Throughout my short career I have been blessed with being put on big projects which would be contrary to the time I’ve been with the company. I’ve been thinking about the reason for this and it has boiled down to the fact that I ask to be given larger responsibilities and I have specifically asked to be put on certain projects. We had just been awarded a very large project that I was on the team for and I wanted to be part of the construction of the building. It was easy asking for larger responsibilities at my internships because I was temporary but as a permanent employee I had to think about longevity and company politics.

I asked a project executive at my current company about how I should state my desire to be on a new project that we had just been awarded. He gave me this piece of advice “In our company the best way to get what you want to is to tell the right people, and tell them often.” As soon as he gave me this piece of advice, I responded to the operations manager debrief email about our project award. This is what I typed “I’m very excited to hear the news and I feel extremely honored to be part of the process to win this project (I helped put together the drywall package – sorry I can’t state how much it was). I would love the opportunity to be part of the construction for (project) and hopefully my performance during the bidding process has showed what I can bring to the (project) team. I would love to discuss this opportunity with you on the deck today and look forward to speaking with you soon.”

I’m a man of my words, so at the bid party on our company’s deck/patio I came up to him and we made small talk for a few minutes. The conversation started about my current projects and then I asked about the award process for the project and afterwards introduced the subject of my email. I told him about my fear of asking him because I thought he would be bombarded by requests from everyone asking to be included. He told me I would be surprised at how uncommon it is for someone to ask that they want certain things. He then proceeded to tell me that it is a very good thing that I told him I wanted to be on this project. Then he tells me that the project executive that I asked for advice called him today and told him to put me on this project!

I made my intentions very clear that I want to be on this project and he told me that he would do his best to see that I get on but there are also a tremendous amount of variables that go into putting certain people on these big projects. I have done all I can to state my desire to be on the project and I have told the right person because the operations manager is the person who staffs all of our jobs; I will just have to wait and see if I will be given the opportunity. FINGERS CROSSED!!

One thing I’ve discovered about working at Turner and Intel is that if you want to fit in then you must do as the Romans do. This ranges from all aspects of your job from the way you dress, the hours you show up to work, the main form of communication, how to greet one another, the level of “closeness” among coworkers, the boundary between personal life and professional life, and everything else. As soon as you get started with your company keep your eyes open for how everyone conducts themselves because these will be pointers on how you should act. With time you will learn what is appropriate for your company and what is not. When you’re unsure then err on the side of caution until you get confirmation either from your supervisor or empirical observations that your behavior/choices are acceptable. Time is the best teacher but there are other ways that you can prepare yourself like reading the company handbook. Your human resources manager will also be a great starting block as well. For example, before my first day I asked the HR manager what time should I report to work and what the dress code is. These small questions allowed me to come prepared for the first day without looking foolish like wearing a full suit onto the job site. Here are a few tips to getting adjusted as a new hire.

Follow the Dress Code, both informal and formal. One thing I’m always worried about whenever I enter a new place is dress code because that can lead to embarrassment and make you uncomfortable in your surrounding. From my previous experiences, when you’re not comfortable in the clothes you’re wearing then you have a more difficult time opening up and relaxing. As I mentioned before, ask your HR manager what the dress code is before you get on the project site or start your first day. If you want to get some first hand experience, ask them if your able to come in real quick to introduce yourself or perhaps if she can send you some pictures of your future employees at work in their normal attire. If your working for a big company and visiting a different office, realize that their dress code can differ from yours even if you are part of the same company. For example, employees at Turner’s New York business unit is expected to wear a tie, no exceptions. That is not a requirement in the Portland business unit but it’s little things like these that can really create a strong first impression. Look around at what your coworkers are wearing and dress to that level. I’ve heard people say dress for the job you want to have, but be cautious because if your boss dresses in a suit but nobody else does and you begin to then that might make you look bad in your coworkers eyes. Just always be conscious of your surroundings.

Always ask questions if you’re unsure of the norm. When I started working at the Intel campus I started to come in at work around 7 AM, take a half hour lunch then leave around 3:30 PM to hit my 8 hour limit; as a level one, we were only allowed to work 40 hours per week as part of a new hire policy Turner incorporated. I thought this was fine until I started getting some weird looks from my supervisor when I was leaving at 3:30 and luckily one of my coworkers told me that she was asking about my hours and suggested that I talk to my supervisor about my schedule. So I spoke to her the next day and told her my reasoning behind my current schedule. She explained to me that engineers usually get in at 8 AM then leave at 5 PM with a one hour lunch but she let me know that since it was slow I could keep my current schedule. She also warned me that when things picked up, I will need to adjust my schedule. This short conversation cleared up the air between us and now she knows why I leave early and I found her expectations. Over time I’ve come to understand that it doesn’t matter what time I leave as long as I get my work done and I let her know ahead of time if I’m going to leave earlier than usual.

