The following article is based on my personal experiences. Even though I joined my first job as a Software Engineer in an IT company, I feel most of the stuff would duly apply for non-IT sectors as well.

1. Never say ‘no’.

Accept whatever work is offered to you. Give your best shot for ultimately it won’t matter what you were doing but how you were doing. Be lenient about your job role at your own risk, for every experience counts in your career and if market situation at your place isn’t bright then there’s no reason not to under-perform. As they say beggars cannot be choosers, so one has to be positive over what’s immediately available.

2. Have the will to put in long hours.

Truth be told, almost any firm that hires young people expects them to work at odd hours as well as weekends. More experienced employees especially those with kids are not expected to do such amount of work usually, and to get that done they hire someone without those constraints (and also the skills to fulfill that role). Hence the onus of doing that falls on the shoulders of the young ones.

Also, you’d have to learn a LOT of stuff, and being a quick learner would always be an advantage for you.

3. Have respect for your manager.

“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.” – Charles Wadsworth.

In hindsight this quotation applies to manager-employee relation as well. I won’t go into a lot of depth for this point, and stress what I advise every close associate of mine.

Once you get into a job then follow these two rules all the time – 1. Do whatever work your manager asks you to. 2. Never argue with your manager.

 

4. Don’t look at what your contemporaries are doing.

Be it old college friends, colleagues in same firm, or those in other organizations. Especially in the first 2-3 years of your career. Focus on the task at hand. Once you become relatively stable in your organization having gained a promotion or two then expand your view.

Why not do this before? It’s not uncommon to see young hires who immediately upon joining declare that this is not the job they’d really like to do and thus start the hunt for preparing for their “ideal” job. In the process they become weaker in their designated job role. If you were a recruiter, whom would you prefer to hire, someone who has knowledge of the skills you are looking for but was not an exceptional performer in previous job OR someone who doesn’t know a great deal over the skills you are looking for but was tremendous in previous job?

5. Dance like no one’s watching.

Be dedicated to your job but don’t be serious about what happens in the office. Like a switch, turn off things the moment you leave the workplace. Hang around with friends, paint the town red with your escapades, visit new places on the weekend, experience the highs and lows of living in a new city (usually happens to people working in IT sector), take photographs wherever you can, and very importantly spend money but manage to save enough for a rainy day. You will cherish these moments later on in your life, much more than the hours spent on your desk.

It’s a natural human tendency to assume that our lives are tough, yes they are but every coin has two sides, in the beginning of our careers we seldom have to manage people under us, plan cost saving strategies for the company, think of where to make the next jump in case of non-career progression, etc. Just have fun whenever possible. Like how most of us affectionately remember our childhood days only after growing up, same applies to the initial years of our job as well. Have fun while it lasts, the time once left by won’t come back.

Article Summary

1. Never say ‘no’ and accept whatever work is offered to you.

2. Have the will to put in long hours at the workplace without fail and learn a lot.

3. Respect your manager; follow his/her instructions without any arguments.

4. Focus on the task at hand without bothering over what others are doing.

5. Enjoy the time which is not going to return. These are precious memories that one remembers fondly later on in life.