Graduation to Industry: Carpeting the road!— Horizon Magazine 2018
A guide to smoothening a transition
Whether you are prepared for it or not, the transition from a student mindset to a full-time employee mindset is a hell of a ride. For a few it is a smoother ride, for others, it’s a bumpy ride. In this piece of writing, we will inspect why it's a bumpy ride and what you can try to do to make the road smoother.
If you have graduated and are excelling at work you will be able to relate to the following challenges and solutions. If you are a student, try to take the advice seriously, it might help you, but if you don’t, don’t worry! Experience is the best teacher of all. I will leave a quote here for you to ponder:
What makes this transition a challenge is the change of environment, expectations, and Mantra to succeed. For 16 years of life, you are taught to move up in a certain way and after graduation, all of a sudden the notion changes! You can make a few changes in your lifestyle and ease into the work-life. Following are a few problems that you might run into and what you can do in student life to make practical life less problematic:
1. You feel you can never learn enough skills to succeed
During university, you only need certain skills to survive and graduate, but after graduation, you need a lot of other interpersonal skills to succeed. I read somewhere your success after education depends on 20% of your technical skills and 80% of your communication, collaboration and interpersonal skills. It’s 100% true!
Solution: Start making a T with your skills. I.e. In early years — student part and early practical years — gain width of skills (technical and personal traits); the upper part of ‘T’. In later years, start making the bottom line of ‘T’; choose one skill and start gaining it in depth.
Personal tip: Don’t start making the lower line of ‘T’ until you are sure that you love doing that work. It can be programming, managerial, forecasting or any kind of work that you do.
2. You think you are lazy.
You may get trapped into thinking that you are just lazy and that’s why you don’t put effort into work or studies. Recognize your emotions as soon as you can because there is a reason behind thinking this way.
Solution: You are not lazy, you are just demotivated at what you do or study. Recognize this and try to mend it. Learn to mend the situation your way. You might not be able to look at how it is possible sometimes, but you will never be able to find your motivation if you don’t start looking.
Mark my words, “Don’t grow stale”. Keep looking! Keep looking into new activities, new ventures, learn new skills and you might just get lucky to find your motivation. (This is obviously for someone who doesn’t know his/her passion)
Don’t grow stale! Keep looking, keep growing. — Sania Khushbakht Jamil
Personal tip: At one point because of looking so much around, I gained a few extra skills. Later on, I realized that I actually hated doing that work, so I had to leave that skill. Gaining and losing skills is okay! — until you are in control.
3. The path isn’t always defined.
At school or college/university, teachers and curriculum are always there to guide you through your way. It stays the same, hence your expectations stay the same, just like google map directions to end destination. However, at work, the stages of success are not the same. It has its own pace, sometimes you may find yourself disoriented and hence, demoralized when you see no defined path. Just like you cannot trust Google Maps blindly. (I have been its victim!)
Solution: As soon as you start specialized education, define your own path. Look at the bigger picture. For example, look at what are people doing with your sort of education and start building a plan on gaining those skills or at least knowing your way to gain those skills later in life.
You must have some sort of vision, otherwise, you will be vulnerable to any vision, and that is not good because it will not be yours. But be careful! Vision without execution is just hallucination.
Building on, knowing your path is not enough. Make a habit of evaluating and reevaluating after a certain time. You can start by evaluating your plan monthly or quarterly (It only takes 15 minutes!). Discipline is the most important skill that will take you where you want to go.
A personal tip: I have a habit of evaluating my day just before I sleep. It gives me time off the phone before sleeping — very important for your health — and makes me a better planner.
4. You may strive with work politics.
During student life, the only relationships you need to maintain to succeed are with your teachers, teacher assistants or group-mates and hence there is not much-unwritten politics. However, in industry, navigating through unwritten rules of politics is a baseline. Maintaining a network with your manager, teammates, and HR in addition to cross-domain teams, departments and also outside walls of your office helps you answer questions about work, office rules and politics, and more.
Solution: From very early on, start building your network and stay proactive. For example, maintain a relationship with teachers and students from other faculties. A good way to do that is by joining clubs and societies. You get a good understanding of social rules by understanding the structure of a club. Involve yourself in as many extracurricular as you can afford (But don’t overburden yourself, your main focus is still learning.)
Personal tip: Join the clubs that interest you, not just any club. It is motivating to join a club that supports your beliefs and vision. Other qualities mentioned above will come your way on their own you just have to stay attentive and grab them.
5. You often ask why the extra work?
The expectation to score good grades is always defined in a student’s life(a few of you although hate putting in that effort :D). The baseline is set, you don’t need to do extra work to earn extra credit — usually. However, at work, going the extra mile is an absolute necessity, whether you are working for someone or starting your own venture.
Solution: Make the habit of doing the extra work, not because it is required but because you want to know the history behind it or something that your teacher might have missed. (Did you know? A few teachers are actually afraid of you asking the questions.)
I am not asking you to do some extra research on everything but something that interests you. It can be anything, related to your studies or even unrelated. Just step out of always sitting doing nothing.
It will open up unexpected opportunities at work and otherwise, which are very necessary for you to move up the ladder.
Personal tip: I used to put extra effort into searching for technology applications that were being released each day. (Product Hunt is a good platform to get started or follow TechJuice for Pakistani tech news.)
Doing some work mentioned in student life will help you transition into practical life, but these are not enough for you to succeed. Therefore, learn to adapt quickly to change, don’t hate change but accept it, and you will be good to go for any challenge in life.
About the author
Sania K. Jamil is a technology and innovation enthusiast who believes in the power of technology changing the face of daily lives and society for better. Her work revolves around delivering such products. You can reach her out by email at saniak.jamil@gmail.com or visit her website.
