3 Things I Learned at My First Job That Have Stuck With Me to This Day
I started my professional career when I was 19 years old. I was young, naive, nervous, but really excited. I moved halfway across the country and into an apartment by myself – it was my first time living on my own.
To say that this experience changed my life would be an understatement. Nothing grows you up faster than being plucked from the place you grew up (and thus the intimate family and friend circles you’re in) and being deposited right smack dab in the middle of a state you’re not familiar with, to do a job you’ve never done before, with people you’ve only briefly met on Zoom.
I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, because I owe a lot to the people I worked with at that first job. I stayed in touch with a few of them, and one of them became my maid of honor at my wedding 3 years later <3
So here it goes – the top 3 things I learned at my first job.
1 → Always be brutally honest with your manager
I’ll never forget sitting down with one of my co-workers and telling him how frustrated I felt trying to fit in at work. He stared at me and asked, “have you talked to our manager about this?”
It had never even occurred to me to try. In fact, it kind of terrified me. Be honest with my manager about how I feel about my job? No thanks. I guess I just figured he wouldn’t understand and think less of me for some reason. But my co-worker insisted it would make things better. So reluctantly, I decided to try it.
I was terrified, but I went through with it. After it was over, I was eternally grateful.
Things got way better, my manager completely understood how I felt, and he had amazing advice to give me. It was a huge turning point for me in that job.
From then on, I was confidently and brutally honest with every manager and boss I had – even if what I had to say wasn’t nice, or popular.
it’s never backfired on me. I know it will either significantly improve things, or make me abundantly aware it isn’t a great place to work.
And I’ve never regretted it.
2 → Find ways to make work easier for yourself
During a particular 1 on 1 with my manager, he commended me on how hard I was willing to work, and how I wasn’t scared to get my hands dirty and put in long hours.
“But,” he said, “you really need to figure out how to make things easier on yourself… create some processes and shortcuts. Be more efficient.”
I realized I was still stuck in “schoolwork” mode. In school, shortcuts were considered cheating and they were not allowed. Googling was especially wrong.
I had to flip all that around. Google was a tool to be used, and there were incredible apps that existed literally just to connect tech tools and make life easier (like Zapier, among others).
I got so excited about creating workflows and systems, that it became a huge part of my career and it still is.
3 → Work is not school
School doesn’t prepare you for the working world as much as it claims to do.
In school, you prepare a project, you can get by even if you put in minimal effort (that wasn’t ever my style, but I knew it was possible), there’s always a specified answer for the problem you’re solving, and you only get one shot to get it right. Your goal is to please your teacher (meet their specifications so you can get an “A”).
Business is different. You come up with your own projects based on what you think will be the cheapest, yet more effective, way to accomplish the goals of the company. You can’t just do the bare minimum (at least, if you want to keep your job very long you can’t), you can try out different strategies to see if your solution to the problem will suffice, and you often get more than one chance to succeed. In fact, that’s a huge part of it – implementing solutions and then iterating on them to continually make them better. Your goal is to move your company forward (often by pleasing and delighting your customers).
In the end, these are all things you probably already knew. But it’s always worth remembering, and I will never forget or stop appreciating the amazing people who worked with me for the first few months where I was still figuring all this out. They were patient, encouraging, and I am a better person for having known all of them. You all know who you are 🙂
Look for shortcuts – they are your friend.
Your career is NOT the same thing as school.
Be brutally honest with people – always.
Until next time,
Hope Frances Anderson
Photo by Tae Fuller: https://www.pexels.com/photo/golden-gate-bridge-san-francisco-california-1141853/
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