Tea with Matt: Career path.

This article is contributed by a reader, Matt, who used to be the owner of an SME. Older readers might find themselves nodding their heads as they read the article while much younger readers might be somewhat incredulous. The article is as much an observation about life as it is a piece of good advice to anyone still in school or about to join the workforce. 

For most people, pursuing their passion is a luxury and if at the same time they can make a living out of it would truly be rare indeed. In our younger days, when we did not have to worry about earning a living, we were mostly idealistic. Many would project what they would be doing and earning when they graduate.

Reality sets in when we secure our first job and have to go through the grind day in and day out. Many begin to wonder what happened to all the good life graduates are entitled to after studying for so many years. Aren’t graduates supposed to be doing better than the average Joe ? Welcome to the real world where opportunities do not distinguish between the level of education you have gone through. Otherwise, the Forbes list of richest people in the world would all have Ph Ds.

 

Life is straight forward. If you cannot get the job that you love, then you better learn to love the job that you have. Otherwise, you will go through life miserably if you have to do the job for years to come. Learn more about the job and how you can do it better. Improve your skills so that you can move higher in the hierarchy and hopefully be paid more.

 

Meeting up twenty years later with my cohort from university showed a diversity of careers and success stories. The ones with better results, First Class Honours, were mostly in the academic field as most went for their Ph Ds. The surprising lot were those who were very active in ECAs and most had general passes but still graduated and are doing well in business. These were the bunch the rest of the class thought were wasting their time doing everything else except study. Looking at them now, their time spent in ECA did a lot of good in helping them to build up their skills in networking as well as to organise activities and developing their people skills.

 

During my time, we worked hard and proved that we could perform before the company paid us more. But increasingly, the attitude is pay me more, then I will work harder. In times of labour shortage, it may work. To compete, you have to show why you are better than the next person who is vying for the same job. It is only going to get more difficult with competition coming from all over. You would need to distinguish yourself from the crowd. Make yourself indispensable to your company. Make sure they feel a vacuum when you are not around. I can almost hear someone say, “Ya, right, easier said then done.” If it is that easy, then it would have been done by everyone and would not be special anymore. But how to do it?

 

Analyse your work environment. Volunteer to take up more responsibilities. Get to know the company’s operations and look for weaknesses and how to improve them. Network with peers in the same industry. Get yourself known by them. You have to be outstanding to be noticed, be it technical skills, organizational skills, knowledge of the industry etc. The ways are endless. You would need to tailor it to your own situation.

Read other guest blogs:

1. Tea with EY: Money talk, money laugh!
2. Tea with Skipper: How much is sufficient to stop full time employment?