Читать книгу Corporate Survival Guide for Your Twenties - Kayla Buell - Страница 13
ОглавлениеTalk to your boss about your career goals.
Okay, so your boss obviously liked you during your interview. I mean, you’re starting a new job, right? So that means that your boss thought you were somewhat smarter and better than the other applicants. Your boss decided to give you a shot. They decided to hire you. That’s awesome! You know what your goal is now? Making sure that your boss likes you for more than five minutes. Best of luck with that!
No but really, if your boss is a good boss, they’re going to want to get to know you a little, and while there’s no need to tell them that you occasionally spend your weekends upside down doing keg stands, it’s definitely the opportune moment to talk to them about your career goals. The truth is, your boss is either going to make you or break you. If your boss likes you, they’re going to give you new projects and they’re going to make it their mission to see that you grow professionally. If they don’t like you, eventually, you’ll end up quitting. That’s just how it goes.
But since it’s day one, chances are you haven’t pissed them off yet and they still like you. Which also means that they might actually care about what you want to do with your life. So let your boss know, right now, where do you see yourself in a couple of years? What kinds of projects would you like to handle? What are you passionate about? What are you good at? If you share these things with your boss, your boss might be able to help you somewhere down the road. 5 months from now, there might be a project that requires graphic design, and if you’re good at that and you’ve made it known, they’re a lot more likely to connect the dots than if you’ve kept your hobby a secret.
I have a rule. If I look at myself in the mirror and for even 3 milliseconds wonder whether or not my skirt is too short for work, I get my butt back into my room and change. I don’t care how cute it is. I don’t care how trendy it is. I don’t care how great my Instagram selfies would look wearing it. There is absolutely no room at work for questionable attire.
Some offices expect you to show up to work in a suit and tie every single day. Others are a bit more casual. Every office is different. That’s something you’ll have to gauge for yourself upon arrival. However, there’s one thing they all have in common. No office wants their employees to look as if they’re ready to go out clubbing later that night. That much I can promise you.
If I can see your bra, that’s a problem. If I can’t see your bra because you’re not wearing one, that’s even MORE of a problem. Six-inch platform heels are not appropriate. Neither are skirts that hug your butt so tightly that you can’t grab any extra fabric at your hips. Oh, and check the slits on your skirts, too! You might think your skirt’s okay for work. You might even do that thing where you place your arms at your sides to see if your fingertips reach the bottom of the skirt. That’s great! But if the slit on the back goes way up your butt, you really need to leave it for another occasion. Perhaps Halloween, the one night that it’s become socially acceptable to walk around half-naked. So yes, please do yourself and your co-workers a favor and watch your slits. I cannot even begin to tell you how many things I’ve seen via those slits that I definitely could have gone my whole life without seeing.
Dressing professionally at work is non-negotiable. Sure, you can look chic and put-together and still rock the latest trend, but you can’t look like a stripper. I’m sorry, you just can’t. You should want to be taken seriously as a professional. You should want your boss and your clients to value your brain cells. You should want them to recognize you for your talents and your skillset, and they can’t really do that when they’re too busy looking down your shirt.
Read up on your industry daily.
If you want to succeed in your business, you have to know your business. Simple as that. Not just the textbook stuff, though. No, that stuff you’ve probably already learned in school (and forgotten at this point). But your industry changes every day. New stuff’s going on all the time, and new trends are always emerging. Better practices are constantly popping up, and the frontrunners in all industries often share their thoughts and ideas.
You want to know that stuff. You want to stay current in your industry. You want to know what’s going on, and more importantly, where your industry is heading. That’s something that will set you apart big time. Most employees are comfortable doing their job day in and day out. They’ve been there 15 years and know what they need to do. They’re good at it, even. But that’s not enough anymore.
The people and companies who succeed these days are the ones who can see where their industry will be 5 years from now. It’s the people who correctly anticipate the future that are most successful, and if you’re reading up on your industry all the time, chances are you’ll be a lot more in tune with the latest happenings than if you just go to work and do what you’re told. Besides, you want to be known as an industry expert. That’s how you move up in Corporate America. “Subject Matter Expert” is a new phrase that everyone’s throwing out there all the time. That’s what you want to be. That’s how you’ll get paid the big bucks, and honestly, you can’t live off of ramen forever!
