How to contribute more at a new job?

Commodities - a few months into a new job. I have about ~ 3 to 5 years scheduling.

At a new job, it's basically a hybrid commercial/scheduling role. I am firmly not meant to be doing day-to-day scheduling tasks, but also not a trader. I was hired for to be a commercial optimization person, as well as for the company's growth plans. Worth noting that my product is pretty relationship based, and traders tend to have 10+ years experience. So this is role is pretty great for my progression.

So, here's the problem I am having. All told, I don't have enough concrete things to do on a daily basis.

The schedulers have their stuff covered pretty well, and they probably don't want me interfering (even if I have some useful expertise to share). Also, not sure if it's smart for me to get back into that.

I'm not really in the fold of the traders' meetings either (lunches/golf/etc), nor do I expect to be.

So I end up with not a ton to do in the office all day. I have made some great contributions when called upon, have buckled down on a few tight deadlines, and even had some great commercial ideas. But there's also been a lot of dead time.

I'm only a few months in, and not panicking yet. But I feel guilty for not contributing more. And I want to, but also hard to not rock the boat.

What's the answer? Start to do more macro analysis stuff, and send internally (even though it might not be truly useful)? Work on trying to automate some functions? Do I just need to be way more assertive, and try to get included more with commercial stuff?

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Find the company's knowledge gap and fill it. This will probably require a lot of meetings at first and one on ones with traders, schedulers, settlements, etc and just asking questions. Are there any tools they wish they had but don't have time or the skills to work on (probably more scheduler and traders)? Any processes that seem inefficient or are introducing risks without anyone realizing it (more likely in settlements)? Stuff like that. This will require you to be a little more assertive and putting yourself in front of people but its also a good way to introduce yourself to more people and parts of the organization. Starting at a new place is tough and it will take time to be comfortable but there's nothing wrong with going to be people and saying, I have some time before whatever growth plan will make you busier kicks in and is there anything I can do to help. You might even learn a few things yourself that will help in optimization. Doing this stuff may also help you keep your job if the growth plans don't work out.

 

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