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Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started My Professional Career
14 Plays4 years ago
In this week's podcast, I discuss eleven things I wish I knew before starting my career. This is the first topic in this series.
If you want to send me an email you can email me at [email protected]
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Eliana Nita podcast, the podcast created to inform, challenge and empower you. Now let's get down to business.
Hiatus Explanation and Content Significance
00:00:25
Speaker
Hey guys, welcome to the Alion Amita podcast. I am your host, Alion, and I am so excited to be bringing you another podcast. Okay. So listen, I know I have been podcast in a couple months and I got a good reason behind it.
00:00:43
Speaker
I told myself that I would not podcast unless I had something really important to say or something to share or that I had something that I wanted to teach you guys that I learned.
New Series Announcement: Career Insights
00:00:57
Speaker
I just didn't want to podcast just to talk and just because I had a platform to talk, I just really wanted to make sure that I was bringing authentic
00:01:09
Speaker
authentic material to my podcast. So that was important to me to be able to do that. And so here is a podcast this week because I actually took some time to write out some thoughts that I had. And so I decided that I was going to do a series called things I wish I knew before.
00:01:29
Speaker
And so basically it's going to look like me telling you about things I wish I knew before I did something.
Belonging in the Workplace: A Black Woman's Perspective
00:01:36
Speaker
So this week I'm going to talk to you about things I wish I knew before I started my professional career. I have so much information and so
00:01:47
Speaker
so many vast experiences as it pertains to my professional career. If you don't know, I am a chemist. I am professionally a chemist and I've worked in a variety of fields. I am a black woman and working in a STEM-based industry or a STEM-based career, you don't see many black people.
00:02:13
Speaker
Your experiences are very different from from your white colleagues, especially is different from your white colleagues as far as males, because being being in chemistry is white male dominant, so you're going to have very, very different experiences so.
Taking Space and Professionalism at Work
00:02:32
Speaker
I learned a lot of things over these past 10 years of being a chemist and it's been interesting, but I wanted to share with you all the things that I wish I knew before I started my personal or my professional career. So the first thing I wish that I knew is that I belong here.
00:02:52
Speaker
I believe that if the company hired you, you know, you had to go through an application process, an interview process, you did all of those things. You belong in that company and they agreed to hire you. They agreed to bring you in. They agreed that you would be a good candidate, a good fit for their team. So you belong there and it's okay to take up your space. Sometimes you are, especially what I experienced, it's like,
00:03:22
Speaker
You're here. We gave you a job. We want you to work, but you don't have space. But I beg to differ. You do have space and it's okay to come in and have fresh ideas. It's okay to come in and voice your opinion about something. As long as you do things respectfully and honorably, you're fine. But don't feel like you have to shrink back
00:03:49
Speaker
and don't feel like you don't have the right to have space within your employment. So you belong at your company, you were hired there honestly, unless you did something dishonest, but if you didn't, you belong in there and you deserve to take up that space. So be you, be you professionally and take up your space.
Understanding Workplace Dynamics
00:04:16
Speaker
The second thing I learned was to be observant. I was so naive when I first started my career. I used to think like everybody was cool, everybody treated you the same. As long as you worked really hard, there shouldn't have been any issues. As long as you put your best foot forward, people would respond to you well and treat you with respect. But I had to learn over time is that
00:04:44
Speaker
Everybody doesn't see you the same and that's not your problem that's theirs, but you can avoid a lot of things around you by just simply being observant. Oftentimes when you are black, particularly I experienced this as a black woman, is that either you can't be too quiet and you can't be too talkative.
00:05:08
Speaker
So it's like, we want you to talk because we want to know what's on your mind, but we don't want to, we don't want you to be so quiet that we don't know, we can't guess you, we can't put our thumb on you. So I've learned that it's okay to just be yourself in any way. Like if you're just a naturally quiet person, just be naturally quiet, but watch the people around you. Like watch who has relationships with who, who's cool with the manager, you know, because
00:05:37
Speaker
I've worked in this situation where one of the people that I work with was really cool with the supervisor, and she would try to befriend you to get information to take back to the supervisor to start workplace drama.
00:05:52
Speaker
And I didn't realize that until I just sat back and kind of watched the dynamic of how things happen at work. So you'll learn a lot by just watching the people that's been around for some time. And you'll learn a lot about who you are and where you play, what role you play in the workplace. Also, it's good to be observing to learn the culture and the values and the language of the company.
