Learnings from my first job and why balance is everything.

There are two types of people, who are laid back in their first role and who want to know everything on day one. I have been through both, fortunately. Here is the glimpse of my learnings —

source: Internet

My wow-I-got-a-job-this-is-it-laid-back days: There are invisible foundations that add professional color to a fresher. (A make-up joke there, lol!)

1. Be curious, there is a long way to go! However smart you were in academics, career starts at zero. If you believe you are worth X or you deserve to be at X, you have to earn it and find a way to earn it. Work will not throw anything into your lap. In order to prove yourself, constant curiosity to learn and understand corporate will be very helpful. Whether it be, nature of team’s work, team dynamics, personalities, company culture, policies and so on..
2. Stick around for longer hours- Observe, and look beyond people’s titles, into their experiences and personalities. Try to grow respect towards the people who have built things for you. Look for motivation and inspiration around you. Once my senior, told me, “It takes about at least 2–3 years to bring significant change somewhere”. So, stick around and define your purpose even if it seems a long-time goal. It may change constantly but it doesn’t matter as long as your focus on the process and not the results. Lay your foundation strong. You can later choose to build 11 floors or 13 floors on it. (Extend hours as per need only. Maintain that safe distance from work)
3. It is okay to make mistakes- It may seem embarrassing to make mistakes. Especially as a rookie, it is scary to make mistakes and often, one ends up not experimenting at all. That’s right there, is a pitfall. Being too cautious shouldn’t stop you from exploring. Instead, use that fear for making enough home-work and proofing.
4. Earn respect- Professional relationships cannot be replaced by personal relationships. (Well, if they are, they may not be sustainable)

The bond you develop with someone while you are working together on a problem, discovering each other’s skills, sharing emotion, witnessing each other’s work ethics, etc. is almost everything to build a foundation to trust in any team.

To earn that, one has to be ready to take ownership, prioritize learning over credit.

4. The job is NOT permanent- It might sound too naive to state the obvious but most freshers might seem like job is secure unless you mess up real bad. Unfortunately, it’s not the reality. Your job security is not counted on how many mistakes you make but how much value you bring in. Your presence should be irreplaceable or indispensable. Especially when unfortunate calamities like pandemic happen, and lay-offs start, you wouldn’t want to be at the bottom of the value ladder. Like my mentor said,

“Always be in the top 50%, the least you do to keep your job”

5. Attitude matters :) A little bit of obedience, discipline and respect to the job, will find you at better places.

My apprehensive-let-me-learn-everything-today-and-right-now days: These are the days of hunger for growth and success. Desperate to prove self-worth and make a mark.

1. Focus on the bigger picture- The big picture is bigger than one can assume or consume in one day. To avoid getting blind-sided or overwhelmed, detach yourself from the race and look around, for the big picture.
2. Gratitude notes- Start one today or if you already did, add something today :)
3. Patience- If you ever fall into that loop of desperation, list out things that you’ve done and what you will do in timely manner; where it will take you; find a new hobby; more importantly - revise the gratitude notes. Writing works like a miracle
4. Don’t do anything by textbook formula- Find your own lively experiences. Living by someone’s findings brings no value in long term.
5. The idea of success: Something that I have learned with all the above is humility, obedience, hard work, necessary time-off, personal reflection, reading, writing, building a healthy relationship between career and self-worth as a whole package will contribute to success. And the idea of success is largely related with the journey.

Keep detaching yourself from a narrow definition of success. Allow yourself to break out of training set data of the definitions of success.

There are times when other things can get fogged by the first line of things at hand. Revisit results and progress of previous weeks, previous months, plan of action and spend some time for reflection. Establish a balance.

Balance is everything. Be it a project, personal life, personality, fashion, a write-up, scheduling a to-do list, a team dynamics, mental health, income vs expenditure, a poster design, riding a bicycle, nutrition, or anything that can be named in this world — Balance is one of the greatest struggles but the most ultimate bliss!

Thanks for reading!

If there is something I can learn from observations of your story, do let me know in the comments. :)