By JOSHUA BJERKE (recruitment.com)

Be it your first job out of college, your first after an extended period of unemployment, or your first position in a new career, chances are you don’t have a full idea of what to expect from the experience. There are always necessary adjustments that must be made to adapt to the new surroundings. Despite the unfamiliar territory, many employees may still hold unreasonable expectations about their new jobs and feel a sense of shock or disappointment when those expectations are not met. Whatever your current situation may be, try to avoid falling for these unfounded expectations that most any job will almost certainly fail to meet.

Promotions and pay raises are automatic job incentives that occur regardless of performance:

False! There are virtually no companies that would offer a raise or promotion without reason. Sure, the longer you remain at a single job the more likely you are to receive advancement opportunities, but if your idea of gaining seniority is to just keep your head down and perform your duties merely adequately you must face the fact that you will never advance within the corporate ranks. Even if you aren’t looking for promotions or a bigger paycheck (and why aren’t you?) there is still a lot to gain from doing your best everyday and recognized for your good service.

As long as you follow your heart, you will always enjoy your job:

Of course following your passions is necessary to leading a happy and fulfilling life, but to believe that your “dream job” will automatically create a utopian existence is idealistic and unreasonable. Many people put forth Herculean efforts just to land the job they’ve always thought they wanted only to find that it was nearly as enjoyable as they had always thought. It is important to realize that any job, no matter its focus, will always occasionally be boring, tedious, and frustrating. Even if your job doesn’t turn out to be as great as you thought, be patient with it and realize that no job is perfect.

Regardless of your people skills, you can excel at any job for which you are otherwise qualified:

Unfortunately, shyness is not a trait well looked upon in the professional world. You must be able to communicate your ideas to people, get people to like you, and promote yourself. Regardless of how well you perform on a daily basis, if no one likes you or you never contribute ideas you won’t get very far.

The job that you are hired for will be the job you retire from:

The initial job description may be what drew you into your profession to begin with but if you want to continue with your professional development and excel as an employee you have to be prepared to expand beyond your original duties. A common complaint from new employees is that, within a few months, they are required to perform tasks that they were not originally hired to perform. But as long as the requests remain reasonable, expanding your skill set is always worth the effort and occasional hassle. Accept as much additional work as you can to increase your value to the company and prove why you deserve more recognition and compensation.

The bottom line here is that you should never assume your expectations to be true and every new job should be approached with an open mind and a willingness to accept changes as they come, whether they are expected or not.