Definition of Work
Work is not just about “doing” some thing using your hand, head or pen paper or a computer. Waiting at the reception, waiting to meet your boss, waiting for a meeting, waiting whole day at a clients reception etc. All of this also classifies as work. Depending on your role , job, and company – your work schedule will have some or lot of the above. Even talking and having a chit chat by the coffee counter comprises work. So cheer up ! For those of you who are too keen to get exposure to real “work”, have patience – it will come your way soon.
Amongst other things that classifies as work could be – filing, documentation, sending couriers, printing manuals, faxing , organizing meetings and events, etc. Don’t get frustrated if some one asks you to get some document scanned or make some copies etc. Even your bosses and super bosses do all of the above, and most of the above would form a part of your jobs for at least a good number of years to come. Trust me ! its fun, it only sound frustrating for first 3 – 6 months of getting into a new job. Then its all fun. I feel disappointed, when some freshly minted MBA’s or Engineer’s say – “We are not an office boy ”. Remember your company has not hired you to replace an office boy. However, they don’t need to hire an office boy to do what ever is a part of your job. Forget the concept of – office boy and Pune etc. as you would have seen in 60’s – 80’s Bollywood movies. And well if you are doing the above for more than 80 % of your time at work for more than 6 months, accept it – possibly they offered you an office boy’s slot.
Once in while you may not have much do do – don’t feel bad. Surfing the net for the whole day for a week or a month can get tiring and boring. Trust your employers, they would not want to pay some one for net surfing the whole day, unless you are in a Social Media type of job. One fine day you will get busy. Get ready for that day. And for those who have loads and loads of work, don’t feel bad. You are learning by way of your hard work. One find day you will get the benefits. One fine day – some day.
Computing Skills & Other Skills
One of the key skills required for being productive is – ability to use computers – Ms. Office – Word, Excel , Power Point etc. I am amazed, almost all new hires need good salaries, and the kids can’t progress from beyond a 10 – 15 wpm typing speed.
Using Ms. Excel, is going to be a part of your key portfolio. It is not a “data entry operators” job. Almost all business executives, what ever function or business they work in need to play with lot’s and lot’s of Ms. Excel, and at times it could also mean entering loads of data or playing with loads of data. Better skills at Ms. Excel, Spreadsheets is going to ensure you can do some justice to the salary you are being paid by your company. Learn Excel !
Power Point and presentation normally means less of text, more of relevant information that throws the big picture, which can be substantiated later by a verbal delivery or supporting documents. Less of text, definitely means that you should avoid the temptation to fill in 500 slides by copying a Word Doc. It does not, however imply that you fill in all the slides with Top and Jerry cartoons and play with 17 fonts and 36 colors to create a impactful presentation. Presentation skills, as well as an ability to make good PPT will help you. Brush up on the skills.
Get familiar with the Printer, Fax Machine, Copier. Your colleagues, workstation neighbors don’t want to be bothered every 5 mins. , for your printing requirements.
Choice of Job Role
Strategy is a myth, marketing is a distant dream, sales is the reality, operations is the king – operations means real work, listening to your boss, adhering to timelines, lots of late nights. You can’t expect to make a company’s strategy from the day you enter an office, unless you have landed a prime consulting job – in fact even in top consulting companies, they expect you to do lots of reading and research before they dump you on live assignments. Even at live assignments, you are expected to play a support resource running behind the Principal with 2 laptops and 5 folders etc. Observe – Learn – Demonstrate your capability – Show interest – Deliver on what’s assigned to you and then pitch for what ever role you want to do going forward.
Most of the time, you would not be knowing what role you are going to get, in fact you would not even know what all possibilities are there with regards to jobs and roles. In such case trust some one else to make the choice for you and spend your time to identify the possibilities. You can’t cry for a Recruiters job when some one is placing your in Training & Development. You can’t cry to get a Marketing job when some one is placing you in product development – Wow ! you never knew there was some thing called product development. In fact you cried all the way thinking product development was only about R & D. Huh ! Lot more to learn.
If you have some automobile engineering degree – trust me – you wont get to make the whole car or some other automobile. As a campus hire with an Auto company – at most you would be a small part of any of any of the so called department or functions. You never know you may end up designing a “screw” or a “harness” for next 2 years. Don’t get frustrated. Take your time to learn. You will still be interacting with all other departments and will get opportunity to learn a lot going forward.
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Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.