00:06:15
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company and new you really don't know what to expect you don't know what the company values and so when you learn your company's values and particularly when you learn how your company makes money and what is
00:06:31
Speaker
what really makes your company move and go and what makes it exist, you can become a much more valuable employee because you know the values of the company and you work based off of those values. And learn the language of the company, what kind of words do they use, what kind of phrases and sentences that they use in the company that brings value to that company. And also the culture is important too.
00:06:57
Speaker
Is it a fast-paced culture? Is it a slow-paced culture? Is it a team-based culture? Is it more independent work culture? So take some time to be observant when you first come in the door to learn the culture, the values, and the language of the company.
Avoiding Workplace Drama
00:07:12
Speaker
The third thing I learned is to stay free and clear of any workplace drama. Listen. The last thing you want to do is make eight hours of your day that you spend five days a week
00:07:27
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Eight hours of your day, miserable because of workplace drama. Workplace drama is inevitable. It happens everywhere. It doesn't matter where you work. Workplace drama is there, but you don't have to be a part of it. So that's why it's important to be observing, to watch, to see who's the person who is the most talkative, who spreads the most rumors, who does what.
00:07:47
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so that you can stay free and clear of that so that you can get in to do your job, do it professionally, do it adequately, and get out and go home. The next thing I learned is that your coworkers are not your friends.
Setting Professional Boundaries
00:08:05
Speaker
It is okay to have people that you are cool with at work, and you hang out with maybe you go out and build a bond outside of work, but within the place of working within your workplace, your coworkers are not your friends.
00:08:20
Speaker
Um, it is important for you to maintain a professional state at all times because you don't want to look, you don't want to be looked at or frowned upon because maybe you on another coworker has, um, have a more playful relationship than you do with other coworkers. And then to like having to explain your friendships with, um, other employee or other
00:08:45
Speaker
co-workers is weird to me like being cool with one co-worker and then the other co-worker assumes that you're going to be just as cool with them it's like listen I like you I think you're okay but I'm really cool with this person I don't really want to be cool with you and then it kind of creates some form of tension especially when people are not mature enough to respect boundaries and respect your opinions and thoughts so
00:09:07
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I learned that like when it comes to sharing personal information and sometimes like I've worked with a supervisor that was incredibly invasive and so she wanted to like be all in your face and get all your business and then she would take your business and spread it around the group and everybody knew and everybody was judging and casting
00:09:29
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their opinions about what happened or what you shared with someone. And so it's just important overall to just keep your business, your business, and remember that your coworkers are not necessarily your friends. The fifth thing I learned is to take time to develop yourself professionally and be who you want to be seen as.
Professional Development and Goal Setting
00:09:51
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So if you want your company to see you as a hard worker, someone that's very dedicated, passionate,
00:09:57
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and goal-driven, you need to present that person to your team that you work with or to your supervisor, whoever. You need to be the person that you want to be respected as. I've learned that it's okay to read books, to take leadership classes if you're interested in becoming a leader at some point in time in that company.
00:10:22
Speaker
Learn everything you can about the industry you work in. Take time to read magazines about the particular industry that you're in. Take time to take a class about the industry that you work in. I take chemistry classes all the time. I'm constantly reading chemistry books because I love science. I love my job.
00:10:47
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And I'm also very interested and passionate about the industry that I work in and I'm interested and passionate about other chemistry fields as well so I'm always setting goals in my career to learn more and to be more and that's another point you know.
00:11:02
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as you develop your professional you set career goals and not just career goals that say I want to make a certain amount of money by this time like set a career goal to say I want to learn this about this aspect about my company so you may work in a certain department but you may want to learn how another department works and how
00:11:22
Speaker
these departments work together to make this company successful. So set career goals like that. Learn your work style and what environments you thrive in. I learned that I thrive in high-paced environments. I don't really like to sit around and sit at, I don't really sit at a desk. I sit at a desk to report
00:11:43
Speaker
any data or findings that I have, but I'm generally on my feet and I really enjoy high paced environments that keep your brain going and keep your hands moving, but that's not everybody. So some people are good with like sitting at a desk processing data or typing out an email or whatever it may, whatever your day to day may look like, but
00:12:07
Speaker
you need to know what environments you thrive in so that you can put yourself in that position to always be in an environment that you thrive in. And learn your work style, learn what suits you best. So always be developing yourself as a professional. Work on soft skills, work on hard skills, work on communication, things like that so that you can always be developing yourself as a professional.
00:12:32
Speaker
Something I wish that I knew before I started, another thing that I wish I knew before I started my professional career is to find a problem and solve it.
