So it's been more than a year since I started working full-time in marketing in Finland. I've shared all of my humble learnings from looking for an internship to moving to a different country to job seeking. In the true spirit of Today Vy learns, this post then just comes as the inevitable.
Here are four lessons from my first full-time job that I wanted to share.
#1. Work from an empowered mindset - you're not just an employee/ an intern/ a [fill in the blank].
A couple of years ago, I attended an offline workshop in Vietnam where experienced professionals shared knowledge and tips with young students. A young girl asked, how do I make an impact or solve problems when I'm merely an intern?
The answer from a marketing director really stuck with me: even if you think you are just an intern, you don't have to act like one.
While this might be more relevant to the Vietnamese working environment where more hierarchy is present, I do think many can fall easily into the trap of restricting yourself into a fixed role. As a result, you impose the can'ts on yourself without thinking twice about it.
Further into my first job, I learnt that titles/ roles are not what define or build your career, although it does look like that when you see someone is promoted to a more fancy title on LinkedIn. It's what you do, how you think and contribute to the team that makes your title.
Even when you are "just an intern", you do have advantages that the (usual) more experienced ones don't - your fresh perspectives, curiosity and excitement. And you can do a lot with that.
#2. Sometimes saying "I don't know" is the wiser way
It is foolish trying to "fake it till you make it" in my most honest opinion. How are you gonna learn? How are you gonna get the support you need? No job is a one-man job. Even when you are a solo-entrepreneur, you work with different specialists like accounting and rely on their skillsets to run your business smoothly.
In your first job, perhaps there is a lot that you feel like you don't know or not quite sure how to handle. Hearing the phrase "I actually don't know how to ..." followed by an ask "Do you know where or from whom I can learn this?" from a newcomer is one of the best things at work. When someone is honest and self-aware enought to acknowledge what they know and don't know, you know you can trust them to try and do a job well.
No one is expected to know everything. To know what you don't know is already powerful enough.
#3. There is always a certain amount of insecurity in your first few months (no matter how many jobs you've been through)
Being the new kid on the block is certainly unsettling: you are here and now you have to prove why you are here. It's insane but it's the reality most people go through, including me. From my observations and talks with newcomers, it's also suprising to know that this insecurity applies to everyone regardless of the amount of experience they've had.
Unfortunately there is no antidote to this, except to let time does his magic trick. Or it's actually not time that helps, but the fact that you get more acquainted with the work process, the team culture and your new team members that will help ease this. Untill then, it's helpful to know that you are never alone in this feeling :).
#4. The more self-identification with "work" you have, the more you suffer
The first few months of work is awesome, you are officially a useful member of society and financially self-sufficient. If you hit it off with your colleagues and your company benefits are cool, it makes you feel cool about yourself too. Whatever your first job is, I hope you have a good time enjoying and celebrating it! It is indeed truly an exciting milestone.
However, as a first-timer, it's also easy let work consume more parts of your life/ self-identity (partly from the insecurities in #4).
What does "work" mean to you? A way to prove your self-worth? A place to lose yourself and avoid your personal issues? A second family? At the risk of sounding extreme, that is a recipe for disaster. Of course it's more complicated than that, sometimes colleagues become your good, long-lasting friends even when you move on to a new workplace. But when work becomes the primary way through which you view yourself, you feel a lot more is at stake. And where there's a a looming deadline or a slight oversight, the amount of stress is easily exacerbated because work means a lot more to you than just a mere transactional exchange of skills for financial rewards.
All I'm saying is, you are a lot more than what you do for money, and you should start spending time discovering that - outside of work.
In summary
Your roles/ titles do not dictate what you can and cannot do
Your ability to recognize what you don't know is more important than how much you know
Everybody is anxious on their first day at school / work, trust that it'll get better
Work may be a major part of your life, but not all
If you just started your first job or started a new job again or are about to, I hope these sharings would be helpful to you.
Stay strong and be kind,
Vy.
