice from the brand marketing community on ways to best ramp up and settle in at your new gig. We’ve also included some tips on how to go beyond surface-level to build meaningful relationships with new team members. Focus First on Relationships over Wins “I know for many of my fellow colleagues who are leading marketing, when they are coming to new roles, we want to immediately put points on the board, right? You want to immediately jump in and, and just start showing and adding value. And while that is of utmost importance, the way to actually get that done is by first building relationships. ...I really invested that time in getting to know them, getting to understand their perspective on the business, getting to understand where they felt marketing should be going and why.” Dara Treseder, Head of Global Marketing & Communications of Peloton “I started day one with a very focused priority list for my first month. The first thing on that list was getting to know my team and other partners I’d be working with. ... In my first month, I conducted a series of video meetings with my team, peers, leaders and cross-functional partners just to get to know them as humans before diving into specific work projects. I had a very intense onboarding schedule for the first 45-days, so being intentional and focused in my conversations with new team members was crucial.” Jamie Wideman, VP of innovation, Molson Coors Be Intentional With Meet and Greets “Come prepared with thoughtful questions that get the other person to talk, and seek to drive the agenda if you can. Showing a balance of preparation, curiosity and active listening in each conversation will make everyone feel great about your joining and avoid any buyer's remorse.” Matt Kerbel, VP of marketing, Homie (shout-out to Matt for inspiring this piece with his Linkedin post) “I spent the weeks before I started having coffee zooms with our exec team, key stakeholders and my directs. I think I had nearly 20 chats before my first day. I introduced my family, listened to them, learned their kids names, favorite activities and what they wished to see from my role. So, when I joined, Chime and I felt familiar to one another and I dove in.” Taj Alavi, VP, Marketing, Chime The Follow-up is Key “I had the pleasure of not only starting my new role at Hulu remotely, but I relocated from the Midwest to the West Coast during this pandemic. ... I’ve used [Evernote] to take notes during 1:1 meet & greets and agency meetings. Then, I organize the notes and set reminders to follow-up. Back-to-back video calls can be exhausting at times, so this is truly been a great resource to make my remote working transition easier!” Tatiana Holifield, Head of Brand Social, Hulu Think Beyond the Zoom “One thing I did was GTKY Emails (Getting To Know You). I have a large team and without the benefit of seeing faces in the halls, I knew it would take time to meet all my skip levels one-on-one. So, in my first week, I asked everyone to send me an email answering questions like their personal and professional background, what kind of leader motivates them to do their best, and what they’d change about work if they could. It helped me quickly get a sense of each team member’s role, passions, and morale, and when I finally started meeting people individually, we were able to have deeper relationship-building conversations.” Anisha Raghavan, CMO, Global Brands Americas, Walgreens Boots Alliance Remember to Keep Things Fun “I’ve brought in special guests to team meetings since the team hasn’t been exposed to many folks outside of the company. Ranges from celebs to marketing leaders and definitely made the energy and vibe fun. We have also played games like Among Us in team meetings and have a weekly share out of popular memes which is insightful and fun.” Nick Tran, Head of Global Marketing, TikTok

Tips for Success

5 Practical Tips for Starting a New Job Remotely

Heide Palermo

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