5 life lessons I wish I knew when I started working
By: Vincent Tatan
Tags: Working, Management, Corporation, Inspirational, Life Lesson

5 life lessons I wish I knew when I started working

2 years of self-reflection working in Tech Corporation after Graduation

My Life Reflection: Credit to Dollar Gill from Unsplash

After my university graduation, I went to Visa Inc. in Singapore for my first jump into the corporate world. As a newly born technology professional, I have always been impressed by the scale of the impact and the learning opportunities that I received.

As my career at Visa almost hit 2 years. I wrote this article to reflect and share my newly learned life values and things that I wish I knew way before.

1. Ask as you must

Credit by : InsanSuper.com

The challenge of working in the technology company is the complex high quality management which wraps the global technological landscape. There are always more mountains of newfound information which I need to pick up quickly. Fortunately, we all always have access to the biggest assets for our growth: our colleagues.

As the veterans, they possess years of experiences in the technology industry and risen up as subject matter experts. The question now is, what should you do to receive their help? Simple … You ask.

Hold it! You might think these thoughts:

Well, what if they are all very busy? What if I look stupid in front of my colleagues?

Well, if you do, you are not alone. When I first joined the corporate world, there are always one thousand and one reasons not to ask. Most of them are just our unjustified fear of embarrassment. But, if we desire productivity and collaborations, this is mandatory to learn.

One time, I was appointed to design a complex logic to derive bank identifications from a list of settlement related tables. I spent several days to scour all the mountain load of Documentations and Stack Overflow to make sure I could deliver all the logic necessary and patch whatever bugs I could find.

When I finally developed the code, I shared my Frankenstein solution to the team and was shocked to find out that one of my colleagues had already developed and tested a module exactly for this purpose. I instantly arranged a meeting with her and clarify the process flow of the module. Just by within several hours, I understood and finished developing the logic. My Patches and holey solutions. Well, I threw it down the drain and wasted one week in total.

Therefore, whenever in doubt, ask your colleagues. They are the treasures to set you up for success. Otherwise, you might waste weeks doing something you should have completed within hours which ultimately, will harm you and your team.

From this life lesson, I always take no longer than a day to research and attempt to solve a problem. Whenever I am still stuck after a day, I would list down my bottlenecks and find the right person to help. Most of the times, problems will be solved before a good night sleep.

The more you ask, the more you get done.

2. Hang out, Volunteer and Have Fun…

Some of lunch that I have with my friends

One of the perks of working in Visa is that I get to join clubs inside and outside Visa. These clubs can include interest groups such as boardgame or sports.

I join Visa Toastmasters to improve my public speaking and presentation skills. This allow me to meet people from different departments while learning the necessary presentation skills during the critical Hackathon or NedX competition in Visa. I also join billiard club and board game club to foster relationships with new hires and interns.

Enjoying these activities has given me opportunities that I could never imagine. I keep in touch with networks from interns to directors which had greatly opened up opportunities to connect and learn something new. I had an idea to make an ultrasound payment, because of some discussions that I have with some guys about television ads.

The great benefit is that you don’t only get to have fun, you also get to your personal growth and relationships on colleagues who can expose you to opportunities.

For example, when my manager planned to implement agile in our team, I invited a director who I knew from Toastmasters to suggest what we could learn from his team who implemented agile. By the end of the day, my team had implemented some suggestions and produced better productivity.

Think… What exactly drove changes in your team. It is exactly the relationship which you build that matters.

Build Relationship. It will build you

3. Be Irreplaceable by being replaceable

Silhouette of leader to lead and share knowledge,credit to Unsplash

A sure way to fail is to hoard knowledge and make sure you can be irreplaceable. Well, this is wrong in so many angles.

There are so many bigger talents outside the company who are more passionate and more driven to produce results. What makes you think they could not replace you?

If your colleagues and manager knew your intention, then your worst fear would come true.

Furthermore, let’s say you are irreplaceable because you are not sharing the knowledge of the recent support news which you have handled. Then, why would the director promote and risk losing you?

The true irreplaceable workers lie in doing things which make you replaceable: Knowledge Sharing. Most valuable employees are the ones who are capable of communicating their thoughts and sharing their knowledge to push the team productivity. Therefore, it is very important to contribute to your team.

You know the drills.

Write more, speak more, and share more.

When your manager saw you have contributed well to your team and even your organization, you would be awarded as the MVP. You would rise up as the thought leader and more colleagues would come for your advice.

Share your knowledge, and you shall be set free.

4. Own your mistakes

Finger Pointing at Office, credit to Unsplash

You would never receive any respects if you do not own your mistakes. I still remembered the time when I inserted a cron scheduler property into git bucket which interrupted with the product deployment and wasted hours to troubleshoot.

Once I found the issue, I explained what went wrong, apologized for my mistake, and suggested solutions to prevent it.

At that moment, I was expecting harsh remarks or criticism for delaying the deployment schedule, but instead I was applauded with thanks.

“Thank you for your honesty to resolve it quickly.”

Instantly, I felt great relief and exhilaration. I have learnt to own my mistake and resume my task.

When you point at someone, four fingers will be pointed at you. But when you point at yourself, your colleagues will thank you.

5. Openly Communicate with your Manager

Have conversation with your manager, credit to Unsplash

Aligning your growth with your manager expectation is the key towards happiness at work.

I was blessed to be given the manager who always listen to ideas and constructive feedback into the team. As an aspiring tech and data enthusiast, I always come up with ideas for my own growth in career while aligning my growth to team benefit.

I always thought to take master degree, write publications, and even participate in triathlon. To manage these aspirations of mine, I decided to lay it all out with my managers. I needed to have flexible arrangement at work in case I needed to prepare for exams, training, etc.

As a result of communicating it with manager, I managed to control my schedule while at the same time productively meet expectations at work. I always made sure to share knowledge and team contribution. I also represented my team for the latest Visa Hackathon event, Visa NedX event where we clinched awards.

Therefore, if you are overwhelmed by meetings or workload, communicate it to your manager. If it is justified and brings value to your team, your manager would approve and you could grow and contribute more.

Your Manager is Your Good Friend who sets you up for success

Finally…

Whew… That’s it, about my idea which I formulated into writings. I really hope this has been a great read for you guys. With that, I hope my idea could be a source of inspiration for you to develop and innovate.

Please Comment out below to suggest and feedback.

Happy coding :)

About the Author

Vincent Tatan is a Data and Technology enthusiast with relevant working experiences from Visa Inc. and Lazada to implement microservice architectures, data engineering, and analytics pipeline projects.

Vincent is a native Indonesian with a record of accomplishments in problem solving with strengths in Full Stack Development, Data Analytics, and Strategic Planning.

He has been actively consulting SMU BI & Analytics Club, guiding aspiring data scientists and engineers from various backgrounds, and opening up his expertise for businesses to develop their products .

Please reach out to Vincent via LinkedIn , Medium or Youtube Channel