Full disclosure: I was given this book for free when I
started my job so I figured that I’d read it and give it a try. It’s about the
first 90 days in a new job or new position and the changes that you should
expect and tips for how to deal with them. Honestly, I don’t think it’s helpful
at all.
Transitions are important, absolutely, and you want to get
up to speed asap, but the ridiculously anal way that the author expects you to
go about them I think would create more problems than it would solve. For
example, you really shouldn’t irritate your co-workers by filling out a little
chart of every conversation and the things that you accomplished. The result is
that some things are really overcomplicated, and then others are simplified
down to the point of annoyance. He also uses all of these various acronyms and
mnemonic devices, but it seems like he made them up and they aren’t actually
corporate jargon because I’ve never heard/seen of them outside of this book.
Sure these techniques are probably helpful, and it is good
to know what to keep in mind when going to meetings and everything, but take it
with a grain of salt please!
Then there’s the general structure. Each chapter is started
with a story about some hypothetical person who switched jobs or was promoted
and did everything wrong. I think maybe 1 out of the 10 chapters involved
someone transitioning well, which is just disheartening. And it nearly always
was obvious what they did wrong, which makes me question the purpose of these
little anecdotes. If you can figure out what they’re doing wrong right away,
then do you even need to read the chapter?
So this book has a nice concept behind it, but not
implemented terribly well.
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