How To Achieve Career Excellence Through Little Beginning.
High hopes is a common phenomenon among new graduates.
On the last day of my degree exams, jubilations are everywhere in the air around the school community. As I am jubilating, I told myself " Today, I'm no longer a student, I'm now free to move into the world to make as much money as I want".
There's this Toyota Camry car that I like so much. I've already placed it at the back of my mind that in no distant time, I'll make money to buy it since I've graduated. Oh! How easy it is to make dreams.
Learn from nature
I know many graduates are familiar with such dreams, and permit me to say that it's good to have dreams, because it's mostly, the source of our motivations. But inasmuch as we have big dreams, we don't have to forget the reality of little beginning.
Life is a process and we need to learn from it. When we are just a baby, we first crawl before we stand, and when we stand, we manage to learn how to gain balance before we start running. It's the same in our career journey.
You said that you're a graduate and your work is to supervise. How can you supervise what you don't know how it works in reality? Fold up your sleeves and get down to the dirty task. when you get the needed lessons, then your education merged with the practical experience will make you be the experienced supervisor you ought to be.
An old saying says, that the road to the throne room is through the servant's quarters. And I must tell you that experience has shown me that it's completely true. The majority of us despise the little beginning and low-key jobs, not knowing that these are the gateways to the career height we've been dreaming of for years.
Our career journey is a process and to the person who understands, no job is an insult. Pride can make you see certain jobs as an insult, but humility is what will help you capture the lessons and opportunities that come with such jobs.
Cesar Ritz the founder of a popular luxurious hotel brand by the name of the Ritz-Carlton hotel company, started his career journey as a waiter. His experience from the job elevated him to the level of a hotel manager and eventually a hotel owner.
We have similar stories dotted across our society today. The more experienced you become, the higher your earnings. That's why it's better to start in time in getting those experiences.
Even if a company has been built for you to manage once you graduate, you still need the experience to run the company efficiently. A company owner who has basic experience from the vital sectors of the company will always outperform his competitor that didn't have such basic experiences.
I have witnessed how new graduates are placed in managerial positions because of parental influence and they didn't do the wonders that are expected from them. They didn't perform, not because they are not intelligent or not smart enough, but because they lack the basic operational experience on how to run a company.
There is what we call career grooming. Wise company owners do that to their intended successors. In such a grooming exercise, it's not uncommon to see the intended successor working as a customer attendant in the company after which he will be transferred to another department to broaden his knowledge of how the company operates. That's a better way to pave your way to career excellence.
My Experience
Immediately after my graduation, I was given an IT company to manage in Lagos, by a family friend, simply because I studied an information technology-based course. I didn't perform wonders in that job because of my lack of managerial experience.
Though the knowledge of my course and my internship experience helped me to tackle the technical issues, that is just a fraction of the overall problem of the company. What about the handling of staff and recruitment of new ones? What about the issues of sales and marketing of our services? What about handling issues of government demands on business premises?
All these issues got me overwhelmed as a 23 years old new graduate without any prior working experience except my internship(industrial training) as a student. Though I'm compelled to figure out how to handle those issues, it would have been easier for me to know the right rules to implement to effect the necessary changes needed in the company under the supervision of a good mentor.
That's one of the reasons mentorship activities were included in our platform so that the interns will be opportune to ask the right questions and receive the right answers while they operate in real-time.
I must say that nothing can stay in a place of experience. The experience you gather from little things today is what will help you handle the bigger things tomorrow. For a sales enthusiast, If you want to be a sales manager tomorrow, you will have to start today as a sales intern. The same strategy is also applicable in other professional fields.
If you want to be a sales manager tomorrow, you will have to start today as a sales intern.
it is also applicable in entrepreneurship. The man who started on a broader experience with little capital will most times outperform the one that started with little or no experience with bigger capital.
Experiences from little beginnings are seen as foundational experiences. If your concern is for long-term success, then you must invest in little beginnings to build your foundation.
The journey towards that dream level you desire in your career is a process, and most times it starts with low jobs you might despise, not knowing that in those jobs lies experiences that will help you achieve excellence in your career. Don't despise the little beginning.
You can make more little steps on your career journey today through gaining some entrepreneurial experience while in school. Our internship program might be the right place for you to start. Click HERE to apply.
