I started a new position last week as a headhunter. I’ve marketed people practically my whole career and have gotten people jobs but never was employed by a recruiting firm. I’ve thought about it for the past 5 years and also interviewed with several companies but never found a good fit until recently.

We are meeting people who are in our training class who are located in other offices around the country. There are 80 offices nationwide so the people are all over the country and also have many different backgrounds, experience and are working many different industries.

Today one of the women confided in me that she was struggling. She’s young and hasn’t done any type of sales before. She also didn’t feel like she was getting the job and fitting in at the office.

I was able to share with her that she really needed to give herself a year before she felt whether or not she was cut out for the job. Also, she’s in a sales environment and sales professionals most often are naturally competitive human beings, and aren’t going to nurture their competitors that much. You have to be an independent sort to want to be in sales in the first place.

I told her that her feelings are NORMAL and even though I’ve worked in a very similar industry, that there were many things that were new to me. I’ve coached people, recruited people and promoted people, but even if I had done this EXACT job in this EXACT industry, taking a new job is going to be an adjustment.

Think about it! There is a new commute. There are new people greeting you in the morning and that you see all day long. You have to learn a new computer system, new phones and learn a whole new job. If you’ve switched industries, there are new things to learn about that. And for lunch? You now have new places to choose from!

Starting a new job takes guts, courage and patience. It’s not going to be super easy from the get go. It’s going to take time before you feel 100% comfortable. That’s going to be the same for a receptionist of the CEO of the company.

Hopefully, you’ll remember how you feel now or felt then, and when someone else jumps on board, you’ll be able to be a support to them so they’ll feel a bit more comfortable than you did when you started.

After sharing my thoughts of encouragement with her, she thanked me and seemed to understand it’s just going to take some time. I’m hoping that I convinced her of that anyway.

And now, time to get ready and do it all again tomorrow.