Sponsored by Gillette Shave Club.
Some people believe that life improves after college. Some people believe that life gets worse after college. Here at COED, we believe that the truth is somewhere in between. You may never have the freedom and lack of responsibility you enjoy in college, but the reward of making your own money and enjoying the perks of being an adult is hard to beat.
If you’re graduating this June, chances are that you’ve gotten a ton of advice from your parents, advisors, and even the media on what to expect and how to act once you start working in an office.
We don’t want to tell you that your dad’s advice on “dressing for the job you want” is wrong, but truthfully things have changed in the work place over the past twenty years. So it’s best to consider this “Do’s and Don’ts” a little addendum to whatever your family has told you.
DO: Come Into the Office With a Well-Groomed Face
The idea that beards are a no-no on the job is antiquated. Obviously our workplace skews on the extremely casual spectrum of things (we’re a men’s lifestyle website for God’s sake), but tons of my friends who work in finance and at banks have facial hair. Are they rocking five o’clock shadows? Absolutely not. But they look good because they care about their appearance.
The best way to care for your face and beard is with regular grooming. There are a lot of shave options out there, but we think your best bet is with the Gillette Shave Club–a fully-customizable subscription service that offers free shipping on the great quality Gillette razors you’re most familiar with. Simply choose the blade you want, the frequency you want them delivered, and bingo bango that’s one less thing you need to worry about.
If you need to, give your face a break on the weekends. But you should be shaving (or grooming) at least three times from Monday-Friday which can be hell on your skin. Do yourself a favor and give your face some rest.
DO: When Coworkers (Or Your Boss) Invite You Out, Join Them
I know that you’re trying to take advantage of that somewhat expensive gym you just joined, and that coming home at 9 PM leaves you no time to enjoy your evening, but the truth is that it’s important for a couple of reasons to engage with your coworkers outside of the office.
First off, it’s a good way to get to know them and build relationships, so that you can work with them better, but more importantly, come annual review time, this will be a huge bonus when your name comes up. Some experts believe the way you interact with your coworkers is actually more important than the work you do.
Finally, it will also give you something to talk about other than work when you eat lunch with them. Which you should do. The Harvard Business Review explains why here:
Your office is full of intelligent, thoughtful, and experienced people. Get to know them. Treat them with respect. Ask them questions. Learn from them. And have fun in the process.
Just make sure that whenever you go out with them, they look groggier in the morning than you do.
Also, this absolutely doesn’t mean going out with them all the time. It’s important to separate work and personal time. You’ll be able to sort that out as you spend more time at your new job.
DON’T: Leave Dirty Dishes In The Sink
This is both an analogy and literal. As far as the literal explanation goes, always clean your plate, bowl, or whatever item it is that you’ve finished using in the company kitchen. No one likes to see crumbs in the sink, especially from a scrub who just started working there.
But as far as the analogy goes, this means that you’re new so you should also relish in the dirty work some of your more senior coworkers delegate to you. After surviving college and the all-nighters you regularly pulled, we’re not suggesting you don’t appreciate the importance of hard work, but the truth is that you don’t know what you need to do to succeed yet.
DON’T: Wear a Suit To Work If You Don’t Need To
“Dress for the job you want, not the one you have” is one of the more popular phrases when it comes to office attire. But that was when everyone was wearing jackets and ties to work. Nowadays, things are considerably different.
Yes, there are absolutely jobs where you should be dressing in a suit every day, but unless you’re working finance or real estate, you can take it down a notch. There are plenty of men’s fashion blogs that give solid examples of appropriate work attire.
The most important thing I would say is to take a look around at the coworkers whose attitude you admire (not the slobs who are always late and constantly worried about being fired) and match them. If you overdress too often, people will assume that you’re hungry for a promotion or trying to outwork them–and that’s a dangerous game to play, especially if you’re in your first year working.
The one exception to this is if you have a dope wardrobe and can pull off thirty different jacket-and-tie combinations. If that’s the case, let it fly.
DO: Make Sure You Don’t Burn Out Too Soon
We know that we just told you to “clean up the dirty dishes” but you’re not going to do anyone any good if you’re burnt out and unable to perform. As LifeHacker puts it, “It’s a fine balance between maintaining a consistent work ethic, being reliable, and still giving yourself the time off you need to survive.”
So take your sick days (if you’re sick), use your vacation days (but not too early), outsource personal tasks where you can (hello Gillette Shave Club) and make sure that you stay somewhat sane so that you can maintain a consistent output.
DON’T Send Anything Via Email Or Instant Message You Don’t Want Your Boss or Coworkers To See
Because they’ll see it. Believe you me, they’ll see it.
If you absolutely need to put someone on blast, make sure it’s a text message or that it’s being sent from your PERSONAL EMAIL while you’re not connected to the company WiFi. With the way that IT security and everything else is going, more than likely all your emails are being scanned or will be scanned shortly. Why risk anything at all?
If you have something negative to say about someone, it’s best to do it with conversation, where it can’t be recorded and used against you.