Don’t rock the boat until you are the captain. Coming in as a new hire I know you want to change things up and show that you can make an immediate impact to the team. But for the first months or maybe even year, it’s best to sit back and just observe how your coworkers and bosses conduct themselves. Don’t be a know-it-all when it comes to changing processes or making suggestions. You will find out that many of your coworkers have been doing things the same way for years and they have a certain way they like to proceed with tasks. Follow their instructions and if you want to deviate from their plan, make sure you have a more valid reason than just wanting to try something new. I believe this piece of advice is very important because you don’t want to upset your supervisor. Demonstrate to them that you can follow directions and when you start to fully understand the workings behind the process then you will be in a better position to make suggestions.

New hires will always be eager to impress their new employers but sometimes it’s just best to sit back and observe and put your best foot forward when you’re asked to. Be prepared before you enter the job site and always be looking around at your coworkers and surroundings. Learn how to conduct yourself in meetings, informal discussions, how to greet others, and how your office is run. When you start your career just remember that you are in Rome and you should do as the Romans do.

The first time I was introduced to emailing professionally was on my Sears internship and I thought I was doing things correctly but I still had a lot to learn. I would think other students don’t get experience with communicating through email with a professional until they enter college when they start discussing with their professors and teaching assistants about assignments. But even at that stage, it is still very informal and student’s don’t see the importance of rereading your emails for corrections and picking precise words for brevity and to convey the right message. That’s the reason I stress the importance of internships and other similar professional experience because it gives you an opportunity to see what it entails to write emails to customers, supervisors, high-level management, and other team members. Before I had internships, I knew the basics of email etiquette but when I worked on my internships is when I was really taught about the importance of using words to be concise and portray the message you want. For example, during my internship with Clark County I was writing an email to a contractor to make sure that he got his DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, there are many different names for it but it’s basically to develop minority education) training in. There was a set date on when he had to have 100 hours of DBE training in, so I write in an email  “The Contractor should have 100 hours of training completed by 07/16/11.” My boss then tells me that it is too wishy washy and told me to change “should” to “will” that way the wording is more concrete. One piece of advice he told me was whenever I was having any correspondence with another professional I need to write like a lawyer and make sure that I’m absolutely clear because you never know when it can come back to you so you need to have your butt covered. So with that, here are a few things I’ve learned along the way regarding email correspondence and etiquette.

Before you hit SEND, remember that ANYONE can read your email. My supervisor would tell me horror stories about emails that have come back to haunt people and led to their termination.  Therefore, double check your grammar, words, punctuation, and if it makes sense or not. One thing I found that is really helpful is reading the email out loud; it really helps with finding mistakes and making sure you are using are instead of is when you’re suppose to. In our day and age, nothing is ever private so don’t send out something unless you don’t mind your mother reading it. One thing Turner tells us is that “You’re always wearing Turner Blue” so remember that when you send out an email it reflects not only you but your company as well; if you don’t represent your firm well then you soon won’t have a firm to represent.

Make sure you are CLEAR & CONCISE and get a second opinion before sending out any contract related emails. We talk to a lot of subcontractors about schedule, cost, and work and since we are their “bosses” and they take our word very seriously. This can lead to them misconstruing what we say and go against our wishes on purpose or by mistake. For example, it’s easy for miscommunication when you state that the project will be funded tomorrow and the contractor might mistake that for a green light and he starts work the same day but you must inform him that he cannot proceed until he gets a contract from you. There are a million examples of simple email exchanges that have lead to catastrophic mistakes because one person said one thing but the other interpreted it in a different way. Getting someone else’s opinion is extremely helpful because they can look at it objectively and provide a new pair of eyes to your email. For example, one of my coworkers asked me to look over his email and I saw that he used the word “scrambling” when referring to trying to make schedule so I told him to change that. He asked me why and I told him that it made us seem weak and unsure of what to do so we changed it to “working diligently.” It’s little things like that can make a huge difference in the eyes of your clients because this email was being sent to subs, the customer, and their bosses.