Problem-Solving as a Career Asset
00:12:41
Speaker
Companies are always looking for people who are forward thinkers, people that can foresee an issue, have a solution to it, and even if it is an issue, a current issue, they're always looking for someone who can help them solve an issue to make them get over a hump.
00:12:58
Speaker
So when I first started one of my first jobs, my first job fresh out of college, I was working in a food industry and the COO wanted to know why we could manufacture or mass manufacture a product without having to make so many adjustments to the product.
00:13:16
Speaker
And I was able to create something that helped us be able to mass produce this product. And not only were we able to mass produce the product, but it increased our production by 90%. They made millions of dollars. They ended up having to introduce a third shift because we got an influx of business because now we can move faster.
00:13:38
Speaker
And I also spearheaded us developing and starting a third shift. So all of that happened because I was able to see a problem and solve it. And I didn't get money or they didn't pay me or give me a raise or anything like that. They should have, but they didn't. But the experience in itself taught me to always be a problem solution. Like always have a problem or have a solution to the problem. Always be someone
00:14:04
Speaker
that people will see and know like, man, we can call on her. She'll fix the problem. And even when I resigned from that company, they, the COO, the vice president of quality, I mean, all of them was like, Hey, we really don't want you to go.
00:14:19
Speaker
We really want you to say you're such a benefit. You're such an asset to this company. So you want that kind of thing to happen when you leave a company or you want people to see you or see your value while you work at a company. So the way they do that is because the way you do that is by solving problems. So always find the problem and solve it.
Quality Work vs. Formal Education
00:14:40
Speaker
Another thing that I learned when I became a professional was having a degree or certificate may get you through the door, but it's the quality of work that will keep you there and get you promoted. So many times I've worked with a lot of people throughout my career and these past 10 years of working. I've seen a ton of people come and go from different jobs that I worked at.
00:15:09
Speaker
And I noticed that people, I want to say this very gently, people that just recently graduated from college usually come in with the attitude of, oh, I have a degree, I've studied this, I've done that. And they have no prior experience, but they have this attitude that because they have a degree, they went to college,
00:15:39
Speaker
that they should get the best pay or they should get like awards or accolades or whatever like walking fresh through the door and it's like
00:15:56
Speaker
you have to prove yourself and you have to really put in the work to show that you're worth the continuing investment of employment there. I understand that you have to have
00:16:14
Speaker
You have to have some pride and you have to have, or maybe not pride, but you have to have some esteem about yourself and believe in yourself. But you also have to come in with a mindset that I'm here to get a job done. And if I really want to advance in my career, whether it's at this company or the next company, that I have to constantly prove myself and put in
00:16:37
Speaker
good quality work hard work that will show and prove that I am worth this investment. So a lot of times we come in like sometimes we all can come in into a thing and assume because you have this or you've done that that you should just get
00:16:54
Speaker
respect walking through the door or not respect but you should get you know a certain amount of pay or you should be treated like this or whatever and it's like yeah but you also have to put in work and you have to prove yourself and that's something that I learned
00:17:12
Speaker
when I walked in as I became a professional, but also I wish I can teach that to everybody that walks through the door like, hey, prove yourself worthy. And if this company values you and values your work,
00:17:27
Speaker
they'll pay you and you'll get the pay that you deserve. And maybe not from that particular company, but from the next company or maybe the company you start, the energy and the effort that you put in is going to come back in some facet or another.
00:17:42
Speaker
Maybe it's not going to come back from this particular company, but it will from someplace else. So just always keep up your quality of work. Always be the person who you said you were going to be. If you're if you're a hardworking person, always be that no matter what. And, you know, promotion and accolades and all that stuff will find you in its timing.
Maintaining Work-Life Balance
00:18:04
Speaker
Another thing that I learned is don't take work home and don't do work on unpaid time. That seems like something that's easy to do, but when you have a hard working mentality or when you are like a person that's gonna get up and go and get things done, it is so hard for you to not take work home with you.
00:18:29
Speaker
And I tell myself and I've told my coworkers when I clock out once I'm done with work, I am done with work. I no longer work here. I forget that I work here until my alarm clock goes off to wake me up the next day.
00:18:45
Speaker
I really don't like to take work home because one thing I learned is that when people make work their everything, they tend to be really horrible people to like partner with, to be friends with. When work is just your whole entire life, usually you wanna do all of these things at work because this is the only place that you excel.
00:19:11
Speaker
And because work is your everything, you treat everybody else like trash. So I always say, if you want to have a balanced life, have some hobbies, have some friends, but don't take work home with you. Let work be work at work and you be you outside of work. You know, you live your life outside of work. You know, like don't mix the two because you need that time to just
00:19:37
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relax, decompress, re-energize, and be prepared for the next day.
