5 Essential Areas to Focus on When Starting Your Professional Career
“What can I do to prepare myself as I start my professional career?”
My junior friends from college had been asking me this question since a while now. They were about to graduate in a week.
At the same time, I was about to finish a year working in the corporate world.
This one year had taught me a lot.
I had gone from a sweatpant-loving college student pursuing his MBA to an MNC corporate executive who now dealt with executive clients and partners in a professional setting.
The transition from college to corporate has its challenges.
However, there a few areas in which a little preparation can help you kickstart your professional career in the right way.
And often, these are the subjects which are not taught in a classroom.
So, in no particular order, here they are.
Grooming
In the very first season of the TV show Suits, Harvey Specter tells his new associate Mike Ross
“People respond to how you are dressed, so it matters how you look.”
For those who don’t know Suits, it’s a TV show about lawyers and if you have not seen it yet, I strongly urge you to do so.
TV show recommendation and fanboying aside, the point is that you need to invest in how you look and present yourself.
This does not mean extravagant clothes and expensive grooming. It is more to do with neatness and cleanliness.
This is important because this tells your boss or your colleague that you are ready for business and you are going to be professional about it.
Even before you say anything with your mouth, your appearance is doing the talking and it is portraying an image of you. Trust me, it is very important.
I have some suggestions on how you can get started.
Have a look at the Fashion and Grooming section of these YouTube Channels
- Beer Biceps(especially for Indians)
- AlphaM
- Teaching Men Fashion
Also, have a look at the Netflix show Queer Eye.
All the above recommendations will help you get started.
Some people think that all this is vanity, but I believe it is about self care and giving a damn about how you look. There is a difference.
Interpersonal Communication
You might be thinking that this is pointless since you already know how to speak English and can have a conversation with anyone.
But there is a difference between just communicating and communicating effectively.
In the professional set-up, effective communication is all about two things:
- How you make the other person feel
- How you portray yourself to the other person
Obviously, both of these things will eventually affect your relationship with your boss and colleagues and they may also open up new and better opportunities for you.
You need to learn and understand body language, psychology, non-verbal communication, dealing with criticism and so on.
To get started, read these books.
- How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie
- How to talk to anyone by Leil Lowndes
You can also look at the Communication section of the above YouTube Channels I mentioned.
Basic Vocabulary
I don’t mean this in terms of the written and spoken language. Basic vocabulary here means familiarizing yourself with the language used in your industry.
Learn and understand the terms, concepts, and ideas that are prominent in your industry. This is important because for you to make sense of anything else, you need to know the basics.
Also, if you are familiar with the terms, it will be easy for you to catch up with everything else that you might face once you actually start working.
To get started, search for the latest news regarding your industry in Google. From there, start searching about all the unfamiliar terms you encounter. Once you keep doing this, you will become familiar with websites and people who you need to follow in your industry.
Tools
Any professional job will require you to work with tools.
Some are common and must-knows such as Powerpoint and Excel while some are more specific to your industry.
Trust me, familiarize yourself with Powerpoint and Excel as much as possible.
It’s something that you will be using on a daily basis. If you know your tools, you will save time and make your boss and colleagues very happy. This can only be good for you.
For industry-specific tools, you will know better than me.
Prioritize this, please.
Have a decent LinkedIn profile with relevant, necessary and updated information in all fields.
Follow the right people in your industry and some others who inspire you.
Try and post regularly about your professional areas of interest and show your thought leadership.
Why do all this?
Simply because we are living in an age where Personal Brand matters.
LinkedIn can change your life. I say this from personal experience.
There is enough material on the Internet to get you started with LinkedIn. So just Google it.
Conclusion
It’s easy to have a fixed mindset and say “I don’t need all this.” I will deal with things as and when I need to.
But you are only delaying your own success. Instead, have a growth mindset.
See yourself as someone who is improving every day. See yourself as someone striving for personal and professional excellence every day. Make mistakes, learn from them and improve consistently.
I hope these points help you start your professional career in the right way.
About Me
I am a Self Improvement Junkie on a mission to help students & young professionals grow and improve. Visit www.theveningproject.com to know more about the how & the what.
