New to the Office? Here are some tips

If you are an Indian, you must have heard your seniors/parents saying, “10th tak ache se padhle, phir to mazze hi maze.” you finish your 10th boards and move on to high school, thinking it will be fun. Then you see it is even tougher than 10th standard, and you work hard with the hope that once you get into a good college, life will be easier. 2 years later, you are in a college, and you realise that now you are no more competing with 50 students to get a rank, it is thousands of students all across the country who are aiming towards the same goal, “get a job”. Now is when the actual hustle begins. You are balancing studies, college attendance, upskilling, building projects and going through a big change in life, where an 18-year-old fresh out of school is suddenly expected to get their life sorted and decide what they want to do for the next ten years at least. Spoiler alert: Life never gets easy. The battle continues and gets tougher with time.
If you are somebody who just entered the job world or a college student, this newsletter issue is for you, as I write all my learnings from the past three years in this industry and more experiences from others in the industry.

Learning 1:

Be a go-getter and always have a “learn-it-all” attitude. This stands true in every industry. If you are in the tech industry, try your hands on newer tech stacks through fun side projects, but keep learning.

Learning 2:

Nobody is a friend. You can get a mentor, yes, but friends? I doubt that! Once you are in, it is the business that matters the most. At work, keep your feelings at bay, and never get too attached. As hard as it might be to digest, each one of us is replaceable.

Learning 3:

Ask a lot of questions and be very clear with communication. Be vocal. If there is something that you don’t like, speak up. If there is something that you want to do, ask for it (the worst they can say is no).

Learning 4:

Do not limit yourself to a particular role. Learn all that you can and always be open to different opportunities. This helps in creating more revenue streams than just one. If you are a software engineer today, maybe learn product management or anything that interests you other than software engineering. The market is such that the more skilled you are, the better your chances are to be hired.

Learning 5:

Network a lot! As the saying goes, “Your network is your net worth” is 100% true. The more you network, the easier it is for you to get mentorship, learn from others' experiences, and get opportunities, if needed.

These are my top 5 learnings. When I asked a question on X (formerly Twitter) about learnings that other folks from the industry would like to share, here are some of the responses that I received 👇

And that’s a wrap! I hope you learnt something from this issue. Feel free to add your experiences here, and if you have ideas about what you would like to hear from me next, drop your suggestions to 👉 @Haimantika