Hiring a new employee is painful. Hiring managers are already typically in a lot of pain from losing their previous employee. Production is halted and the manager is worried about how long it will take before he or she can get you up to speed so they can go back to work.

Showing them an informed 90 day plan is your golden key. This will ease their anxiety about how long it will take to grain you before you are self sufficient. How do you get this key? Networking. Go to the former employee, a current employee in a similar role, or one of he manager’s peers. They might be able to give you an idea of what to put on your plan.

Five things to watch out for:

1. An uninformed 90 day plan will hurt you more than help you. When in doubt, leave it out.
2. Keep it simple. Most offices are in a constant state of change. A very rigid plan will likely be shot to pieces during the couple months.
3. Include some meat. Fluffy plans yield fluffy results. Increase teamwork is fluffy. Conduct three innovative object lessons demonstrating collaboration best practices is not.
4. Make yourself accountable. Include key performance indicators in your plan. Putting up some concrete numbers will allow your hiring manager to track your performance and then hopefully reward you when you accomplish them.
5. Ask for their advice. If you feel like your plan has hit the mark with your interview panel, feel free to ask a couple questions about how it could be improved. Consider asking what a “wildly successful project” would look like for this role.

Want some additional ideas for your 90 day plan? Let’s get together and chat.