职场成功系列：职场第一年

I have been in the business world for almost 40 years, and I spent the first six years as a product engineer before moving on to be a manager and then other leadership roles.   I learned a tremendous amount in those six starting years, not just in terms of technical expertise but also in how to prepare yourself for bigger challenges and responsibilities.  Here I would like to share with you some of my learnings.

But before I delve into details, I would like to share with you a ‘big picture’ of career development for professionals.

If we view one’s whole career as a sport competition (pick your favorite sport, say, the World Cup for soccer fans, or the NBA for basketball fans like me), being a successful professional is just the ‘first-half’ (stage 1 and stage 2 in the above figure).  If one does well for the first half, then she can be elevated to the ‘second half’, which is about being a manager and then a good leader and eventually being a significant contributor.  So please keep this mind.  I will discuss later how to go on to be successful in the latter stage, where one seeks ‘significance’ as opposed to ‘success’.  But since most of us starts our careers typically right out of college and into a new job, let’s start from there.

In my view, there are three phases of being a professional:

• Rookie years (right after college)

• Professional years

• Expert years

How to succeed in each phase?  In this article, I will focus on the first one, which I call rookie years where one just graduates from college and starts his/her first job, and that you are new to everything.

In my own experience, I was a junior engineer at RCA semiconductor for about two years (1974-1976).  In order to keep learning new things (circuit design, system design), I changed positions within the company for a couple of times.  I also started my PhD study in solid state physics at Rutgers during my evening times.  Motivated by my boss, I started doing my independent thinking.  In short, I completed my transition from being a student to being a professional in those two years.  Looking back,  here are a few things that will help you have a solid start:

1. Find a good company and a position that fits you and offers a good prospect for career advancement.  This is easy said than done.  Often we find ourselves stuck in a job with no future.  If that happens to you, you should start looking for a new path as soon as possible.  Be open and curious.  Collect information and do research about the company as well as the whole industry.

2. Join the core business of a company (instead of in its secondary or peripheral businesses).  This will allow you to gain the most knowledge, broaden your scope and deepen your expertise, and build a strong network.

3. Be proactive and be a problem solver.  Instead of just doing what is being told by your superior, identify problems and come up with solutions.

4. Similarly, start to develop capabilities in independent thinking.  Form your own opinions and discuss with your colleagues and supervisors.

5. Make substantial contribution in your job.  Finish on your own at else one project of your expertise.  Coupled with the other conditions listed above, you will have a good chance of being promoted or moving to a more senior position.

6. Be proactive in learning new skills and make it your goal when making moves.  In my experience, for example, after having been a junior design engineer for nine month at RCA, I decided that I want to learn circuit design so I moved to the circuit design department.  After I mastered that skill, I then moved to RCA’s R&D department because I wanted to broaden my scope and learn system design. This way in two years’ time, I managed to grow into a senior engineer ready for my next stage, which was to become an expert.

7. Turn negative critiques into positive motivation.  During my rookie years, the person that had the great influence was my boss Michael in the design department.  He had very strong technical capabilities but he tended to look down upon others.  He would constantly criticize my lack of basic knowledge.  Normally people would be discouraged and retreat under such a boss. However, it was exactly his critiques that incentivized me to learn more in order to transform myself from a theory-oriented person to a practice-driven one.

In the next article, I will talk about what happens once you become a true professional, and how to go one step beyond and become an expert.