10 Lessons from the post-college workforce

Since I've graduated college, I've learnt a LOT about the workforce. Even in high school/college (as a short order cook, landscaper, snow shoveler, camp counselor, and other high schooler type jobs) there is a ton to be learnt about how the world, and in particular, the workforce works. Here are some of my top 10 lessons that I've learnt. If you disagree, or think there are more important lessons for those just joining the workforce, let me know! I still have a lot to learn. (And I CRAVE this stuff!! GO LEARNING!!!)

1. There are good people everywhere - and kindness goes a long way. 

This first one is pretty simple. If you have a super negative view of the world, you may have to curb that. Often, the reason a company does well is because they foster strong positive relationships with other people, and the companies are fueled by people trying to make an impact. Yes, a lot are trying to make a dollar, but usually they want the dollar to have a better life for them and their families. Selfish maybe, but honorable? I'd say so too. 

I love helping and working with people I get along with. It literally can fuel my day, and it should! Relationships are the spice of life, so why not have great relationships with the people you interact with everyday? That's rhetorical, you should. You should have amazing relationships. Why? Because fun. Life is meant to be fun. I want to have fun. I have fun with my friends, I want to have fun with my co-workers.

People don't always remember what you did or said, but they do remember how you made them FEEL. Kindness goes a long way, and it's a skill that is woefully undervalued and underemphasized. This can be an X factor when working with people, will make you feel phenomenal, and will make them feel amazing. And a big thing for me at least, is that happy people work better. And happy people make life better. So there is both an emotional and objective advantage to be nice. 

2. Some people you will have to disassociate with.

"Birds of a feather, flock together." "You are the sum of your 5 closest people." 

You have to be conscious of the people you are around. This is not to say to be skeptical and only try to optimize your social group (You're not a robot), but enjoy people! Have fun! But if someone is draining your life away, it's probably best for you and that person to part ways, or even part teams. 

 Not everyone will have an open mindset and be looking to improve, some of them you just have to disassociate with as soon as you can. This is a lesson that is tough to learn... I think that all people are basically good, and life can sour them up. If this person is a higher up of yours, it may be an even harder to get them to make the mental change. If you continue to work with these people, progress will not be made, and that of course, is a crying shame.

When you find people who want to constantly learn and grow, and have proven that they want to learn and grow, stay connected! These are the people who are most fun in life anyways! They want to grow and improve, and your conversations will be fun too :)

Can you help people get a more growth mindset? Leave something in the comments! Can you help these people? Are they destined to be in a fixed mindset? 

3. Unless you own the company, everything you work on doesn't belong to you....

This is really a discouraging thought, you can kill yourself to work on something, and make it great, but it's not yours. It's the companies. When you leave, your work is left behind to someone else. Kill yourself on stuff that is yours. 

This seems like a tricky lesson, and I'm not sure what to think of it. You want to feel ownership of what you are doing, since it's fun to work on something that's "yours". Having autonomy of your projects is constantly ranked as something that makes employees more and more happy. 

Leave in the comments how to stay motivated on a project, even when you know it belongs to someone else. How do you promote autonomy when people know that at any moment they can go? Do you just foster a strong team bond? 

4. Transparency, Transparency, Transparency

If you are not transparent, you are not doing a good job. How can you foster an environment where collaboration is encouraged if you are not giving all the information you need to give? No one is born knowing everything, they figured it out, or followed someone else. It's a LOT easier to figure it out, or follow an inspirer if the information is laid out in plain sight for you. 

If you are not transparent, why are you not? Is it putting someone directly in harms way? Are you actually protecting people from something? Are you trying to protect yourself and putting others in a disadvantages position? If you are on a team, this is not a team-building mentality. And if you are a manager, you are putting your team into a culture of manipulative insecurity. It's hard to do your job or anything if people are not being upfront with you. How can you make any decision at all without information? Data is slowly becoming the world's most valuable resource. 

Some people fear that if they say what is really on their mind, that they will get fired, or piss someone off. Sure, in the short run yes. If you fear getting fired over saying something, maybe that's a clue you're not where you want to be anyways - and you'd be much happier elsewhere. If you're afraid of upsetting someone, you are affectively robbing them of an opportunity to grow. Hopefully, we have already disassociated with the people who do not want to grow - so it's almost your DUTY to disagree, and say something that might upset them, if it's integral and (at least to you) important. 

5. Sweeping Communication: Must, must, must, must, must......

You must have effective communication. 

This doesn't really mean "You should spell and grammar good" it means your messages should be sent and received well.

This is how you get things done right, by making sure people know the right things that they need to know.

Communication is probably one of the number one issues I see in the workforce, and a skill that is crucially undervalued, but also difficult to assess for. If a group spends a TON of time building something and the requirements were wrong in the first place, then you have just wasted every second of your, theirs, and the people waiting on it's time. 