Learn some basic e-mail etiquette.
LOL. WTF. FTW! HIMYM. Basically, that’s how we communicate these days! We text and we Snapchat, and e-mail’s just that thing we use to get coupons from all the stores we shop at, forever tempted to buy more stuff.
In the workplace, though, e-mail will likely be your primary method of communication. You’ll find that even people who sit right next to each other send e-mails instead of talking, something that I’ll never understand. Actually, I’m lying. I know why they do it. They send e-mails because e-mail’s the only way to cover your ass at work, something I’ll go over later. But anyway, if you want to survive in Corporate America, you need to know some basic e-mail etiquette rules so people don’t want to strangle you right off the bat. Here are some good starting points.
| Have an e-mail signature: there’s nothing more frustrating than receiving an e-mail from someone, wanting to give them a call to clarify something, and not being able to find their freaking phone number. I mean, if you’re looking to really get on someone’s shit list, don’t include a signature. But if you’d like to stay in their good graces, apply an e-mail signature to all your e-mails. It’s simple, really. Just your name and your phone number will suffice. Every office is different though, so you might want to check and see if there’s a standard e-mail signature you’re expected to have. Some people add their titles, others add their company logo. But at the very minimum, your signature should contain your phone number or some other method of reaching you. | |
| CC and BCC: Carbon copy and blank carbon copy. That’s what those letters stand for. When you cc or copy someone on an e-mail, it’s kind of seen as an FYI for that person. It’s not an e-mail that’s directed right at that person, nor do you require that they respond. It’s more of a “keeping them in the loop” kind of thing. When you BCC someone, you’re copying them on the e-mail so they see it, but the main person you send it to can’t see who you’ve blank copied. This is used mostly when you’re sending an e-mail to multiple recipients but you don’t want everyone to know who else is receiving the e-mail. Now, let me tell you something. Every day, probably even right now as you’re reading this, there’s someone out there who’s really upset because of an issue related to that cc field on an e-mail. It’s crazy, but I promise you it happens. I’ve seen grown people in tears or involved in near fistfights because of it. Let me give you an example… Laura is an employee, so is Charlie, and Mary is Laura’s boss. In this scenario, Charlie had asked Laura to take care of something for him a week ago and still hasn’t heard back from Laura. So what does Charlie do? He sends an e-mail to Laura asking for an update and he copies Laura’s boss, Mary. You guys, that is the quickest way to piss someone off in the work-world. I mean, if you hate someone and you’re purposely trying to raise their blood pressure, do that. It’s extremely effective. So before you copy someone on an e-mail, ask yourself: a. Is this something that they really need to know? b. Can I communicate this to them using a better platform? c. Is it necessary to copy this person’s boss, or can I get an answer by communicating with the employee directly? Yes, sadly, this is one of those things that we waste our energy on at work. I’ve been in the workforce since I was 17 and even today, this is a giant puzzle to me. If you sit right behind me at work and instead of talking to me directly, you send me an e-mail copying my boss, I promise you, I’ll hate you forever. Unless it’s an e-mail saying how cool I am. That would be fabulous. On a side note, I’d advise that you ask your boss what she’d like to be copied on. I’ve actually gotten in trouble before for NOT copying my boss on certain e-mails. When in doubt, just ask them, because no matter how hard you try, you can’t really win here. You’ll have managers that don’t want to be copied on ANYTHING because it clogs up their inbox, and you’ll have others that want to be copied on EVERYTHING. It all depends on their management style, and since you’re not a freaking mind reader— although most managers will expect you to be— it’s better that you discuss that up front. | |
| Proofread your e-mails: When you’re typing up an e-mail, you’re probably typing a million miles a minute, thinking about everything you want to say, and also figuring out what you’re going to eat for lunch later. You’re also doing that thing where you’re typing and erasing and then typing and erasing some more, trying to formulate your e-mail in a way that doesn’t get you fired (when really, all you want to type are the words YOU. ARE. STUPID!) With all the thoughts flooding through your brain, you’re very likely to use the wrong form of “there” or forget a word entirely, so you need to proofread your e-mails before you hit send. I’ve proofread e-mails right before sending them and I’ve honestly asked myself, “What the F were you thinking?” Like, they’ve been bad. Addressing the wrong person, entering the wrong numbers, that kind of bad. Or my personal favorite, the e-mail where I say, “Please see attached wonderful document that I’ve spent hours putting together for you, let me know what you think!” and then I forget to actually attach the damn thing. Minor details. So do yourself a favor and proofread everything you write, because I promise you, if you send out an e-mail and it’s got spelling errors, makes no grammatical sense, and looks like maybe a 2nd grader wrote it, the person receiving that e-mail WILL share it with all of their co-workers and you’ll just look like a total loser. |
Take all the free training courses available to you.
