Since childhood, we have all had preconceived notions of what work looks like. We grow up with a mix of pop culture references about cool versus boring jobs and good versus bad colleagues, and most of us enter the workforce thinking weāve got it. We know what work is.
And then we become disillusioned, looking out of a bus window, bleary-eyed at 8 a.m., going to a job we hate, listening to Placebo droning in our ears, thinking: Is that it?
Incidentally, that āweā. Yeah, that āweā is actually āIā.
Iām writing this article as the tough love letter I needed back when I first entered the workforce twenty-odd years ago:
Lose the Main Character Energy
I wish I could tell you that people will care about your work, but chances are most wonāt unless it directly affects theirs. That doesnāt necessarily mean everyone is out there to get you, but you have to internalise that, at first, people wonāt notice your work, however good it is. Recognition takes time, and youāll have to prove yourself by consistently producing high-quality work.
Also, youāll be surprised at how rarely you get a āthank youā for doing your work. Even if you spent the night perfecting that presentation or fixing that code, people will continue with their lives. There are two ways to handle that: you either become resentful and disengaged or keep trying to improve and apply your skills to your work. Iām not arguing which is better. However, if you want to build a meaningful career, the second option is your best friend.
Embrace (and Automate) the Grunt Work
Sometimes, youāll feel like your work is complicated and over your pay grade; other times, youāll feel like a robot doing trivial tasks that donāt seem to push the needle significantly. My advice is to embrace the grunt work.
That doesnāt necessarily mean you must rejoice in menial data entry work. The goal is to find ways to automate grunt work, make time for the critical work, and then ask for more important projects. It can be tedious and soul-wrenching, but no job is always fun. Try to keep positive and automate, automate, automate.
Personality Hires are a Thing
Thereās a reason the mythos of personality hires is so prevalent in TikTok and Instagram Reels nowadays. The reason is that personality hires make it work.
Iām not suggesting you ignore your more technical skills in favour of being on a first-name basis with your boss and knowing all coworkersā birthdays. However, being likeable beats being good at your work more often than you think.Ā
Of course, being likeable doesnāt mean sucking up to senior management. Nevertheless, you must understand the organisational culture and be aware of the interpersonal relationships around you. It costs nothing to be polite and forthcoming, offering to help your colleagues when they struggle. This behaviour will open far more doors for you than highly technical skills.Ā
Learn to Present Your Work
One of my most common mistakes when I started working was that I used to fall off the radar. I spent time wrapping my head around the whole problem at hand and then spent extra time polishing everything to perfection before even showing it to my managers.
Well, hereās the thing:Ā There isnāt anything a manager hates more than not knowing what the hell is going on. Avoid disappearing for days on end without proactively reaching out to your manager. Use your teamās processes (stand-up meetings, asynchronous check-ins, design critiques) to present your work to your manager and team and ask for feedback. It doesnāt matter if itās an early draft or an idea. At first, youāll need guidance to proceed, and your limited experience wonāt always help you make the right decisions yourself.
A brief message like āHey, I made this. My reasoning is that. I am going in the right direction?ā will do.
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You Need Negative Feedback to Grow
Negative feedback can be hard to accept, but itās necessary if you want to grow in your role. The key here is to learn to ask for it, filter and apply it to your work. You need all three skills; lose one, and youāll be chasing your tail.Ā
If you donāt ask for feedback, you have nothing to work off of.
If you donāt filter it, you mindlessly follow what people say without exercising your critical thought.
If you donāt apply it, you roleplay a āgoodā employee instead of being one.
I know itās hard, but try not to take things personally. Practice separating your personality from your work and start doing that early. Donāt beat yourself up too much if you still blur the lines between you and your work. I know seasoned professionals who still struggle with that.
Done is Better than Perfect (Most Times)
Provided you present your work and ask for feedback early and often, try to get to 80% completeness before considering polishing and optimising your work. Premature optimisation - a term originating in programming - is also a problem outside developer jobs. It can hinder your and your teamās progress if youāre not careful.
āPerfectā work is a mirage. Most high-quality work you see from others results from countless iterations, so your goal should be to get to the iteration stage as soon as possible. At first, you should treat your work as expendable. Everything you work on will be a draft you should be willing to throw away.
Try to love the process, not the deliverable. If youāre unsure about the definition of ādoneā and āgood enoughā for a specific project, ask your manager.
Professionalism 101
Even if theyāre senior at their job, I keep telling my clients that you donāt get to work only with people you like. Your manager might assign you to work on a project with someone you despise. YouĀ haveĀ to make it work, full stop.
Unless that person is abusive to you in any way, your manager wonāt care if you hate their guts. You must be civil and collaborative enough to work with anyone in your team, especially if your team is small.
Is workplace gossip fun? Yes. Can it come back and bite you? Also yes. I know it can be fun (and comforting) to commiserate with your colleagues, critiquing the status quo, but if it makes you feel unproductive and cynical, you have to end it. Be careful about sharing your most intimate thoughts with colleagues, as people are not always what they seem.
Your First Job is not Your Forever Job
We are not our parents, especially regarding job mobility. According toĀ 2022 research by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median tenure for Millenials and Gen Z workers is about 2.8 years, compared to 9.8 years for workers aged 55 to 64. We often switch jobs in pursuit of better opportunities, career growth and personal satisfaction.
Your first job is rarely going to be your dream job. If you ask me, no job will be your dream job; work is work. Try to think of your first job as a stepping stone, a way to identify what you like to do, your strengths and your growth areas. It can also help you refine your vision of what a successful career looks like for you.
Be adaptable and open to change and new opportunities. Your career can have many twists and turns (careers can be squiggly, according to Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis). Use your first job to gather data on the workplace and you as an employee, and move on.