A few months back, I had a talk with some college fresh graduates who joined our company. Here are three pieces of advice that I gave to them.
1. Work hard – This is the time when you can spend time on work and yourself. Expose yourself to a lot of training – technical and non-technical. When you have a family dependent on you, you will have to give attention to them. Don’t waste time on passive entertainment. Go for active entertainment like travel, hobbies, reading, trekking, etc.
2. Work as team – You cannot grow as a silo. Share your knowledge with others. Work as a team. Help others in the company. Be knowledgeable and approachable. Have a good rapport with your colleagues. They should provide good testimony about you. You cannot fake it. You need to be genuinely kind, helpful and collaborative. Freely give credit to others more than what they deserve. Making friends is more important than making a name. Name will come automatically when you make friends.
3. Be trustworthy – Always be honest to everyone, in all situations. If you don’t know, if you need more time, if you are not sure, if you have forgotten, if you have something else on higher priority, if you don’t agree, it is okay; say so. If it is confidential, don’t say, “I don’t know”; say , “it is confidential”. It is a small world. Even if you go to a different company, there will always be someone who knows someone in one of your previous companies. They will check about you. You cannot hide anything in the long-run. And, once trust is broken, it is very difficult to fix it. Build an image of trust. Again, you cannot fake it. You need to be genuinely trustworthy.
And, none of these need you to be a super-genius or be from an Ivy league college.