Create a professional looking signature. This is very important because it is usually a person’s first perception of how you conduct yourself and how professional you are. I’ve seen some horrible signatures with multiple pictures that adds clutter/attachments to the emails; you must remember that many people look at emails in more than one way so formatting that works over multiple platforms is important. I’ve found the best emails are very short and concise usually consisting of a person’s name, title, company, email, and cell. One advantage of having a signature is you don’t have to waste your recipient’s time by writing “Hi, my name is Khang with Turner Construction…” instead you can get their attention right away by stating the facts and what this email entails. If they wonder who you are, then they can look quickly at your signature and quickly figure it out. Remember, little things make a big difference.

Only cc the necessary people and contact the PROPER person. I didn’t know what email overload really was until I started working with Turner and on a typical day I can get over 100+ emails and even more when bids are due. I’m sure that the higher you are on the ladder, the higher your average daily email count will be. So if you want to get a prompt response then you need to learn to contact the right person or else it could get lost in their sea of emails. You’ll find that some people are very diligent with their inbox while others are stuck in a cluster**** and have a very difficult time responding to emails in a timely manner. So be courteous to your recipients by only sending them an email if it is pertinent to them and make sure you contact the person who is the decision maker or can get you into direct contact me that person.

These are only a few things I’ve learned throughout my internships and my short time with Turner. You will learn quickly how important email correspondence is to you being a successful employee and company representative. Practice it and make sure to be diligent, organized and also professional because people will take notice. Remember, when it comes to email, it’s the little things that make the biggest impact.

One great piece of advice I’ve heard from Randy Pausch (late professor at Carnegie Mellon) is “when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up.” This was a thought that came to me when I was driving back from a foreman’s meeting with my fellow engineer and he decided to give me some constructive feedback about my behavior. He was been a great coworker/teacher because I can truly tell he’s looking out for me through his many actions and the way he goes out of his way to teach me things about building construction; I truly believe that hereally wants to see me succeed. Before he started the conversation, he told me about a training he went to called “Training Young Leaders” and he said that it was necessary to give constructive feedback to help people grow or else they will get complacent with constant positive feedback. He then proceeded to tell me that he could see I really want to work hard and that I had great potential and will go far with Turner. After he built the cushion to drop me down on, he started to tell me about a few things I did that made me look unprofessional and also things that my immediate supervisor didn’t like.

First, he told me about a habit I’ve developed in college that I wasn’t realizing I did in meetings. I learned how to do a pen flip in college and that was what I would constantly do in lecture without ever realizing it. It seems that this habit transcended into my professional career and I was doing it during meetings without a thought. He told me this excessive movement made me seem nervous and it can be annoying to some people. Further, it made me look unprofessional by making it seem like I wasn’t paying attention. I never really thought of it that way before and I felt embarrassed when he told me but was also very grateful because it’s really difficult to see sometimes when you are stuck in the middle. It’s nice that somebody from the outside can pull you aside and tell you what the problems are because they have an objective view. I really appreciated him telling me about this because now I can be more conscious about what I do at meetings. As strange as it may seem to me still, I am a professional now and everything I do will be scrutinized by coworkers, subcontractors, clients and customers, my supervisor, and everybody else who is making a judgement about my character with every action I make.

The second piece of feedback had to deal with the same issue but this time it was more directly related to my supervisor. I sometimes make a clicking noise, similar to a beat boxing when I get bored and my coworker told me that this annoyed my supervisor. She had subtly mentioned it before but I never knew how much it really bothered her until my coworker told me she said to him in passing how it makes her really tick. Once again, I became more conscious about what I do in “down times” so I don’t seem unprofessional. It gets really difficult because when your mind starts to wander then you don’t pay attention to the little nuisances that consume your everyday life.

So my advice to you is to ask a close worker to give you candid feedback on any nuisances you do that tick them off or if they heard about things you do that tick other people off. It will be difficult to hear and you might just think those people are being anal but you must realize you are a professional and you should conduct yourself in that way. Nonchalant things to you might be a pet peeve to someone else – as I found out. Take one of your trusted coworkers aside and ask them for some constructive feedback and be prepared to receive it because in the end it will make you a better professional. Also, don’t forget to tell other people if they do things that you find annoying because you are probably not the only person being annoyed. Just do it tactfully and never embarrass  your coworker in front of others; have this conversation in private and explain to them your doing this because you respect them as a coworker and want to see them succeed. I believe these little things will truly help your career in the long run, I know it has already made a tremendous impact for me.