Warming Up for the Early Career

"Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth." - Rocky Balboa

One thing that I learned since working is asking feedback for everything you have done, and then improve it. I aware that life is about develop ourselves to be better and much better. 

This afternoon, after lunch time, I knocked one of my bosses' door, and asked, "Could I have your time to give me a feedback about my yesterday presentation?" For me, who is very Javanese, it needs an extra effort to be brave enough asking a person who has more power than you, with quite big gap in term of grade. Somehow, Javanese people tend to be "pekewuh," a sense of shy, awkwardness, and respectful toward others. It occurs because of position, seniority, charisma, etc. In the workplace, I see that being "pekewuh" will not make you survive, moreover to get your ambition.

Then, the boss asked me back, "What do you think?" I answered what I think was good and what was not. I thought he would bring me to the feedback session directly -since he was so busy, and our time just limited-. In real, he gave me a lot of reminders.

Firstly, he told me about self-awareness. The important thing in self-improvement, while feedback being of those tools, is to find yourself. It is cliche but I agree. When we are trying to improve ourselves but still do not know what things to achieve in the future or what kind of person that people want to see in us, so for what?

Secondly, he emphasized me to always read, wherever is it, whether on magazine, BBC or other media. It is not a must to read only about the business of our industry, but any kind of topics such as politic, economic or international relation. Not only about what happened in Indonesia, but also about what happened in Asia, Europe, and any parts of the world. That of will always make the brain thinking and automatically our point of view will be much larger. He told me that he is seldom for having discussion with Indonesian people about those, because he realizes that most Indonesian is too lazy to read. They prefer to read Facebook instead of media that give them insights and actual issues.

As a person who wants to grow, speak up is also the critical thing, he said. How you will grow if people do not notice that you are there? You cannot grow alone. Playing safe just make you at the stagnant position, never moved. If you are not agree with your boss, just say, even if he/she is a director. Being an "agree-able" person does not drive you to form your own opinion. Being a success person means be able to make own view, opinion and decision. 

If you are a fresh-graduate or just starting your early career, it is okay to be a little bit worried. In my opinion, self-learning is a must, but still keep asking to your boss/coach/mentor/manager about things you do not know and the things you want to know. You will never know what kind of insights that you will get after you do that. At first, I just want to know his views about my presentation, but at the end, I got more than that.

Make your life alive, talk anything, share ideas, share openly, just speak up.