7 Crucial Things New Grads Should Know About Working in Corporate America
Life lessons from my 10-year stint in the business world
I was sitting in a conference room with clear, glass walls overlooking the corporate campus where I worked during a rare but beautifully sunny day in Pittsburgh. Leaning back in my chair, arms crossed, I listened to my 50-something-year-old coworker — a project manager — explain to our boss that he didn’t know how to look up documents in the company’s record management system.
After the meeting ended, I was instructed to show him how to do it — a 21-year-old engineering intern training a 30-year veteran on a fundamental aspect of his job. I looked over at a coworker and facepalmed. He laughed and nodded in agreement. Nothing more needed to be said.
How that project manager survived thirty years in the company not knowing how to extract documents (that, at some point, he for sure needed to give customers) I have no idea. But fast forward to today, after 10 more years of experience in Corporate America, I’m not at all surprised.
I’ve learned a great number of lessons about life in the corporate world, one of them being that just because someone is a professional doesn’t make them good at their job.
