Onboarding to Success. Being a Newbie Around Supportive Colleagues & Extra Materials

Before starting the onboarding process, I was quite apprehensive about engaging and working in a new field, especially one in the IT industry. But my initial anxiety quickly subsided as I began receiving tons of support every step of the way! With all the help I was offered, I managed to overcome the steep learning curve — and even found new learning paths. 

Everything starts in the classroom, where an intense 8-day training session takes place. Here, newbies are taught essential customer care knowledge and given the space to practice possible real-life scenarios in the role of a Customer Success Manager. This period was a lot to take in for me, and for the other newbies too. Honestly, I was not expecting to absorb so much information in such a short period. I would say, prepare for a mind blow. Nonetheless, the onboarding process was well-balanced with lectures, practice sessions, and of course, plenty of breaks. Acting out fake, but realistic, scenarios and shadowing colleagues helped me get a clear image of what my day-to-day work will look like. 

Once I was out of the onboarding classroom, I was greeted by my colleagues at the office, who helped me get on with learning daily processes in detail. At CyberCare, we call them Buddies, people who are ready to pass all of the success and knowledge to the newbies. And of course, they were prepared to climb the mountain of questions, no matter how high it may be. 

Having worked for about five months, I feel ready to take on new endeavors. Be it participating in workshops or learning individually. CyberCares believe in a balance of learning through daily work, giving and receiving feedback from colleagues, and lastly, learning through training. That said, the initial training is just a confident first step in a long journey of learning. 

During workshops and knowledge-sharing sessions, we can focus on two different aspects of learning: hard and soft skills. For example, we could concentrate on developing technical skills and learn how to troubleshoot issues our customers face more effectively. Alternatively, soft skills, like conflict management, also come in handy if you’re in a crunch. 

Last but not least, I picked up one great perk at CyberCare — learning through Udemy, which is a massive online course provider. Even before I began writing blog posts, I felt that I needed to wipe off the dust from my copywriting skills, so I picked up a quick copywriting course as a refresher on the fundamentals of writing engagingly. And now, I enrolled in an extensive web development course with more than 60 hours of learning material. We will see how it goes, but I already have all the tools to learn, just need to show up. 

Stepping out of your comfort zone may be intimidating at first, it’s kind of implied in the saying. Having patient colleagues and an encouraging environment to learn and experiment goes a long way to becoming a master in customer success and your own growth.