✅ WEEK 10: Crush Your First 90 Days & Build Career Leverage
You've made it to the final chapter of your 10-week journey.
You've:
Built a personal job opportunity pipeline
Connected with decision-makers and proven value
Crushed interviews with powerful storytelling
Negotiated a strong offer with confidence
Now it’s time to land smoothly and accelerate hard. Let’s finish strong.
🎯 Objective:
Transform your new job into a launchpad for long-term growth, visibility, and influence. The first 90 days are your career-making window — when perception, positioning, and performance lock in.
Let’s make it count.
🧠 Why the First 90 Days Matter So Much
“Perception is established fast — and it's hard to change later.”
Most people:
Try to learn quietly
Avoid attention
Wait to be told what to do
Top 1% performers:
Build early relationships
Identify key wins
Align with leadership goals
Communicate consistently and clearly
This week, you’ll learn to:
Build a 90-day action plan
Become indispensable fast
Turn managers into sponsors
🔧 Step 1: Plan Your First 90 Days with the 30-60-90 Framework
Break it into 3 focused stages:
🗓 0–30 Days: Learn & Connect
Understand product, people, processes
Map stakeholders & internal org
Build strong relationships (1:1s with peers, manager, cross-functional leads)
Clarify KPIs and expectations
✅ Goal: Lay the groundwork. Become a curious observer with intent.
🗓 31–60 Days: Solve & Contribute
Pick 1–2 small but visible wins (bug fix, docs improvement, automation, design suggestion)
Start proposing ideas, not just asking questions
Participate in team discussions
Begin mentoring junior folks or documenting learning
✅ Goal: Start adding value in visible ways.
🗓 61–90 Days: Lead & Influence
Take ownership of a project or process
Propose improvements based on your outsider view
Present updates to leadership (status reports, demos)
Document learnings or frameworks — become a thought partner
✅ Goal: Establish your presence as someone who leads, not follows.
🧩 Step 2: Define Your "Anchor Win"
This is a high-leverage outcome you deliver in the first 90 days — one that:
Solves a nagging problem
Saves time or money
Shows system-level thinking
🎯 Examples:
“Automated flaky test suite → saved 10+ hours/week”
“Mapped latency across services → enabled 15% perf gain”
“Created onboarding doc → reduced ramp-up time by 40%”
Name it. Plan it. Deliver it.
🧑🤝🧑 Step 3: Build Influence Through Micro-Relationships
Set up intentional 1:1s (15–20 min) with:
Your manager
Teammates
Cross-functional partners (Product, QA, DevOps)
Other leads you’ll interact with
🧠 Use this structure:
Ask about their goals and challenges
Share your background + ask where you can help
Follow up with a helpful idea or link
🎯 Do 1–2 of these per week in your first month.
💬 Step 4: Master Upward Communication
Become a manager’s dream:
Always set context when you update
Share problems with options, not complaints
Be proactive with blockers + dependencies
🧠 Use the CCC Method in updates:
Context: What’s going on
Choice: What options you're evaluating
Commitment: What you plan to do (or need)
📝 Example:
“The new Kafka consumer is dropping messages in prod. I’ve narrowed it to deserialization errors. I’m testing 2 fixes now — should have one merged today. Will keep you posted.”
🚀 Step 5: Establish Thought Leadership Internally
Don’t just solve problems. Document and share:
Design decisions
Debugging walkthroughs
Infra/process learnings
Internal tools how-tos
🎯 Share in Slack, Wiki, Notion — become the go-to person.
Optional: Create a “First 90 Days Learnings” doc and share with your team. It positions you as reflective, strategic, and invested.
🧠 Step 6: Reflect and Recalibrate
At day 45 and 90:
Ask your manager: “How am I tracking vs expectations?”
Reflect: “What have I learned that I didn’t expect?”
Update your brag sheet (impact log) with specific outcomes
This prepares you for:
Performance reviews
Promotions
Future negotiations
✅ Action Steps for This Week
Plan your 30-60-90 day roadmap
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Define your “Anchor Win” project
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Set up 3–5 cross-functional 1:1s
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Practice CCC-style updates with manager
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Start documenting your learnings publicly or internally
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Schedule 45-day check-in with manager
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🔁 Reflective Prompts
What reputation do I want to build in my first 90 days?
What skills or visibility will unlock my next career leap?
Who in the org could become a long-term ally or mentor?
📘 Resources for This Week
🎓 Final Thoughts: You Did It
You now have a complete, repeatable system to:
✔️ Find great opportunities ✔️ Create your own luck ✔️ Win interviews and offers ✔️ Negotiate like a pro ✔️ Crush your new role with influence and confidence
“You don’t need to apply to hundreds of jobs. You need to attract and convert the right 5.”
Your dream job isn’t found. It’s engineered.
This was your playbook to do exactly that — with intention, value, and leverage.
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