The 4 Pieces of Advice I Wish I Knew Before Starting Work
I remember when I asked my dad for advice the night before my first day at work.
His advice was always something along the lines of :
“You are young, you should work harder to satisfy your boss”
“You have to spend 5 years doing the boring work first before you can become a boss”
Most of the advice that he gave was about career progressions and never had anything to do with the day-to-day. Sure, working hard and also spending the first 5 years soaking up experience before being a manager has its value.
While there is advice out there about how you should be progressing in your career, this article is not that. This article is about advice that I wish someone had told me before starting work.
It is about the little mindset tweaks and hacks that have helped me get through beginner hell. That has helped me not berate myself for being new to something and to get through the thought that somehow everyone else around you is better.
1. Don’t Worry Too Much about Lack Of skill
The hardest thing for me to deal with when I first started work was my lack of skill. Or rather being okay with not having much skill.
I was rather shy and flustered at the beginning. Because I was insecure about this, I would compensate by either working long hours or rushing things. This was a bad idea. It led to a terrible work-life balance and a lot of mistakes.
Not to mention, it was extremely frustrating to work long hours on something that still had mistakes. All of this could have been prevented if I didn’t place that much pressure on myself.
It is much easier to say “don’t worry” than it is but I find comfort in knowing that as long as I am always learning, I will gain the skillset I need. As the old saying goes “ The more you work on something, the better you become at it”.
I have certainly found this to be true. The bonus to knowing this is also the awareness it brings. If you know you get better by doing something more. Everything you then come across that you don’t know can be solved by dedicating more time to it.
Knowing that simple fact has been a great turning point for me. It has allowed me to face more challenging problems without fearing them as much. Everything becomes and I quote Ali Abdaal “Figure-outable”.
2. Don’t Compensate by Working longer
My parent’s number one advice has always been to work hard. The idea of working “smart” never occurred to them. Then again, they had no internet back then.
Most of us know by now that hard work doesn’t always equal maximum productivity. Just because you spent 10 hours on something, doesn’t make it any better than just spending 8 hours on it.
When I was given my first project, my first thought was “I am not going to get off work until I understand all of it”. True enough, I stayed up late and after working hours only to still not understand the problem.
It is a weird feeling to tell someone to leave something they don’t understand. Often enough, we think we can solve problems with sheer willpower and brute force. “ I just need to look at this for another hour” or “I am not going to sleep until I understand this”.
I felt so guilty for not being able to solve the problem that I thought I should spend more of my time on it. I hated spending more time on it but I kept telling myself that because I lack the skill, I compensate by spending more time on it.
Spending more time on it never helped. In fact, I would say it made it worse. I was depriving myself of the much-needed rest time for my brain. When you are new to work, it is so easy to just blame the issue on yourself instead of acknowledging the difficulty of the problem at hand.
So, don’t be tempted to work longer than you need to. Remember to always take breaks, you will be more efficient that way. Also, you would most likely enjoy work more.
3. Take Up the Offer to Ask Questions
When you first start work. Everyone that greets you will most likely say something along the lines of “Feel free to ask me anything” with as genuine a smile as the person can offer.
Even with a genuine offer, it can still be intimidating to ask someone questions. Our friends and family always rant about how annoying it is when other people disturb them with questions.
This, unfortunately, is true. There is no doubt that asking someone questions all the time is annoying but it is extremely vital for your growth and learning. I hate to say it, but this is a feeling that never goes away and you have to suck it up and accept that it is part of the job.
One technique that I have found to make this process easier is to simply bundle up questions and schedule for a “catch-up” session. Instead of disturbing someone whenever a question pops up, I write them down. If it isn’t urgent, I would wait until I have about 5–10 questions and then schedule a Q&A session with the person.
I find that a 15–30 minutes session is much more productive than intermittently asking questions. Bundling it up, saves both you and the other person time and is less disruptive to work.
4. Don’t Be so Hard On yourself
The last one is a cliché but of much value. When we are all new at something, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of self-loathing. We think that we are the reason we are struggling. We are always the first to blame on the list which is never true.
It is similar to swimming. There is no way you would be able to swim when you first enter the pool. You have to learn to float first then paddle then swim and then swim a little bit faster to catch up with the rest and once you are with the group, you can swim steadily with the group.
So don’t be so hard on yourself and trust that if you keep learning, you will reach your skillset with your peers and start to enjoy work.
Final Thoughts
All the advice in the world can’t teach you about the intricacies of work emails or the social rules of the office but these 4 may help you get through your own head.
Often enough, I find that the cause of our pain is our own minds and it is extremely difficult to get out of that.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for reading
