Fast Start - Your First 60 Days

First 30 days: Have a "How am I doing?" meeting with your boss.

Don't assume that your boss knows what you're doing. Managers usually assume that you're doing what they expect - even if they haven't defined what that is.

"It's not the boss's job to ask what you're working on and how it's going," Seale says. "It's up to you to seek out the boss."

Molly Buchholz, who joined the Lucent account at Foote Cone last February, gave herself a 30-day deadline for checking in with the person who hired her. She kept a running list of things to talk about: Her work style is more aggressive and formal than that of her group - Was that okay? A junior team member on the Lucent account had left Foote Cone - How would that change affect her?

"People who expect others to come to them spend too much time waiting around," says Buchholz. "I want to be more aggressive. I want people to know I'm here."

Buchholz's sit-down with the senior VP in her division allayed her worries about the disagreement over the hockey-sponsorship deal. The whole thing turned out to be a nonissue. "And he made it clear that he wants to hear from me," she says. "He even wanted my feedback on his role."

Many new hires put off checking in with the boss because they're afraid they'll hear unpleasant news. That's about as smart as avoiding the doctor because you think your health is failing, Seale argues: "Your boss wants you to succeed. Your success makes him look good. Even though the boss is judging your performance, he's not an adversary - he's an ally."

First 45 days: Write your job description.

Forget about asking for a job description, says Seale. That pithy paragraph reflects only what your superiors think your job will be, not what it is.

Once you've spent about a month and a half on the job, you should have a solid sense of your responsibilities. How do they differ from what you were led to expect? Are there new opportunities that you might pursue? Get your questions down on paper, along with a list of your top projects and your most pressing deadlines. Then review them with your boss. The goal: to create a real-world job description that you both agree on.

"In the world of work, it's very foolish to guess," Seale says. "It's hard enough to do really good work and to manage relationships, even when you're on track. Why waste time being off track?"

Elisabeth Hahn offers an example of a job that went off track in part because the initial description of it wasn't specific enough. Hahn, 39, has an impressive background in the art world. For several years, she was vice president and director of the fine-arts print department at Christie's in New York City. In March 1997, she was hired by a large, New York-based brand-management consulting firm. The firm wanted to develop its business in Europe and brought on Hahn to lead the effort. It promised her plenty of training and plenty of time for her to adjust to her new responsibilities.

But once she took the job, Hahn found that little training was available. And instead of being left to do big-picture market analysis, she was asked to dive in and produce business leads.

"I came to realize that the original job definition was wishful thinking on my boss's part - a list of things that he hoped we could achieve, rather than of things he was committed to achieving," Hahn says. After nearly a year, she was finally able to get a clearer job description, but it differed wildly from the strategic-marketing position that she thought she had bargained for. She and the firm chalked up the problem to miscommunication, and she left to become an independent marketing consultant.

Looking back, Hahn wishes that she had pushed harder to learn her boss's expectations. "The lesson for me is that you should never act out of fear," she says. "When I got the offer, I was afraid that if I asked too many questions, people would change their minds about me. I didn't insist on the clear job definition that I really needed. Next time, I won't leave it all up to the company."

First 60 days: Get something done.

Seale cautions against hastily assembling an agenda of easy-to- nail action items. To be sure, you must do enough to signal your potential. But be careful to pick projects that make sense.

One of Seale's clients tried so hard to be a hero to his boss, he proved himself a heel to his subordinates. During his first two months on the job, this midlevel manager at a financial-services company was asked to develop a marketing strategy for his department. The project was too complex to be done in the time allowed, but he pushed to meet the deadline anyway. His staff worked overtime for seven straight weeks. But when he delivered the results, he found that the project did not have the support it needed, despite his boss's approval. The company refused to fund it.