This is also how you build an amazing culture. A lot of people will say "leave your personal life at the door", and of course you don't have to tell everyone how you were up all night because your dog kept shitting on your cat - but you should bring your whole self. This is how you can really care for each other on your team, and get to know what they like, dislike, and who they are. If you know who they are, and what they are about, then you can cater the projects they work on to those things, they can be more motivated on something because it aligns with their goals. And it's way more fun to be able to have that incredible bond. How awesome is it when you would show up to class in high school and your best bud was in the room? (if you can remember that far back) You can just look at each other and you're already in a good mood since you share that special bond. Why not have that at the workplace too? 

6. You are and have to be your biggest advocate

Mommy isn't around anymore bucko, if you want something, YOU have to fight for it. Mom isn't going to go into the superintendents office and complain about how you should be in algebra 2 instead of algebra 1, YOU have to do it. And this is great. It feels AWESOME to fight for yourself. If you fight for yourself and win, then you feel on top of the world! And if you mess up, then you can go back to the drawing board on how to get that piece that you want. 

In my next lesson I say that grinding will not go unnoticed, which is true, but you still have to be the advocate for how hard you're grinding, and how much power and care you put into your work. With so much going on, a lot of the time people don't notice a lot of the little things you do. 

Now, this doesn't mean run around the office yelling "I'm a baller, I'm the bees knees, the universe created me and the rest of you ignorant peasants should kick dirty pebbles", but if you're proud of something, mention it! As a team a victory for you is a team victory, and team victories feel great! (And then you can have a reason to celebrate... Not that you need one anyways....)

7. In the beginning, you have to grind - and grinding will not go unnoticed 

Hard work is one of those things that the movies love to dwell on. Just think of the movies where the untalented dweeb makes the comeback from sheer will, grit, and amount of hard work they put in. People love this too, and they love to see it. It shows care for what you're working on, your productivity is high, and especially in America, we love to boast about how hard we worked, and how much sleep we didn't get (which I don't think is a great thing.... But you get the point)

In the beginning of your career, you are below whale shit. ("There's coral. There's rocks. There's whale poop. And then there's you.") People want you to learn and grow, but you HAVE to show them that you really want to learn and grow too. You do not have the luxury of a long list of experiences for why you are a desirable person to be with, so you have to prove it. This is great anyways, it's fun to work hard. 

8. If you don't know what you want to do, doing something is always better than doing nothing

You know those kids growing up who always knew what they wanted to do? And then they got to college and they still knew? And then they graduated and they did that thing? Well f*** those people. 

Just kidding. If you're one of those people, that's fantastic. Maybe there could be something else out there that you like better, how can you KNOW without experiencing everything? But then again, if you like ice cream and every time you have it you like it, then more power to you.

For everyone else who starts out confused and pressured to figure their shit out by 18, you are not alone. However, it's a bit lazy to just say "I don't know what I want to do". Saying that shuts your brain off to working out a solution. So what's an easy way to figure out what you like? Try it! You can talk about skiing all you like, but you'll never get the THRILL of skiing or really understand it in your bones till you do it. Gary V is a big fan of "close your eyes till you're 29". You don't need the job that makes mom proud at 23, or the college that impresses your friends at 18. In 20 years, you could be a whole new person, and if you tried a lot of things in your twenties, then you'll set yourself up for something that REALLY gets your juices flowing. Plus it's fun to try new things. If you haven't noticed, fun is really important. 

I'm still working it out... Having had over 4 roles in 4 years since graduating, I take a step up the ladder of happiness with each move, since I learn more about myself. And EVEN when I take a step BACK, usually, I take two steps forward the next one. 

9. Opportunity is everywhere. I repeat, opportunity is everywhere.

This is something I knew in my head, but not in my feels until I saw it. I was a salesman for a brief duration and something they would tell me that didn't really resonate was: "every interaction is a revenue opportunity". Now that doesn't mean that you're going to get the sale or the thing you want immediately from that interaction, but maybe they know someone who does. Maybe in the future they have something you want. Maybe you have something they want. There are opportunities that you might not of even thought of, and with some creativity, those can come to life in marvelous ways. 

One such example, I was a recruiter for software roles, and I ended up taking one of the roles I was recruiting for. Funny how that works out. 

Let me know some examples below!

And last.... and probably the most important, as it resonates everywhere:

10. Every. Single. Mistake. Is. A. Learning. Opportunity

I can't emphasis this enough. 

Pain is improvement screaming to get out. This applies to everything you do. The ONLY time it should ACTUALLY be considered a failure, is if you fail to learn from it. 

This is how you will grow. You will make mistakes in life. You will fuck up. You will piss someone off. You will make bad calls. You are not perfect. And if you are, then you must be Gal Gadot. But otherwise you are not. 

Those are the ten tips. I've learnt even more over my time, and I'm still taking notes! Let me know any that I've missed below, and if you know any books that I should read about this stuff, I'm an audible junkie and would love to hear it. Like Ray Dalio's Principles, Kim Scott's Radical Candor, Mark Manson's The subtle art of not giving a f***.

- Patrick Collins