Aligning Company Values with Personal Values
00:19:44
Speaker
I also learned that the company that you work for should reflect your values. If you value safety, good pay, benefits, fair and equal workplace, your company should reflect that.
00:19:58
Speaker
I know that a lot of times we find ourselves just trying to do something or working in a place where we're just completely unhappy because it's a job. And if you don't like the pay that your company is paying you and you feel like you can go somewhere else and get better pay, go. Don't let anything hold you back. Your company, the place that you're spending a good amount of your time at,
00:20:24
Speaker
should reflect your values. And I'm not going to say that every single day at your job is going to be a utopia that every day should be fun and an adventure and all this stuff because you're going to have ups and downs just like you do with life. But your job should, for the most part, reflect your values.
00:20:42
Speaker
Um, I also learned don't wear your heart on your sleeves, care about your work, be dedicated to your job, but you don't own the company. So don't take anything personal. That is not your, that is not your company. If it is your company, where your heart on your sleeve, you know, because obviously you should care about your company and you wanted to thrive and be successful, but
00:21:04
Speaker
Um, don't, you know, don't get so upset and so mad and so angry and so infuriated about changes that's being made within the company. And you know, they might have hired somebody else with less experience to do a job that you could have done with your hands tied behind your back.
00:21:22
Speaker
Whatever. It's not your company. Let them make their decisions, respect the decisions that they made, but continue to be dedicated. Continue to put in the work that you, uh, you felt that you need to put in and continue to be the professional that you've worked hard to become. But don't take that stuff personal. It's not your company. Let it go. Take your paid time off. You know, sometimes we don't even like to use our PTO because we're so dedicated to our company. Listen,
00:21:50
Speaker
If you die today or tomorrow, they're going to send flowers to your funeral and then they're going to move on and hire someone else. So don't get stuck with wearing your heart on your sleeve. Be passionate about your job. It's okay to be passionate about your job, but don't let it overtake you to the point that you can't sleep at night. You feel like you have to put in so much extra work and all of this stuff.
00:22:15
Speaker
Have a balance, have a workplace balance. And the final thing that I learned, and I wish that I had a new before I started my professional career, is that if you're not happy, move on.
Prioritizing Happiness in Your Career
00:22:26
Speaker
You deserve to have what you work for. Plain and simple. If they're not paying you enough money, if you don't like the treatment, if you don't like the changes, if you don't like the benefits package, if you don't like whatever,
00:22:41
Speaker
You have the right to move on. You don't have to stay any place that you're unhappy at. You can go and be happy and make tons of money and do something that's more fulfilling or not. I mean, whatever the case may be, you could be a complete jerk and obviously find a better job that suits you and suits your personality better.
00:23:05
Speaker
Fine, move on. Don't stay anywhere that you don't want to stay or don't stay anywhere that makes you unhappy. Live your life, be great, and move on with your life and do what you have to do to make your professional career better so that you can make your mark professionally that you want to make.
00:23:26
Speaker
You should enjoy the place that you work at. You should enjoy the atmosphere that you work in. You shouldn't feel threatened. You shouldn't feel uncomfortable. You shouldn't feel unwanted. So if you feel any of these things and you're just like, look, I am so unhappy here.
00:23:42
Speaker
move on. It's okay. It's perfectly fine to move on. So those are like, I think that was like 11 things that I listed. Yeah, 11 things that I listed that I wish that I had a new before I started my professional career.
00:24:00
Speaker
And maybe you're already in your professional career, you're off at the races, you at your job or whatever. I really hope that these these 11 things helped you or helped you gain some perspective or whatever.
Closing and Engagement Invitation
00:24:12
Speaker
But thank you so much, guys, for tuning in to this week's podcast. Next week I will have another
00:24:21
Speaker
episode to go along with a series of things that I wish I knew before I so I think that you guys are gonna like this and yes it'll be another podcast next week because I've already pre-recorded and they're already loaded and ready to go so anyway
00:24:36
Speaker
If you guys want to follow me on social media, I am Elion Anita on all of the things. So hit me up, find me. If you want to send me an email, ask me a question, give me a comment, whatever. You can email me at ElionAnitaShow at gmail.com.
00:24:55
Speaker
And if you enjoy this podcast, rate it. Y'all give me a five star rating and leave a comment, a good comment about the podcast. So anyway guys, thank you so much for tuning in. I love you with everything. Stay blessed and be relevant.