No Longer Fresh Graduate
— I mean I am now a match for that “minimum-1-year-of-experience”
(((will put image here if I am on the mood)))
This is a story of an ordinary IT fresh graduate seeking for that so-called year of experience in career. Been almost one year on my first career journey has taught me countless nitty-gritty of work.
For a little bit context, I am currently a tech worker in one of online travel agency in Indonesia.
How It Goes
Entering new phase of life always brings that excitement yet worrisome feeling. Excited that I would do something to this world after day and night of studying, and the best part of it is being paid. But, at the same time wondering whether I will be a good fit or not in this new phase.
Starting with a handful information from the entire internet about how is it like to work in general, I barely set an expectation. Simply because I am just preparing for the worst. What my goal was I just need to set up a benchmark. I need to sort out what quality I search for my ideal workplace. The list could be a good manager, a good team, a good colleague, a good process, etc. However, how does I define the term “good” above? What does “a good manager” means to me? That’s exactly what I am looking for. To define the abstract concept of my ideal workplace.
For the early days, my everyday life was well described by this meme.
I am amazed with the amount of relatable feeling depicted by this meme. It is like, OMG this was LITERALLY ME. How did you know that!? Seeing from hundreds likes on that post, I think I am not the only one who feel that way. Starting new things definitely requires you to learn a lot of things. And it is absolutely need some amount of time. So, brace it anyway. 😂
As time goes by, I could say overall I enjoy things. Of course it is another combination of up-and-down life drama, what do you expect. But, I can tell, it is fun. Life needs that up-and-down drama to be fun isn’t it?
Key Takeaways
Silence Brings You Nowhere
I swear you will get a bunch of problem you wanna complain about in your workplace. It doesn’t always mean that the workplace is problematic though. Spotting a problem is a sign that we are all consistently striving for a better, right? Sometimes some things can be done better, some things should be stopped, some things are making yourself happier, some other things are making yourself less enthusiastic.
And what you can do about it? Communicate it! Silence brings you nowhere.
At my early days on work, I did feel left behind sometimes.
“Why do people seem doing their work fast?”
“Why am I so slow?”
“Why didn’t I get those access?”
And what did I do? I didn’t immediately tell my team. But you know what, it didn’t solve my problem of course. Simply because my team was not aware, they are not a mind reader anyway. Long story short, I finally told this matter to one of the manager whom I felt safe to talk to at that time. The next day, my problem got addressed and solved.
Being open to people you just know can be hard (hello my introvert fella!). However, I suggest you to have a courage in it. It is worth I swear.
Well, this section is applicable only if your workplace has the typical of open to critiques. Other than that, I honestly don’t know. Maybe just leave? LOL
Senior to Talk to
During my one on one session with the manager I mentioned before, I got one most helpful advise from her.
Anytime you are having a trouble, try to talk to the one who has higher level than you.
Talk to somebody is one thing. Talk to senior is another thing. At first, I had a tendency to talk to my peers only. Her above advise struck me with reality that, talking my trouble to my peers will less likely to solve it. Because my peers are also having limited power and knowledge as me.
Having seniors who are far more experienced, far more high skilled, and you are comfortable to talk to, is important. I read quite a lot tips for fresh graduate that having a mentor figure is essential in early career. And I agree with that. You can learn a lot from them. Catching up with daily work will be so much easier and faster. Besides, you are also creating a comfortable vibes during work, because finally you are no longer having a barrier speaking to anyone in the team.
Engage With External Community
This is very important. Mostly companies do not disclose their compensation level to employee. Engaging with external party having same background will guide you on how market values your skill. Beside that, it can help you to keep update on any issues.
It does not necessarily a “community” actually, but anything that makes you well aware about your worth.
Because my background is tech worker, I would suggest on following “tech ranting” account such as @ecommurz and friends. Having friends with same background but different company will help too.
Sometimes we need to check whether we are well valued or not.
Defining Pursuit
The longer I work, the more I sense what I really pursue and how my ideal workplace looks like. The pursuit could be anything, money, pride, knowledge, experience, work-life balance, crush (LOL), etc.
Personally, my ultimate pursuit at this point is knowledge and experience. I want to feel that I am proud of what I am doing. I want to feel that I am constantly thriving.
Try to make your ultimate pursuit and ideal workplace clearer. This will be very helpful when the time has come on determining “what’s next”. Either because of unmet expectation or new opportunity.
Those are points that I find it most important for me so far. Last but not least, good bye my fresh graduate title!
