Wednesday, December 3, 2014

10 Fresh Grad Mindset You Need to Have

If you had completed your course some time ago, you probably thinking of your career path. Or if you are a fresh grad currently working in a company, you found that many things are missing and different, so different that you felt lost sometimes. Fear not, here are 10 mindset that you need to have in order to make yourself more capable and much motivated as you go through your fresh grad period and advancing into a higher position.

1. Don't care about Salary

I'm serious. The more you think about salary, the more you comparing if you deserve your current paid and that's eventually lead to dissatisfaction. Because as a fresh grad, you usually feel that you need to do a lot more work, so busy that you think that you are under-paid. But the truth is, every thing is tough in the beginning so as you proceed, you became more experience and tend to do things better later on.
So stop comparing salary of different position in many companies. More importantly, you need to remember that company that offer higher pay usually make you do more work.

2. Put Effort in Time Management

It's best if you know how to use time management skill to set up your work priority and managing all your work load, but that's usually required some experience and knowledge to do that. In this stage, one important thing you always need to practice is to get to work on time and attend any meeting or discussion on time. Failing to do so not only make people think that you are lacking of self discipline, you are also demonstrating how much you used to get late for class during college/university time.

3. Work Harder and Learn to Work Smarter

Everything is difficult in the beginning, so you tend to feel that there is no end for your workload. But remember this: no matter how much your workload is, there is a way to manage your work so that you can finish part of the work that ensure your working progress is on the right track.
You don't need to finish everything in one go or by one day, unless your company force you to (then you probably need to beware of company that bully fresh grad). You just need to learn to plan for all the works that you need to complete for next few days and execute your plan. So the main key is to work harder to complete your planned work, and your planned work is depending how well you had plan for it.

4. Accept Good Scolding

Scolding is very common, no matter how high your position is. But there are differences between good scolding and bad scolding, which also means meaningful scold and pointless scolding. Bad scolding are scolds that meant to hurt a person pride and feeling, and in the end of the day you don't learn anything but feeling hurt. Good scolding are words that still make you hurt a little but if you learn to accept the kind words behind it, you definitely learn better in avoiding mistakes and create better work result.
When you are able to differentiate good and bad scolding, and accept the good one, you need to learn on the next one.

5. Manage Your Ego

No one like to get scolded or being command to do things, but that's really common for employees as well as fresh grad. You tend to work under more seniors and managers, that's when you get more chance to get command around or scolded by different level and different type of person. Despite that, you need to learn that while there are people who get mad easily and tend to scold as in spreading their negative energy to you, there are also people who scold because they want you to learn that this is an important matter that you must bear really hard in your mind.
I won't suggest that scolding is a good way to make people learn or remember something. Just that you need to know that usually people scolding is not all about you, but more focusing on the work. So you shouldn't put too much personal feeling when such event happen.

6. Think & Create Your own Solution

Don't expect spoon feeding even if your company used to such practice. You see, there are many loopholes in a company operation, despite how many years they had operated. People usually don't notice, or they don't have the time to notice because they focus more on work to create the expected results. So when people ask you to do something, don't just do it and think that follow is the best practice.
Try to think why there is a need to do it this way, and try to brain storm if there is any other way, then seek advice and discuss with others. Just avoid sounds like you are doubting if they know what they are doing and avoid asking too much like an innocent child who are new to this world.

7. Identify a Role Model

It's the same as an idol, you wish you could be like them in terms of appearance, capability, charm and skill. Having an idol in work place give you a measurable target to know what type of person you want to become. It can be your boss, supervisor, colleague, friend, or any co-worker you known.
Follow the traits of a good role model, and some times when you are in certain tough position, you might be able to guide yourself by thinking what would that person do if he or she is in your position, and you eventually feel like you want to become better, just like him or her.

8. Setup a Long Term Career Path Planning

There is still a long way to go, so you need something to guide you and make sure you know where you are standing now and on the next few years. A long term career path planning able to tell you what you are going to become next year (Example, able to perform certain tasks at top speed with guarantee quality), and who you are in the next 20 years.
Work life is a long journey, especially if you are still a fresh grad. It's important to visualize a solid path for yourself so that you won't easily get into confusion at certain point of your life feeling lost and unsure what are you doing and what type of future you going to achieve.

9. Keep Learning New Things

If you just became a fresh grad, you need to find ways to make your resume looks really nice and fill in all your available skill sets. Not only that you get higher chance of being hired, an employee with multiple field of knowledge also give the impression that you are a good learner and interesting in many things, instead of only focusing on your own preferred field.
If you are working in a company, don't stop learning too because you can't tell your company that you are in the same level one year later. Identify beneficial knowledge and information from your work place, learn them and in the future, you will be able to tell what you had learn now which can be special and your own selling point later.

10. Aim to Become Professional in Your Role

No matter how low your position is, you can always set a higher target to make your role so great that people think differently about you, rather than think of you just like an ordinary employee. If you achieve higher performance and greater productivity in your work, not only that people can see that you are much capable and willing to put effort in making something ordinary to become something special, they will eventually think that you are more suitable for higher position.
Recall any street hawker that sells ordinary food but attracted so much people to visit them because of their unique taste? If you put extra effort and aim to be a pro in what you are currently doing, not only that people would see that you are a special one, you will enjoy more on what you are doing and who you are later.
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