Yesterday marked one year since I started my job and I can’t believe it’s already been a full year! In a lot of ways it feels like it has completely flown by, but somtimes school feels like a lifetime ago.
There’s so much about working that I’m still adjusting to. I will admit I don’t love getting up early and going to sit at a desk every day and I definitely miss things about being a student, like having a syllabus that outlines everything to expect in the coming months. And I don’t love the seemingly never-ending challenges hiding around every corner. One year has taught me so much already, so I thought for this week’s words I’d share some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned!
terrible first day of work selfie
1. Don’t be above anything: our VP has this awesome saying, he said it to me in my very first interview and I loved it. “You have to eat your vegetables before you can have dessert.” I know we all are so important, we have 4.12 GPAs and went to the very best colleges, but this simple household lesson is almost more applicable to our first jobs than to the dinner table. We have to work hard, start with the basics and work our way to the fun stuff, the dessert!
2. Learn from your mistakes: I’ve made more mistakes than I care to admit in this last year, but with each mistake has come with a new lesson. In one year I’ve learned a lot by making mistakes and then working my butt off to fix them!
3. Find a mentor: it sounds so cliche, I know, and when my manager told me to start thinking about who I wanted my mentor to be when I first started working, I put it on the back burner and didn’t think too much about it. Now that I have two mentors who I admire greatly I can’t imagine not having one.
Mentors are there to talk you through the mistakes and the bad days and they can give you the best advice to help you grow!
I’m lucky to have an amazing mentor at work, but the next step for me I think is to network and find a mentor outside of my office!
4. Wake up early: I’m still working on this one. Sophie’s definitely helping since she wakes up at about 5:00 every morning and is ready to play! When I get up early and give myself time to get ready and have breakfast before leaving for the office my day goes so much smoother, I’m more productive and just feel better overall!
5. Take care of yourself: get enough sleep, eat well, exercise. Last winter work was crazy, we had so much going on and it was cold and snowy and grey and I fell into a total rut. I was working crazy hours and not sleeping enough, I ate takeout way way way too many meals and pretty much stopped exercise, I had a hard time focusing and got sick a lot. Once I started taking better care of myself I immediately started working better!
6. Ask questions: another cliche I know. When I first started I had a hard time knowing when to speak up and when to try and figure it out myself. One year in and I’ve learned to just ask roughly a million questions a day, ha! My managers appreciate when I ask for clarification and it makes my job so much easier. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to repeat something or explain something!
7. Prioritize: Something that has helped improve my work immensely in the last six months is learning to properly prioritize. I start every Monday with making a list of my priorities for the week, then each day I prioritize based on what still needs to get done! It has helped so much, I get more done and my stress levels are much more manageable!
One year later I definitely have frustrations about my job and questions about how my career is going to grow, but I’m so thankful to have a job and to have the opportunity to learn from amazing mentors and to continue growing and figuring out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life!
