What Exactly is "Success" on the Job?

Success looks differently whether you’re on your first job or a few jobs in. Sarah-Jane and Devon identify easy tips for success and provide some new ideas about the definition of success. From things to take to work to questions to ask yourself about your work, enjoy this useful, insightful and practical episode.

Transcript

Welcome to The One About Careers with Devon and Sarah Jane. A career podcast for adults involved with teens navigating life after high school. We help you help your teens make informed education and career decisions by providing quality information and resources. Join us for weekly bright -sized conversations covering various aspects of careers, including insights from professionals and different fields. New episodes available every week at TheOneAboutCareers.com. 

Hello everybody, out there in podcast land, welcome back to The One About Careers with Devon and Sarah Jane. This week, we want to talk a little bit about success and what that means. And since we've just had this wonderful mini series talking about your first job, how to find it, where to find it, what your resume looks

like, all that kind of stuff. I feel like that's a good place to start. How would

you advise somebody going to their first job? How can they be successful?

- Great question.

Last episode, I sort of said, I mean, leave it a mystery. And I think sometimes

success, to be successful at your first job is a bit of a mystery.

And so there's some really basic things. Show up before you're expected to start

work. Why? Because I can guarantee you like stuff happens.

And they want you at your workstation at the time you are supposed to start, not

walking in the door at that time, at your workstation.

So on your first day, hopefully you will have asked prior to, and believe you me,

sometimes I screwed this up or didn't know, should I bring a lunch, should I not

bring a lunch, should I bring a snack, not bring a snack, blah blah.

So let's pretend we forgot to ask all the right questions other than we did ask

what we were supposed to wear.

So just bring some stuff with you in a little backpack,

whether it's water, because you may not know what they have. Do they have any

water? Do you like tap water? Maybe you don't like tap water. I don't know. Snacks,

maybe you're allowed to eat while you work. I don't know, bring some snacks. Like

just do what, do those sort of things. And these things that I'm saying in terms

of what does, how to be successful at your first job, like super basic in terms of

showing up on time, following the instructions.

And the thing about instructions is understanding how you best receive instructions.

And there's nothing wrong with taking notes. Whether you take notes, like physically

you take notes in a notepad, which you can bring with you, or you use your phone

or whatever, you make yourself a recording yourself, doesn't matter.

Listen to the instructions, get them down, and when you mess it up, Let them know.

Oh Tried to log in screwed up. I don't know something like I missed something Just

let them know It's okay to mess up because you're a human being and we're not

perfect and This is a really great opportunity to learn how your employer takes

People who make mistakes. And if the employer loses their brain, you don't want to

work there. Because they don't understand that the first key to success is failing.

Creating a culture where it's okay to mess up and it's okay to recover and it's

okay to own our own mistakes. Those are all incredibly useful skills and great

things to know.

What would you say things that you need to do? So I've just sort of started the

day. What things would you add to that in terms of being successful at your first

job?

Well, it's interesting what you mentioned about how the employer handles people

failing.

You know, it's, there are employers where they're known for hiring more students and

newer people who are new to the workforce, like that's that may be a hint of the

kinds of jobs or the kinds of places you might want to go after as a first job.

To just be right, you know, it's it's got to be someplace where it's okay for you

to mess up, because especially a first job, you know, you you learn an incredible

amount about yourself and how you like to work and what works for you. And yeah,

that's definitely something to be to keep to keep in mind for sure. I think success

is one of those words that I struggle with a lot, especially in the context of

helping people with stuff like career exploration. What you think is success today

may not be what you think is success 10 years from now. It might not be what you

think of success next week. So it's one of these words that can fluctuate a lot.

So I think part of it is getting to know what the definition of success is for

you. You know, especially with the first job, some really good ideas are,

you know, what's your goal? What are you hoping to get out of it? Yes, a paycheck,

obviously. Something more to put on your resume, obviously, but, you know, are there

certain skills you wanna develop or are there people you wanna meet or relationships

you want to start developing in a professional sense to help you later on and that

can give you better direction in terms of where your career might go. But also, is

this a place you want to continue working? Or maybe in another year, do you find a

different job? What if I have no clue, Devin? I really have no clue. This is

seriously my first job. I don't actually care about any of that stuff. I literally

put the paycheck because there's something I want, like a car or a particular phone.

