Career Advice for New Hires

Introduction
    One of the first things you must consider while new on the job is how to build a good reputation.  A good way to start off is by really excelling on your first project, even if it means working late nights and weekends.  Unfortunately, there's also an element of luck involved in building a good reputation.  These are the things that hard work and late nights can't always control.  One big example is the kind of staff you end up working with on the project.
Your most recent performance
    When you consider the thought of only needing to crush your first project, you might think, "Great, my reputation is going to be good after that."  Unfortunately, your reputation is not a stable thing, it's fragile.  Once you have set the bar for your own success level, you have to continue to achieve that kind of success every time you take on a task.  So, building your reputation is not a one-and-done affair.  After all, you're only as good as your most recent performance.
Recency Bias
    The reason behind you having to continue performing at an incredible level to keep your reputation is called The Recency Bias.  Google gives the definition of this phenomenon as, "The tendency to think that trends and patterns we observe in the recent past will continue in the future."  The best way to beat the Recency Bias is to play a quantity game.  Since you're only as good as your most recent performance, you need to increase the number of recent performances that you have.  Using the "Law of Large Numbers", as you increase the number of jobs you are performing at the same time, the better chance you have of exposing you true talent.
Borrowing vs Owning
    As you start to grow your reputation by banging out successful projects, you will most likely be prone to the psychological trap to think that your success was all your own.  In The Success Equation, Michael Maubossin writes: "People rarely consider the degree to which the star's success was the result of either good luck or the structure and support of the organization where he or she worked before."  If you fail to recognize the contribution of your team and environment to you success (or failure) you are simply borrowing that success.  In order to truly own your success, you have to identify what you are uniquely good at (what separates you from the pack).  This will become more evident as you have more experience, but you should always be trying to notice these traits.
Using your Unique Talents
    Once you've been able to find your unique talents, you can start putting them to work.  Due to bad luck you may have set backs, and times of discouragement.  This happens to everyone, including the most successful people in the world.  However, if you work hard your talents will find a home.  Your successes will start to be recognized, and you can then be confident that they are yours alone.
References:
1. Denning, S. (2015, October 16). Career Advice for New Hires. Retrieved October 20, 2015.