May 2006

ongratulations! After great effort and focused energy, you’ve finally landed a fabulous new position—one that is sure to advance your career and meet your work and personal goals in a way your old position never could.

But don’t stop there. Getting hired is just the first step.

You’ll need to spend as much effort and energy—and maybe more—preparing for and making the transition. And this is where it really counts, for the first three to six months in any new position is a period of extreme vulnerability.

“It’s the highest-risk period, and the higher up you are, the riskier it is,” says Jeff Gunderson, CEO of Executive Connections, an executive search and placement firm.

Basically, the risk is that within the first few months, you either “stand up” in your new job and start moving forward—or fail.

During this transitional period, everyone in your new company—boss, direct-reports, other employees—and even suppliers and customers are all forming initial impressions that will shape their expectations and actions. This dynamic is exacerbated when people in your new company expect you to bring about change within the organization.

This transitional period might even be riskier today than seven or eight years ago. Shrunken budgets mean less training, reduced staff support, increased workloads and, perhaps most of all, increased expectations for newly hired managers and executives. Should you end up leaving after a short time, it can look bad on your resume and raise questions for future employers about your judgment commitment.

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