And I don't give a, like I literally don't, like I has not even crossed my mind

thinking about what skills do I want to develop or what goals do I have? - And you

probably won't for a little while. I'm always a fan of looking at a job,

not especially a first job, not just as a paycheck, because we so often look at it

that way. And then later on, going to look back and go, well, you know, you

graduate from post -secondary and you're going to say, well, I don't know how I'm

supposed to apply for jobs. I don't have any experience. Well, sure you do. If you

started working somewhere eight years ago, you have tons of experience. You know, so

it's kind of looking forward and going, you know, why does this matter? Like,

okay, I guess I'm getting the paycheck, but why do they have all this stuff in my

job description? You know, in the posting that I replied to, Why does it say I

have to have good customer service skills? Who gives a shit? I just need my

paycheck. Well, great. Good for you. But like, how does giving good customer service

impact your paycheck? Could you get a raise faster if you gave better customer

service? Could you be promoted into a shift manager or something like that?

If you are giving better customer service, right? So it's at some point. Yes, you're

not going to necessarily know that on day one, but at some point, you're going to

start looking around going, wait a minute, that person does that and they make more

than me. They've been working here less time. Why is that? You know, so it'll come

out eventually. But I think, yeah, success, it can often start with like, I just

want to get paid. I just want to be able to pay for this thing that I want. But

over your lifetime, you know, that the definition will shift for sure. The other

thing to look at, and I think we talked about it in terms of job interviews, I

think it was one of your questions that you suggested people ask was like, what

does success look like? What do they think success is in the role? What are they

actually measuring you on? Like we talked about this stuff in the job interview,

like what are they, when you go and sit down to have a performance review, what's

going to be on that performance review?

Because if success for you at the beginning is earning a good pay and maybe earning

more pay faster, That's a pretty good way to figure out how to get there as fast

as you can.

Yeah, and it's great to have conversations with people about these things as well.

And so part of being at a workplace is developing relationships with other people

who work there. This is one of the key components in any place that you're at of

engagement and success. I'd be careful about those relationships.

Like, you know, I wouldn't jump in. I'd be I'd be a little bit like observe first

to sort of see who's who, who's what, the kinds of people you want to be connect

with because you don't necessarily want to connect with the bully. and generally

there's a bully in the workplace, and you don't want to connect with the person who

does the least they possibly can.

Having said that, I'd watch them because it's fascinating to see how they operate

and just learn from people. The other thing because when you're connecting with

people is because they may be able to help you in other areas.

So I'd be looking at those sort of things as well. The other thing I'd look at is

what do you do really easily and other people don't do so easily Because that often

indicates something that you have a natural affinity for. And when we're in a

traditionally educational environment, we don't always see those things. And so it's

so fascinating when you see how people just naturally do things. It's like,

interesting. And so notice what you do more easily.

Yeah, you know, I think a big piece of this. It's interesting. And I tie it back

to like new grad resumes when I when I work with folks who just finished post

-secondary and they're they're trying to find jobs and whatever whatever. In one word,

I always tell people to keep off their resume, especially at sort of that level is

expert. And I think there's this tendency to, Well,

they'll only hire me if I know all this stuff or I can do all these things or I

bring all this information and it's like when you are

17, 22, that employer knows exactly what they're getting. They know that you are not

an expert in anything and it's not about that. What often makes you really

attractive to an employer as a newer worker, as a younger worker, is that you

haven't developed bad habits yet. You know, so you go in there and if you have an

open mind and you are asking questions and you're giving it your best shot, you're

doing better than a ton of other people because it's not about expertise.

And I think a lot of this has started really coming out of the pandemic. I'm

seeing more and more articles from companies that are like, we're struggling to keep

good people because they don't have the employability skills we're looking for. You

know, we hire these expert kids from these programs. And yes, they have the

technical knowledge, but they aren't great at collaboration. They're not great at

adaptability. They're not great at communication. They have no accountability. Those

are the things that make people easy to work with. And, you know,

and people that you want to work with, it's not the technical stuff usually that

does it. So the more that you can bring that kind of mindset into any sort of

job. The more successful, we'll put in quotes, the more successful, I think you will

probably ultimately be. Absolutely. It really is about attitude and are you teachable?

