An Almost Decade of Work

In June of 2019, I will have spent a decade of my life working (with a two year gap for graduate school in the middle). I started work as a callow 20 year old; my first job was as a copy-editor for a firm that provided editorial services. In retrospect, I can only marvel at my reasoning in accepting this job, it was a little bit of a non-sequitur after completing an Economics degree. My next significant role was working in Corporate Citizenship for a consulting firm; it is this job (and the people) that was the most formative experience for me as a young professional in my early career.

Over the course of this almost decade at work, I’ve attended several orientations, worked with people in and from different countries, gone from being a newbie and absolutely terrified of being wrong to understanding that mistakes are inevitable. I’ve worked in three countries and multiple cities; I’ve worked a domestic job that had a big international component and I work an international job that is as domestic and local as it gets. Last year, I spent some time talking to a career coach and this prompted me to scribble a list of sorts, about what I have learned during all this time – not technical or job-specific things but transferable skills and approaches that have and will continue to help me. I’m sharing this list here as a reminder to myself and in the hopes that it is relevant to others.

1. Make notes of what you work on:
I am not talking about your resume (although keep updating that regularly as well, instead of waiting till when you don’t have a choice or the time). I’m talking about all the projects and events and big and little tasks and research and articles, which may be significant in the immediate moment but are easy to forget as you change roles and jobs. This is hardly original advice but I find that even a couple of quick lines every few weeks about what I got done is a great memory jogging tool. It doesn’t just help with resumes, but also with interviews and other professional conversations, applications for fellowships and pro bono work, for side hustles and more and at the end of the day, to remind yourself.

2. Know what organizational tools work for you:
At this moment in 2019, the options to get and stay organized feel infinite. They range from the Getting Things Done methodology to Marie Kondo-ing your life; from Trello to Smartsheets; from Google Calendars to Bullet Journaling and everything in between. All of these don’t work for all of us. Some of these will last and others will fall by the wayside. But what is unlikely to change is your natural organizational personality (if you think you don’t have one or haven’t identified it that is a conversation for a different day). I’ve learned that I must write things down, otherwise they don’t stick on my memory. I’ve also learned that putting events in physical notebooks will only lead me to double-booking myself. I’ve learned that a simple list in Google Keep can be an effective tool to work with another person; while a project plan in Smartsheet, while detailed can often seem daunting to folks. Some people just make notes on their phone. The sooner you figure this out, the more it will help you.

3. Own your mistakes:
One of my former bosses once remarked that once you own your mistake and are ready to fix it, there isn’t much other people can do except accepting it and moving forward. I’ve found this to be true – it is both honest and gracious to own up when you make a mistake. Of course, when I was new to work, I thought accepting that you had made a mistake reflected negatively on you. Note that I am not saying that mistakes don’t matter or that it’s okay to keep making the same mistakes (at the very least, as they say, make new mistakes each time). So far, this has helped me tremendously.

4. Documents and dates:
I’ve learned this the hard way. It is much harder to get documents (proof of employment, dates of employment, salaries and benefits, references) from organizations once you leave them. Make a list of documents that you are likely to need in life (so all of the above and more) and ask for them before you leave. Also start a spreadsheet somewhere and just note down key dates – when did you start and end that job; when did you start and end the pro bono gig. It will save you from trying to go back and figure all of these and as you apply for more things in life, this will be a handy reference document. Create a Google/Dropbox folder and drop in these documents over there – this will save you from digging through old emails and rescanning pieces of paper.

5. Humor:
At the end of the day, we bring our whole selves to work. This means we bring our fears and worries of our personal lives with us. There is hardly an absolute separation of the work and personal self. I’ve found that humor is at the least a decent ice breaker and at its best, a unifier. Life can be hard, work can be stressful, people can be unreasonable but if you can find the humor in it, it will make things a little bit more bearable.

Making this list has been enjoyable and cathartic at the same time. I hope you find something useful in it and I would love to learn more about the lessons you have learned along the way.

Originally published at shrutisaxena.com