Top 10 Career Advice for Fresh Graduates
For the past few days, I have been thinking about what career advice I can give to fresh graduates. In my 12 year’s of working life, I have seen both ends of the spectrum in terms of performances of fresh graduates.
Fresh graduates have almost zero working experience. However, this does not stop some of them from immediately shinning through as rising stars. On the other hand, some fresh graduates sink right to the bottom and immediately become the burden to the team.
What are the differences between the rising stars and the sinkers given that they all have zero work experience?
Here are my Top 10 Career Advice for Fresh Graduates.
1. Take Initiative
This is something you will hear very often. It simply means that when you want to offer to help, help.
Don’t ask “Do you guys need any help?” and then expect someone to come over and train you on how to help.
Instead, observe what your colleagues are doing and try to get involved and jump right in. The moment you jump in, your co workers will slowly find that they like you because you are interested to help them.
Then, they would be more willing to get you involved in their work and give you little pointers as and when you run road blocks. This would help greatly in your learnings.
2. Take ownership of your learnings
Nobody is going to spoon feed you. This is your career and your life. Your co-workers were not paid to train you. They have no obligation to do that. The only reason they are training you is because they are helping you to help them.
So, do not ever take for granted that the company or your co-workers owe you a living. Basic training to get you through the door should be given. However, anything else after that, you are on your own.
My advice for you is that the sooner you take ownership of your own progress, the better it is for your first job as a fresh graduate.
3. Be independent as fast as possible
As a fresh graduate joining the company, it is understandable that you do not have enough skills to contribute.
Having said that, when I was assigned a task by my Boss a few months into the job, I took full ownership of it. My mindset was that once this task was assigned to me, I had to do everything within my ability to figure out how to complete it.
Going back to the Boss repeatedly for instructions and guidance was something I did not want to do. The task was mine and if I kept going back to bother my Boss, wouldn’t he think that he was still having to handle that task?
What I did was to ask for basic instructions on how to go about the task, clarify boundaries that I should not cross and then get the job done.
Having demonstrated that I was independent and able to complete certain tasks, I gained the trust of my superiors and co-workers who were then ready to load me with more work.
4. Stay Humble and Learn From Everyone
My career advice for fresh graduate is to stay humble and to be polite. You may have high ambitions for yourself being fresh out of college but no matter how brilliant you are, you have no actual work experience.
Be polite to everyone including those with a lower position than you. Everyone has something to share and teach you.
As a fresh graduate I joined my company as an Engineer because I was a degree holder. In terms of hierarchy I was ranked above a group of associate engineers and technicians.
I reminded myself that I only out ranked them in terms of job title but in terms of work experience I was nothing compared to them. With this in mind I got my hands dirty and learnt the hands on job of equipment maintenance.
This set up the foundation for me to understand more complex problems in the future.
Never underestimate people who are in a lower position than you. Everybody has some skills that they are good at and you should learn the good bits from everyone.
5.Get curious, listen and Gain Knowledge
Sometimes, it becomes easy to draw boundaries about what your job scope is.
This means that in discussions or meetings, you may dismiss certain topics that come up as things that you do not need to know.
My career advice for fresh graduates is to stay curious for as long as possible. Clarify unfamiliar terms and learn as much as you can.
Build up a wide foundation first before going deep. You will be surprised at how much more you know compared to your Seniors if you continue to stay curious.
6. Build a good relationship with Co-Workers
There is a Chinese saying that “You depend on your parents at home, but you need your friends outside”. Your co-workers are your friends and the people who would come to your aid when you need help at work.
Build up a good relationship with your workers by helping them whenever you can even if it is beyond your job scope. They are more likely to reciprocate when you need help.
After work drinking sessions or dinner are also bonding sessions that you should try to participate in at the start.
If you are an introvert, it could be difficult and uncomfortable for you to mingle with people you are not yet familiar with in an unofficial setting.
However, these sessions are also exactly what you need to break the ice with your co-workers and get comfortable. I would advice not to keep turning your co-workers’ invitations down (if you are lucky to get any in the first place).
After rejecting them once or twice, they may stop inviting you and see you as the loner who is not able to blend into the team.
7. Learn to Manage Your Boss
If the concept of managing upwards never crossed your mind, now is the time to pay attention.
In the workplace, it is not always your superiors managing you. As a subordinate, managing upwards is a key skill to have.
What I mean by that is to observe your boss and manage his expectations. What are the questions being asked? Does he/she like long detail updates every step of the way or only a quick summary verbally?
The key is to deliver what your boss wants, when it is wanted. It would take some common sense on your part to get into the good books of your superior.
By no means do I mean to curry favor your way up. What I mean is to clarify the expectations of your boss way in advance and deliver the expected goods.
8. Build up your reputation and branding
You only have one chance at making a first impression. Build up a reputation for yourself early in your career and you will find many opportunities awaiting you.
When I first started out, I made it a point never to miss any deadlines in the assignments I was given. I planned ahead, anticipated potential road blocks and made sure to sort them out before they caused any delays.
I was known to be the “new guy” who could make things happen. Soon I was entrusted with bigger tasks which allowed me to pick up many new skills.
What are your personal strengths and what is the branding you would want to build for yourself?
9. Do the Small Things Right
I once heard a story about an intern who joined a large MNC. She had excellent grades and was expecting to do some major projects for the company.
If she did well for her internship, she would have one more impressive work experience to list down on her resume.
However, other than simple data entry jobs she was also expected to make coffee for all the bosses in the meeting room every morning. It was a waste of her talents in her opinion.
Why can’t any one see that she was capable of much more? Needless to say, she did not put in much effort in making coffee.
After 2 weeks she could no longer bear this “insult” and confronted her supervisor on why she was tasked with such mundane tasks.
The answer she got was, “If you can’t even do the small things right, how do you expect us to trust you with bigger projects?”
Making coffee is a simple task but you can do a very good job if you take pride in it. For example, instead of making the same coffee for everyone in the room, why not try to find out the preference of each boss?
Take pride in everything you do, even seemingly small tasks.
10. Be Prepared to Work Very Hard
If you are a fresh graduate just starting out, my career advice to you is to forget about work life balance.
Throw this idea out of your mind right from the start. For the first 3 to 5 years, be prepared to work very hard.
Work life balance is something that everybody wants. However, you have to understand that work life balance has to be earned. If you think of going home on the dot every day as a right, you are going to lose out to the person next to you who stays back to give a little bit more every day.
It is not about staying late for the sake of showing the boss that you are working hard. The point is not about leaving work on the dot. It is about putting in 100% of your effort to learn about your work and to be good at it.
In Conclusion
In terms of career advice for fresh graduates, I think everything boils down to attitude. Your attitude towards your job determines the altitude you can reach in your career path.
Choose the right industry that interests you and stick with it. It takes time to build up real skills and you need to build up technical knowledge early in your career.
The human aspect of the workplace cannot be ignored as well. Building a good relationship with co-workers and your bosses is guaranteed to make your life much easier. This may sound like something obvious but you will see people who are totally oblivious to the importance of workplace relationship.
So, in summary, build up relationships with people, stay curious and work very hard.