Here are some guidelines for getting started in your new role.
Partner with your manager to identify your initial assignments, training you might need, and how you can begin making immediate contributions. As you settle into your new role and work routine, explore the ways you can connect with your team and the MIT community.
Complete key tasks
- If you haven't already done so, be sure to complete Section 1 of Form I-9 in MIT's online system. After completing Section 1, you have 3 business days from beginning work at MIT to present original supporting documentation either on campus or remotely.
- Continue to complete your tasks on the New Hire Activity page
- Set up your personal workspace
- See MIT’s Environment Health and Safety Office for tips and training to assist in setting up a remote ergonomic workspace
- See IS&T for detailed guidance on tools and technology
- Review where to locate Institute and department policies
Connect with your manager
- Prepare questions for your first several meetings with your manager
- Review the functional area – its purpose, organizational structure, and goals
- Review your job description, outline of duties, and expectations; ask how your job fits in the department, and how your job and department contribute to the unit/school and the Institute
- Inquire about staff meetings and regularly scheduled activities, understand how your manager and team manage, coordinate, and share calendars
- Ask what platforms (ex. Slack, Zoom, Webex, Outlook) your team is using to communicate and connect; clarify when employees must be online and available and which forms of communication require an immediate response and which are less urgent
- Discuss how meaningful feedback will be shared
- Request time to go over the performance review and goal-setting process in your department
- Schedule your three and six month performance check-in
Build relationships
- Review your department organizational chart
- In coordination with your manager, set up meetings with your team members and other key employees.
- These meetings could be on-on-one or group calls; start with conversations about their background, career paths, personal/professional interests
- Continue to build rapport with follow up invitations for more in depth conversations about the DLCI, partnerships, collaborations, projects, and initiatives
- Plan to meet with co-workers, direct reports, and employees from other departments with whom you’ll work closely
Training and development
- Talk with your manager about role based training
- Identify which colleagues and central departments are available to answer questions and provide support while you are training
- Follow up with your manager with questions
- Schedule training with your IT department/contact
- Set-up can take a significant amount of time. Plan for up to two hours.
- Become familiar with file-sharing applications and cloud backup software, computer security, password management, and data encryption tools to protect your devices
- Let your manager/IT contact know as soon as possible if something is not working properly
Stay informed and connect with the MIT community
- Read about MIT history, watch videos featuring discovery, news, and campus life, visit the MIT Museum's online resources, virtual events, and at-home activities
- Download the MIT Mobile App (found in the App store by searching MIT)
- See some essential resources to help you get oriented at the Institute
- Stay informed by subscribing to newsletters such as MIT News, MIT Medical, Faculty, and Sloan’s Thinking Forward
What's Next?
See a checklist for your first months.
