When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing(28)
4. If the competition is meager, going toward the end can give you an edge by highlighting your differences. “If it was a weak day with many bad candidates, it’s a really good idea to go last,” says Simonsohn.9
FOUR TIPS FOR MAKING A FAST START IN A NEW JOB
You’ve read about the perils of graduating in a recession. We can’t do much to avoid that fate. But whenever we begin a new job—in a recession or a boom—we can influence how much we enjoy the job and how well we do. With that in mind, here are four research-backed recommendations for how to make a fast start in a new job.
1. Begin before you begin.
Executive advisor Michael Watkins recommends picking a specific day and time when you visualize yourself “transforming” into your new role.10 It’s hard to get a fast start when your self-image is stuck in the past. By mentally picturing yourself “becoming” a new person even before you enter the front door, you’ll hit the carpet running. This is especially true when it comes to leadership roles. According to former Harvard professor Ram Charan, one of the toughest transitions lies in going from a specialist to a generalist.11 So as you think about your new role, don’t forget to see how it connects to the bigger picture. For one of the ultimate new jobs—becoming president of the United States—research has shown that one of the best predictors of presidential success is how early the transition began and how effectively it was handled.12
2. Let your results do the talking.
A new job can be daunting because it requires establishing yourself in the organization’s hierarchy. Many individuals overcompensate for their initial nervousness and assert themselves too quickly and too soon. That can be counterproductive. Research from UCLA’s Corinne Bendersky suggests that over time extroverts lose status in groups.13 So, at the outset, concentrate on accomplishing a few meaningful achievements, and once you’ve gained status by demonstrating excellence, feel free to be more assertive.
3. Stockpile your motivation.
On your first day in a new role, you’ll be filled with energy. By day thirty? Maybe less so. Motivation comes in spurts—which is why Stanford psychologist B. J. Fogg recommends taking advantage of “motivation waves” so you can weather “motivation troughs.”14 If you’re a new salesman, use motivation waves to set up leads, organize calls, and master new techniques. During troughs, you’ll have the luxury of working at your core role without worrying about less interesting peripheral tasks.
4. Sustain your morale with small wins.
Taking a new job isn’t exactly like recovering from an addiction, but programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous do offer some guidance. They don’t order members to embrace sobriety forever but instead ask them to succeed “24 hours at a time,” something Karl Weick noted in his seminal work on “small wins.”15 Harvard professor Teresa Amabile concurs. After examining 12,000 daily diary entries by several hundred workers, she found that the single largest motivator was making progress in meaningful work.16 Wins needn’t be large to be meaningful. When you enter a new role, set up small “high-probability” targets and celebrate when you hit them. They’ll give you the motivation and energy to take on more daunting challenges further down the highway.
WHEN SHOULD YOU GET MARRIED?
One of the most important beginnings many of us make in life is getting married. I’ll leave it to others to recommend whom you should marry. But I can give you some guidance about when to tie the knot. The science of timing doesn’t provide definitive answers, but it does offer three general guidelines: 1. Wait until you’re old enough (but not too old).
It’s probably no surprise that people who marry when they’re very young are more likely to divorce. For instance, an American who weds at twenty-five is 11 percent less likely to divorce than one who marries at age twenty-four, according to an analysis by University of Utah sociologist Nicholas Wolfinger. But waiting too long has a downside. Past the age of about thirty-two—even after controlling for religion, education, geographic location, and other factors—the odds of divorce increase by 5 percent per year for at least the next decade.17
2. Wait until you’ve completed your education.
Couples tend to be more satisfied with their marriages, and less likely to divorce, if they have more education before the wedding. Consider two couples. They’re the same age and race, have comparable incomes, and have attended the same total amount of school. Even among these similar couples, the pair who weds after completing school is more likely to stay together.18 So finish as much education as you can before getting hitched.
3. Wait until your relationship matures.
Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo Mialon at Emory University found that couples that dated for at least one year before marriage were 20 percent less likely to divorce than those who made the move more quickly.19 Couples that had dated for more than three years were even less likely to split up once they exchanged vows. (Francis-Tan and Mialon also found that the more a couple spent on its wedding and any engagement ring, the more likely they were to divorce.) In short, for one of life’s ultimate when questions, forget the romantics and listen to the scientists. Prudence beats passion.
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MIDPOINTS
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