Training courses can be expensive. But you know what? Good companies provide their employees with lots of them. Employers often times figure that the cost of training outweighs the cost of poor performance, so they invest in their employees and provide lots of training opportunities.
There are different kinds of training courses, though. There’s the traditional face-to-face training session where an actual instructor is teaching you, bringing back lots of high school memories. There are also plenty of webinars available that you can take in the comfort of your own home, on your bed, in your pajamas. Those kind of rock, obviously.
But regardless of the type of training, the point is this…TAKE ALL THE TRAINING YOU CAN GET! It’s free information, people! Why on earth would you pass that up? There are two types of people in the workforce. The type that gets an e-mail about a free training opportunity and automatically files it in the “Trash” and the type that gets the same e-mail and actually looks into it to see if they might benefit from it.
Guess which type your employer would prefer that you be? Guess which type seems more committed to their job? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. So show your new boss that you’re interested in learning all you can. If you have a one-on-one sit down with your boss, ask the question. Ask them if there are any free training opportunities available or if there are any resources available to employees to help them expand upon their skillset. Your boss might not know the answer, but he’ll be impressed that you asked, and he’ll know that you’re taking your job seriously.
Arrive on time to meetings and pay attention.
You have to be on time to meetings. There are ZERO exceptions. There’s nothing worse than when a meeting’s already started, people are in deep conversation, and then oh…look at that…someone’s walking in late. At this point, all of the meeting attendants are staring at the late person thinking, “Ugh, what a slacker.” Because that’s what you look like when you’re late to a meeting. You look super unprofessional and you look like a total slacker. Not to mention that you’ve now shifted the focus of the meeting from whatever important topic was being discussed to you and your late self. No one likes this, so plan accordingly and don’t be late. If you ARE for some reason going to be late, it’s a good idea to let the meeting organizer know that, due to your schedule, you probably won’t be able to make it on time. At that point, they can let you know whether or not it’d be worth it for you to attend, and at least if you are late, it’ll be expected.
Paying attention is just as important as being on time. Remember in high school when the teacher would randomly call on students and ask a question mid-lecture? Remember that time your teacher called on you and you hade no idea what what he was asking because you’d been staring off into space for the last thirty minutes, contemplating life, love, and all of your weekend plans? “I’m sorry, what was the question?” Yea, don’t let that be you at a meeting.
If a meeting’s being held, it’s because there’s something that needs to be discussed, or something that needs to be communicated (otherwise, there wouldn’t be a meeting in the first place.) So the point of you being invited to the meeting is for you to contribute and provide value. If you’re on your phone, answering e-mails, playing with your Apple Watch, or doodling pretty flowers on your agenda, making no effort to pay attention to what’s going on, why the heck are you wasting your time being there?
If you’re at a meeting, you’re expected to pay attention. It’s really that simple. But dude, I’ve been at meetings and witnessed the big guys— the Directors, VPs, and CEOs— scrolling through Facebook and answering e-mails. I always laugh when I see this, because it’s us young people that usually get the bad reputation of always being on our phones and not paying attention. But really, if even the leadership’s participating in that kind of behavior, what kind of example are they setting? It’s almost like they think that answering e-mails on their Blackberries during meetings makes it seem like they’re super important. We have so much to do, so we have to answer e-mails during meetings! Sorry but no, if you’re at a meeting, your focus should be on the meeting, that’s it. And if you’re just too busy and have too much to do, excuse yourself from the meeting, and have someone else fill you in later.
