You have 90 Days to Prove You Deserve to Stay

Heather thought she was doing the right thing. She gave her employer two weeks' notice on a Monday morning, excited about her new opportunity. By Wednesday afternoon, security was walking her to her car.

"When I mentioned my notice, they told me they didn't have to honor the 2 weeks and already had my replacement, I was devastated."

Heather's story isn't about a bad employer (though they clearly exist). It's about entering a job without understanding how things actually work. She'd spent months at that company but never learned the real rules - not the ones in the handbook - the other ones.

Your first 90 days determine whether you become the person everyone relies on or the person who gets walked out when budgets tighten. Most people waste this window trying to impress their boss or prove they deserve the job.

That's backwards.

The first 90 days are for building a foundation that protects you and positions you for the opportunities you actually want. This requires a plan.

Ken landed a cybersecurity analyst role at a mid-sized healthcare company. He had the credentials, crushed the interviews, and felt ready to contribute. Day one, he jumped straight into ticket analysis and started suggesting process improvements.

Six months later, the security team reorganized. Ken's manager moved to a different division. The new CISO had different priorities. Suddenly, Ken's work didn't align with the "strategic direction." He got reassigned to lower-visibility projects.

What went wrong? 

Ken never built relationships outside his immediate team. He didn't document his wins in a way anyone else could see. He had no idea what the company actually valued versus what they said in meetings. When his manager left, he had no advocates and no leverage.

Ken needed a 30-60-90 day plan, not the corporate onboarding checklist HR sent him. He needed real strategic plan that would have forced him to understand the organization before committing to any direction.

Marcus started his SOC analyst role the same week his company announced a "minor restructuring." Three months in, his manager took another job. The replacement had completely different ideas about team priorities.

But Marcus had spent his first 60 days doing something smart. He had conversations with people across IT operations, compliance, and application security. He'd documented every incident he worked and the business impact of his analysis. He'd built relationships with engineers who valued his input.

When his new manager arrived with different priorities, Marcus had options. He'd already proven his value to multiple teams. He understood what they needed. When the reorganization actually hit, Marcus wasn't scrambling. Other teams wanted him.

His 30-60-90 plan included relationship mapping, proactive documentation, and understanding organizational dynamics before picking a lane. That preparation gave him career stability when everything else was unstable.

Jennifer made a career switch into a GRC analyst role at a financial services firm. She had CompTIA Security+ and some audit experience, but she was new to cybersecurity. She knew the first 90 days mattered.

Instead of trying to prove herself immediately, Jennifer used her first 30 days to connect with stakeholders across the organization. She asked about challenges, priorities, and what previous people in her role had gotten wrong. She listened for what people said and what they didn't say.

She discovered the compliance team was drowning in audit prep work. Manual processes everywhere. No one had time to fix them because everyone was executing the same inefficient workflows.

Days 31-60, Jennifer learned those processes inside and out. She asked questions. She documented everything. By day 90, she'd identified three changes that would save the team 15 hours per week of manual work.

She didn't just suggest the changes. She built them, tested them, and showed the compliance director exactly how much time they'd reclaim. Jennifer became indispensable before her probation period even ended.

What worked? 

She followed a plan. She learned before acting. She aligned her contributions with real organizational pain points, not what the job description said mattered.

Most 30-60-90 day plans are corporate theater. "Learn the systems. Meet the team. Start contributing." That's not a plan. That's a to-do list.

A strategic plan for your first 90 days covers five areas that most people completely miss:

Your employee handbook tells you one version of reality. The actual culture operates on different rules entirely. Your job in the first 30 days is figuring out what really matters here.

What actually gets rewarded? Not what the handbook says. What behaviors do people who get promoted exhibit? What gets people managed out? (It's rarely poor performance. Usually it's political misalignment or not understanding unspoken expectations.)

What's the real notice period? Some companies will walk you out same-day regardless of what you offer. Others expect four weeks for senior roles even if policy says two. Figure this out by watching what happens to people who leave.

Where are the political landmines? Every organization has them. Which projects are protected? Which leaders have real influence versus impressive titles? Who shouldn't you cross?

Start documenting your contributions from week one. Not for performance reviews (though it helps there too). For protection.

When someone questions your value, you need receipts. When priorities shift and your work gets deprioritized, you need proof of impact. When a new manager arrives with no context, you need documentation of what you've accomplished.

Create a wins tracker. Every week, write down what you shipped, who it helped, and what the impact was. Quantify when possible. Keep this in a personal file, not just company systems.

Understand clawback provisions, performance review cycles, and how PIPs actually work at this company. Know your rights before you need them.

Your direct manager matters, but they're not enough. You need a coalition of people who understand your value and can advocate for you when you're not in the room.

Who has real influence here? Sometimes it's the person with the impressive title. Often it's the person everyone asks for input before making decisions.

Who can you help? Building relationships isn't about networking for personal gain. It's about identifying where your skills create value for others and making those connections early.

Build relationships outside your direct reporting chain. When reorganizations happen (and they will), you want people in other divisions who know what you can do.

This is the hardest part because the pressure to "make an impact" is intense. Resist it.

Use your first 30-60 days to connect to stakeholders with real intention. Not casual coffee chats. Structured conversations with consistent questions so you can identify patterns.

What did previous people in this role get wrong? What are the gaps no one's addressing? What quick wins would make people's lives measurably easier?

You need the data from these conversations, not assumptions from your interview process. The job you accepted isn't always the job that needs doing.

Even if you plan to stay in this role for years, position yourself from day one for what comes next. 

What skills position you for growth here or elsewhere? What visibility do you need? What relationships make you difficult to replace and attractive for promotion? 

Think about this explicitly. Your first 90 days set the trajectory for everything that follows.

You spent months landing this job. You researched the company, prepped for interviews, negotiated your offer. You invested serious time and energy getting here. Don't show up on day one and wing it.

That's where most people lose. They treat onboarding like something that happens to them rather than something they design. They wait for their manager to tell them what success looks like instead of figuring it out themselves.

The cost of winging it: 

• Avoidable missteps
• Weak positioning
• Missed opportunities
• Vulnerability when things change (hint: Things always change.)

The cost of having a plan: 

• A few hours of strategic thinking before you start
• Disciplined execution in your first 90 days.

We will build that plan for you.

This isn't generic corporate onboarding advice. It's strategic positioning for cybersecurity professionals who've seen how things really work.

The Strategic Plan Template includes:

• Three-phase action plan broken into 30-day segments with specific objectives for each phase
• Relationship mapping framework to identify who has influence, who you need to build alliances with, and who can advocate for you
• Framework for documenting your contributions to track wins, capture impact, and build your protection layer from week one
• Quick-win identification process to align your early contributions with actual organizational pain points

The Implementation Coaching includes:

• One 60-minute strategy session to customize the plan for your specific role, company culture, and career objectives
• WhatsApp support for your first 90 days to navigate challenges as they come up, get feedback on your approach, and course-correct when needed

You got the job. Now make sure the first 90 days set you up for everything that comes next.