It's such an important thing and understanding that honestly, sometimes the person

who's teaching you doesn't understand all of the things they need to teach. And

sometimes in the process, we also learn that, oh, crap,

I missed that. I missed it. I didn't tell them that step. That was that was my

fault. As a someone who's explaining, demonstrating, showing, I missed because I just

do it automatically and didn't realize.

I was listening to a the last week to do with rejection. And one of the things it

was saying, it was really talking about reframing rejection and understanding that

when you're rejected, you've actually been brave

because you stepped out, you tried, you attempted, you went for it.

And so in a job situation, if you discover that it's not a good fit for you,

congratulations. That's awesome. I love when people go,

I don't want to do this job. Excellent. Good to know. We've eliminated something.

What is it about it that you don't want to do? And It can propel you and motivate

you to learn more about a specific subject matter because you do want to go in

that direction.

It's okay to know. No, no, no, not happy with this, you know. This is not where I

want to spend my life in terms of work.

And understand that, you know what, some people Grow up never with an idea of I

want to be X or I want to be Y and that's okay.

I Simply want to live and be happy and connect with other people I'll go and do

any job because I don't care. We just want to go do my job Come on at the end

of the day. That's okay. You don't have to have specific ideas It's learning about

the what kind of environments do you like to work in do you like to work with

other people or do you not like to work with other people and if you really,

really, really, really don't like to work with other people. It does in fact limit

the amount of opportunities you're going to have. However, you are going to focus

more on what are things that you can do that essentially are by yourself.

- And that's okay.

- Yep, for sure. You know, it's so funny when I talk to parents who they feel

panicky because their kids feel panicky about what to do and I hear this long list

of, well, they're good at this and they're good at that and they're on this team

and they're part of that club and there's nothing wrong with those things but one

of the questions I will ask is, have they ever had a job? Oh, no, they don't have

time for that. A job will teach you so many things. Yes,

you're going to learn certain skills by being on that team or being in this club.

Of course you are. But it's something about being in the workplace and understanding

the roles of a functioning workplace that really teaches you what you do and don't

want to put up with. And the hill I will happily die on every single time is that

who you work with and who you work for is always going to be more important than

what the work is that you do. Every single time it'll trumpet because it doesn't

matter how great you are at medical research if you work for a company where they

suck at getting funding proposals out. It doesn't matter if you are the most

brilliant whatever it is that you do if you don't work for people who don't support

what it is you do if you have co -workers that drive you crazy those are the

things you find out in a workplace.

Absolutely. And you learn some of the things that you were talking about, Devin, you

know, in terms of those flexibility and adaptability, and you start to notice what

you're really good at in terms of that kind of thing. What things can you turn on

a dime in? And what things do you take a little bit longer to adapt to?

And it's okay. It's okay to notice these things and to understand yourself and go,

okay, frankly getting fired isn't the worst thing in the world. I'm not saying go

do that, you know, not saying be that person.

Sometimes there's good reason for it. And you can learn from it as well.

In terms of, no, really, I actually don't do great at, like,

I was a bus person in a big restaurant.

I took away cutlery before they even had their meal. Because I thought it was,

they were at the dessert courts. No, no, No, they weren't. And I realized that I

really didn't do well, managing a number of tables and orders.

And who was what in that pro like that, not my strong suit. It's okay to learn

that go. No, frankly, rather be back in the kitchen washing the dishes. That's,

that's my, that's my jam. I'm okay at that. So, It's okay to go,

crap, this isn't really what I'm gonna, need to figure it out. And I'll let me

tell you that your supervisors will love you. If you say,

actually I'm really not good at that. I am good at this though. And if they don't

love you, they're not great supervisors. They haven't figured out how to receive that

information and move their workforce around to get whatever the end product is out

the door.

For any final words that you would give for how to be successful in quotes at your

first job or a job, any job? - I don't think so.

I mean, we covered a lot. There's some stuff that's, I mean, I loved where you

started where it was like show up on time. Be there when, even before you need to

be there, so you're ready. There's some things that are just that are sort of

objective when it comes to success, but a lot of success can be very subjective. So

I think, you know, I think it's one of those things where we'll give you that

foundation, but a lot of it you're going to figure out on your own, what works for

you and what doesn't. Yeah, awesome. We look forward to seeing you on the next time on the One About Careers.

Thanks for listening to the One About Careers podcast. You can catch up with past

episodes at theoneaboutcareers.com. Join us next week for another bite -sized

conversation.