It’s called manners, people. Whoever’s holding the meeting put time, effort, and energy into making sure that it runs smoothly, so that person really deserves your respect. Think about it. How would you like it if you were holding a meeting, spent all night preparing for it, and all you see is the guy in the backseat with his head down sleeping, the guy in front of him drawing pictures on his notepad, the lady to the right of him scrolling through her Pinterest account and her friend next to her, reading and answering e-mails? You wouldn’t like it, would you? Nope, I didn’t think so. I know you’re dying to know how many people have liked the Instagram picture you just posted, but it can wait a little while longer, I promise.
Give people a chance. Don’t be so quick to judge others.
I’ll be the first to admit it. I’ve been the QUEEN of judging people. I mean, I’ve been known to look at someone and declare them an absolute jerk within 2.5 seconds of meeting them. I told you! Queen of judgment. If I like your face, you’re cool in my book, but if you just so happened to give me a nasty stare that day, I’ve forever declared my hatred towards you.
But I’ve definitely learned that you need to give people a chance. I mean, maybe that lady who gave me a nasty stare that day just got some terrible news. Maybe she’s having a rough time at home. You never know what other people are going through, so it’s really not fair to judge them right away.
I’ll never forget this one lady I worked with. I had never actually spoken to her, but man, I judged her so quickly. I didn’t like her. She was mean. She really didn’t speak much, so she obviously had no people skills, and I was sure she hated me right back. We were enemies in my mind, and she didn’t even know it. But you know what? I actually got around to talking to her months later and I genuinely liked her. She wasn’t scary like I had made her out to be, and there was actually a lot I respected about her. So there I was, talking crap about someone I hardly even knew, when I really could have spent that time getting to know her and building a friendship.
So give people a chance. People will actually surprise you. Before you decide that you like someone or not, get to know them yourself. Don’t listen to what your co-workers have to say, their experiences could be very different from yours. Give people the benefit of the doubt, and if after you spend some time getting to know them, you still think they’re mean or weird or anti-social, then fine. That can be your opinion of them. But everyone deserves a fair shot. You wouldn’t want people hating you the first day you meet them just because you’re younger or have a different fashion sense. Totally not cool.
Get yourself some business cards.
Nothing says you’re a legit businessperson like having your own business cards! I remember wanting business cards so badly while at my first couple of jobs. I wanted to be part of the cool-kids club, and having a business card was all it took to get in. To me, it meant that I had made it as a professional, and that I had some kind of authority. AKA: yes, I look like I’m twelve, but you need to take me seriously!
The problem here lies in the fact that not all employers will provide you with business cards. Especially if you’re just starting out. Oftentimes employers will wait until you’ve been on the job a few months to make sure that either a: you don’t quit, or b: they don’t fire you before actually investing in business cards. Those things cost money, you know?
But if for whatever reason you’re not given a business card, my suggestion to you is this: get some anyway, even if you have to pay for them yourself. Why? Well, because I already told you, it’s the easiest way for you to seem legit. Not only that, but if you want to have a happy career, you’re going to be doing some networking, and a key part of networking is having a business card to give other people when they meet you. Imagine this. You’re at a networking event talking to someone who could really impact your future. They’re impressed by you, and they ask you for your business card. Now what? You say, “Oh, I’m sorry, I ran out of my cards,” which by the way is code for I don’t actually HAVE business cards. And so that really important person just nods and walks away.
That would really suck! Bye-bye potential career opportunity! Now you’ll always wonder what could have happened had you been able to provide that person with your card. So be prepared for situations like that. Go out and at the very least get yourself a business card with your name, company, title, phone number, and e-mail address. Not only will it increase your chances of properly networking with others, but it’ll also make you feel a little badass. It’ll be that confidence booster you need when you look in your purse or on your desk. You’ll feel official and important, and you’ll see an increase in your job performance when that’s the attitude you have— when you take yourself seriously.
Set up a 401k. Right now. There’s nothing more beautiful than compound interest.
The smartest thing you can do the minute you start working is to open up a 401k. Don’t know what a 401k is? That’s fine. Open up Google, and search. Basically, it’s the best kind of savings account you can have. Not only do you put that money away, but based on how stocks are performing, the money grows much faster than it does in a typical savings account.
