4 Things I Learned From Graduate School
And how they can help you succeed at work
Aristotle once said, “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work”. Until last year, all these motivational quotes didn’t make any sense to me and I always used to ponder how come successful people feel excited about and satisfied with their work while I don’t. But as they say, “Life has its own way of teaching”.
Going to graduate school at the University of Tokyo was the best learning experience I have had so far. I worked on several interesting research projects and got the opportunity to work with some of the most amazing people from a variety of professions such as entrepreneurs, researchers, innovators, who loved their work to the fullest. I have discovered 4 habits which upon following give me a sense of contentment with my work and help me succeed. So, I thought of sharing those practices and personal experiences through this article.
1. Take Ownership
Ever wonder why Entrepreneurs/CEOs tend to enjoy their work more than the employees?
They feel a sense of ownership about their work. With the feeling of ownership, comes responsibilities to treat your work as some precious thing, which you would anything to take care of.
How to develop this sense of ownership?
Come up with your own ideas and start working on them. Entrepreneurs build a company based on their own ideas and that’s what propels them to move forward. Even if the odds are against them, they put their skin in the game and make sure that their idea comes to fruition. Once you realize that you are the only one responsible to make your idea a success, you can’t go back and will tend to break into the wall to get to the other side.
I never really enjoyed the research work before as I did while doing research at graduate school. Then what was different this time? This time, I thought of all the research ideas instead of my supervisor determining what project I would work on, unlike past projects. As I advanced into implementing those ideas, even if I would fail in that sometime, I would think of solutions to make those ideas work rather than blaming someone. If this idea failed, I had personally failed. This thought scared me off, and somehow, I pulled it off. At the end of my degree, I wrote two journal papers (under review) and presented my research at an international conference at the University of Sydney, Australia. In fact, I was the only non-PhD student to attend that conference.
Does it mean that if the work which you are doing, isn’t your idea then you should not do it?
It’s not possible to come up with new ideas every time. What we can do in that situation is to provide our own inputs or some other ideas which might improve the original ideas. If your own skin is in the game, you would do wonders, you can’t think of.
2. Know the Purpose
Every time, I work on something new. I ask myself:
Why am I doing it? What is the purpose of doing it? What do I want out of it?
For e.g., when I started working on my research ideas, I had two motives in my mind
- To get some skills which could get a job in the industry;
- To get journal papers as the first author.
Based on the situation and work, the purpose changes. The purpose could be money, fame, or anything depending on the individual’s choices. Over a period of time, I have found out that once I have a clear understanding of the purpose or the reason I am doing what I am doing, my focus and productivity increases. You need a purpose compelling enough to get out of bed early in the morning.
I still remember I would go to the university even on Sundays and work in the lab. I could do that because of two reasons, one was the “Ownership” as I explained earlier and the other was, being driven by the desire to get good results and publish a research paper in a high impact factor journal.
3. Asking People for Help
With so many things to do in today’s world, it is hard to figure out the solution to every problem just by yourself. At some point in time, we need the help of others. The world is full of selfish people and it’s hard to find people who would genuinely help. But trust me, there are people who want to assist and help you succeed.
At every point in my life, whether it was an application for graduate school, research, personal issues, etc., I have always asked people for help and been fortunate enough to find those who have always supported me. I will forever be indebted to them. People aren’t always reluctant to help others; you just need to reach out to them.
How to find these people?
Look for people in your vicinity, your friends, relatives, university colleagues, managers. Try to find people who, you think, might have faced the same issue. With all these social networking sites, the world has never been so close before and it takes just seconds to find someone’s contact details. When you find them, approach them with an open mind, just explain your situation honestly and ask for their suggestions. It might not work out as you expected it to be, but be patient. I have done it many times, and it has always helped me.
4. Be Honest
The quote “Honesty is the best policy” sounds too simple, but it is very hard to stick to. Before I used to think, to survive in this world, I need to fake things even if I don’t believe in them. For some people, faking things work but it didn’t work for me.
Over the years, I have realized that it is easy for me to present things in front of other people if I say honestly what I feel or believe, and people also hear honest opinions. I don’t have to worry about making up some random lies, think unnecessarily or be cautious of what if I say something, I can’t justify? Also, I expect other people to give me honest feedback. I don’t care if it is good or bad, as long as it is useful for me.
While at the university, I applied for non-technical internship roles in some startups. The very first question, they would ask me why I wanted to join them. I was always honest in my answer that I wanted to learn from them which would help me to pursue entrepreneurship in the future and they admired it. And then, they would ask me how I can add value to their company. I would tell them honestly, that I have never got any direct opportunity to work in the non-technical roles but given my background in academic research, I could add value in writing content for their websites, or do market research, etc. If I am not able to add value to your company, I will leave.
In conclusion, all the points covered in this article seem very cliché, but unless you practically put these lessons into effect, it is hard to imagine how powerful and effective they are. I apply all these lessons at work, and they have really brought a difference in the way I approach my work now.
Reach out to me here.
