Lessons from a decade

The first day of my working life is fresh in my memory. One, because it hasn't been really that long but even if it had, I would still remember it. The welcome was warm and fuzzy, complete with a bouquet. There was no designated space for me yet but I couldn’t have just gone and parked myself anywhere because this was not college. It was very strange to call by first name, people who were half a generation or more older to me but what was even strange was that feeling lasted only one day.

For someone not adept at making stellar conversations with strangers, standing with a bouquet in hand in the middle of an office space with 50 odd people and no smartphone to cling on to for life support, the first hour left a vivid imprint that brings a smile whenever I think about it.

Much water has flown under the bridge since then. I made some good friends from among those strangers, learnt to recycle bouquets and figured that air-conditioners in office buildings are shut down at 7 pm to save on electricity bills and not encourage us to go home on time. So for posterity, more than anything else, I wondered it would be fun to see some lessons 10 years of working life have given me. Here are 6 lessons that my first decade gave me:

1.      Laser sharp focus doesn't help! - It’s really ok to have more than one idea of where one wants to be after the first 5 years of working. After all, it is just 1/8^th of one’s working life. To that effect, I see no harm in chasing multiple aspirations. After the first 3 years of working, I decided to go back to study and then made it my single minded focus to get an advanced degree. As I worked towards that, I let go of an opportunity to work overseas to ‘focus’ on studying. The stars didn't happen to align perfectly and I finally ended up choosing status quo over my backup college options that had materialised. My extreme focus shrouded my ability to experiment when I should and could have.

2.      Working overseas is transformative – enough and more has been said about this but at the risk of repeating, I do believe working overseas has immensely helped me transform my perspective. It has helped to show me my place in this world and allowed me to appreciate the breadth of ideas that exist. I’ve also learnt that over-reliance on the English language to communicate ideas is the single biggest challenge facing the human race. In my free time, I now pray that the babel fish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_races_and_species_in_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Babel_fish) becomes Elon Musk’s next big project.

3.      Figuring out a pattern for breaks is critical– There are 2 kinds of people in the working world. Those who take frequent but short breaks and those who take annual breaks but LONG ones. By year 3-4, everyone must identify which pattern works for them. No one needs to be told the importance of taking breaks but people work at different tempos and we work in large global interconnected teams. It may sound trivial but knowing the pattern of your body to sustain productivity and then figuring out a break pattern goes a long way.

4.      Slacking is like a pimple, no matter who you are and what you do it will hit you atleast once in your life. But when you know you can see the slightest of signs, it is but obvious to take action because the fallout of slacking always shows up. Sometimes in a week, in a few months or even after years!

5.      Question everyone including the boss – I believe that what the boss says works so subliminally as part of one’s programming that it can completely annihilate one’s ability to think critically and objectively. I realized that the less I questioned my boss, the more I insular I became with my beliefs which did nothing but confirmed to biases and perpetuated an atmosphere of do, repeat, do, repeat.

6.      Last but not the least, it’s always better to make the list and then number it rather than create a numbered list and then fit in the list into it.

If there are any lessons that your first, second or third decade gave you, feel free to share. Let’s do our bit to make this world a better place.