Yesterday was a special day for me. Fresh batch of interns started with us. This is the first time we got fresh graduates from my engineering college … a satisfying moment with a feeling of creating opportunities for youngsters from my town.
It was my first connect with them. Ideally, I should have stuck with my presentation, that I usually go through when new folks start with us. But for some reason, I decided to do it differently. Summarizing what we ended up discussing.
1. Understand the business
Many of us who come from technical / coding background, we end up sticking to just our piece of code or module. To set yourself aside from others, it is very important for you to know or understand the business. Question yourself – why you are doing what you are doing? How the business or client is getting benefitted from your work? What is the business problem that the client wishes to solve? Challenge yourself to think from business perspective.
2. Be Flexible
When we walk out of the college, we come with a prejudiced mind about what we like and what we want to do. In an organization, typically, we are assigned to projects, which might have different technologies. Keep your mind open to try out new things. At Fresh Gravity, we offer Gravitians to work on cutting edge technologies. Explore as much as you can and learn variety of things.
3. Network
As someone has said somewhere – “Your network is your net worth”. It is very important to create a strong network right from the beginning of your career. Reach out to as many folks as possible. Know what they do. Learn from their experiences. Form those relationships for lifetime – by not just seeking help from others but by helping them in their careers or something as small as helping them with their technical problems. Millennials already have a crafty way with social media – participate in right forums and technical threads, share your knowledge and stay conscious of what you write on the public channels. Create your own brand in this virtual world.
4. Identify a Mentor
Different people come from different backgrounds. They are the ones who have “been there” and “done that”. It is very important to identify yourself a mentor (or multiple mentors) in the industry. A person you trust and can learn from him / her. Right from communication skills to technical discussions or guiding you through a tough situation in a corporate world, a mentor can help you with anything and everything if you cultivate a strong bond. A mentor can be anyone within the organization as well as outside organization. At Fresh Gravity, we have a career manager to help you with your career decisions.
5. Do Not Burn The Bridges
There will be situations when things will not go your way. You will not like what the person in front of you is telling you to do or providing a feedback. Listen carefully without reacting. Put your points forward in a calm and convincing way. There will be times when you will still lose the argument. Do not lose your temper in those situations and most importantly, do not ever burn the bridges.
Overall, it was a fun way to interact with the fresh and curious minds instead of running through the standard onboarding deck. Really liked the way we could bond even though the session was over Zoom. Looking forward to more interactions with the team and hoping to grow together.
Dipti Joshi 