Building a Career

I wish someone had told me this when I first started out. It would have saved me a world of pain. If you were a fresh graduate sitting before me now, this is my sincere advice to you as you take your first step into the *real* working world out there.

As far as I'm concerned, the two most important things for young people to remember before embarking on a career is 1) your track record and 2) your attitude.

Your Track Record

You should start this as early as possible. Cultivate the habit of compiling all your certificates of achievements from school and keeping them in a safe place. They will come in very handy when you go for your first few job interviews.

When you accept a job offer, go in with your eyes open. Once you are in a new company, be prepared mentally and psychologically to stay for at least 3 years. No matter how shitty it is, no matter how nasty the boss, no matter how unfriendly the colleagues, no matter how demanding the clients, grit your teeth and tough it out! See tasks, assignments and projects through - from start to finish. You can learn from both good situations and bad, from problems and solutions, from mistakes and remedies.

Don't be a quitter. Don't job hop! Don't be a rolling stone! When an employer looks at your track record and it says 6 months here and 9 months there, he is not going to have any confidence in you whatsoever! It tells him that you give up easily, that you let obstacles overwhelm you rather than you overcoming them, that you have no perseverence. It says you have no aim, no direction and no clue!

Your Attitude

When you join a firm, you will be given a job description. If you stick firmly to it, your career is DOOMED! If you go in with the attitude that you will only do what is within your job scope and nothing else, you will achieve MEDIOCRITY and nothing else. On the other hand, if you aspire to become a senior manager or company director, then you will have to know as much about your industry as you can! Get it? You CANNOT LEAD without extensive knowledge!

There is a mountain of information out there you will have to scale if you want to reach anywhere near the top. There is a steep learning curve to tackle, right from day one, and the sooner you start climbing the better! No one is going to hand it to you on a platter. No one is going to package it neatly for you. Spoon-feeding stopped the day you left high school! The knowledge is out there but you'll have to dig it out yourself, one painful nugget at a time!

Pacing Yourself

One final tip for young career builders. Get a better understanding of the industry you are launching into by talking to someone in the same field who is older, preferably in his 40s or 50s. Determine what you are expected to know at different stages of your career. Set out a road map to pace yourself, if you will. Establish a guide like this: a) Mastery of statutory regulations by 30, b) Competency in financial matters by 35, c) Solid grasp of technology by 40, etc. Such milestones will help you to monitor your career progress and keep you on track.

[Now think about how much you will have to pay to hear an *expert* tell you the above in a seminar. You got it here for free! :) ]

The Changed Face

Having a bit of writer's block at the moment, so let me tell you about a book I have just finished reading.

The Changed Face is a translation of a book by German author Heinz Konsalik.

[Someone mentioned that I seemed to like reading paperbacks or *pulp fiction*. I don't see anything wrong with them. Books are expensive these days and I can get paperbacks cheaply at secondhand stores. They were written at a time when men smoked and Africans were called *negros*. I find that much less stifling than today's politically-correct climate. Anyway, what's PC today may not be PC tomorrow.]

The book is about soldiers who received terrible injuries on the face and their rehabilitation into normal society after months and years of surgical repair. Here is a photo of facial injuries suffered during war time.

You can imagine the kind of emotional trauma these men have to go through. It's akin to a roller coaster ride between hope and suicidal despair. The book is so well written that it feels like non-fiction. An excerpt:

The orderlies lifted the blanket from the head of Rudolph Fischer. There was no head left, no face; it had no human form. It was a miracle that he still lived and breathed. Only one eye was left. It lay in a mess of splintered bone and torn flesh. In the windpipe he had a slit into which a cannula had been inserted.

Dr Mainetti stared at the one remining eye. 'On to the table with him - carefully!' She moved to one side and the eye followed her.

And another:

They left Erich alone, and that was a good thing. He lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling, and the tears ran out of his eyes and were soaked up by the new bandage. I've got a new nose, he thought. Mother ... Ursula ... I've got a new nose. And suddenly he began to think of silly, ridiculous things. I can wear sun-glasses again. I can smell mother's baking. I can - I can. God! There are so many things you can do with a nose. And you don't realise it till you haven't got one any more. Later he wrote a letter to Cologne. He was the happiest man in Block B.

You'll be pleased to know that the book has a happy ending. :)