5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My First Job

5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My First Job5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My First Job Throughout my entire academic career, I was always told that I was being prepared for the real world. But once I entered the working world in earnest, I soon realized school can never fully prepare you for it.Now, dont get me wrong - Im a big believer in education, and I have no doubt that my ability to absorb information, think critically and work well with others has contributed to my success in the professional realm. But still, I couldnt help but wish that a few mora of my professors had shared some their thoughts on what to expect after graduation.As I made mistakes, learned from them and ultimately grew, I came away from my first job with a handful of important lessons that I wished I had heard, and really internalized, before I ever even stepped foot in the office. Here are a few of my top takeaways - hopefully, theyll resonate with you and maybe even help y ou navigate that tricky transition from school to work.For most of my life I had a major aversion to planners and to-do lists . Have you ever had a waiter who insisted on memorizing your order rather than writing it down on their notepad? Yeah, it was kind of like that. Im bright and capable , I thought - I dont need any piece of paper telling me what to do It took about three days in the working world for me to realize that I needed to ditch that attitude. I might have been able to memorize my tasks and assignments when I only had four or five classes a semester - but at work, there are approximately a million things going on at any given time. From writing articles to getting approval to sending emails, Im working on way too many things to keep track of them solely in my head.Today, I live and die by my to-do list (I use Evernote in particular). It took me a while to figure out what works best, but I finally arrived at an organizational system Im pretty comfortable with. I list every major thing I have to do as a separate bullet point in my planner, with smaller subtasks included as sub-bullet points. Anything that I need to work on that day gets bolded, and anything that needs to be finished that day gets an asterisk on top. Then, I organize the different tasks from top to bottom in the order I want to complete them in. Its fairly simple, but it gets the job done.You dont have to use this exact system, but if youre just entering the workforce, I would highly recommend that you think about the best way to keep yourself organized and on track.One of the biggest issues facing people early on in their careers is a lack of confidence . Even if you have great ideas and valuable insight, you often feel like youre too inexperienced or havent earned the right to speak up. I know this was one of the biggest mental hurdles I encountered when I first started my career. But one former coworker shared a piece of advice that really helped change my perspective on the matter You were hired for a reason - people saw something in you. They want to hear your input.In hindsight its obvious, but at the time I really felt like I could only weigh in after I had worked somewhere for X months or years. But the thing is, having a fresh perspective is incredibly valuable. When youre too close to a project or too entrenched in certain processes, you dont always have the ability to look at things from a high level. New folks, on the other hand, are able to identify blind spots and inefficiencies, and come up with new and creative solutions to them.It might sound cliche, but its true its much easier for others to believe in you once you believe in yourself . If you speak up when you have an insightful comment or idea, youll not only make yourself look good - youll likely unlock new opportunities for yourself.While on the one hand, email plays an invaluable role in helping us stay in touch with others, it can also get pretty darn distracting if you let it. When I first entered the workforce, my inbox was largely in a state of anarchy - junk emails would be thrown right in there with important work emails, newsletter subscriptions, calendar invites, etc. I knew I had to organize it, but for the longest time I put it off, thinking Oh, I can do that anytime - Ill focus on my day-to-day tasks first.With that mindset, though, youll arrive at a breaking point sooner or later. When I reached mine, I finally blocked several hours off on my calendar to sort through my email, unsubscribe to irrelevant emails, create folders and more. The best way to organize your inbox will totally depend on what works for you - you may want to filter by different projects, clients, levels of urgency, etc. Since I was working at a communications agency at the time, it made sense for me to create folders for each of my four main clients, one for internal/administrative tasks and one for news updates.My system has evolved a bit since Ive changed jobs, but I still make sure to label and create folders as appropriate, and I never close out of an email that requires a response without starring it first. This way, I can prioritize appropriately, refer back to important chains at a moments notice and most of all, not be filled with a sense of dread each time I see my inbox.If I had a dollar for every question I asked at work, I probably wouldnt need to work at all anymore (okay, thats probably a slight exaggeration, but I could at least go on a pretty decent vacation ). I used to be very self-conscious of this - anytime I wanted to ask a colleague something, Id preface it with Sorry to bug you or Hope Im not being annoying. Ironically enough, my coworkers were more annoyed by my excessive apologizing than the fact that I was turning to them for questions - something pointed out to me by one of my more straightforward teammates.Now that I have a few years of work experience under my belt, I realize that no matter how much research y ouve done or how many internships youve had, you can never arrive at a new job fully caught up to speed - in fact, if youre not asking questions, it might signal to your coworkers that youre too headstrong to admit when you need help. Sure, you dont want to go completely overboard with it - tapping your manager for help every two minutes throughout the day may be a bit much - but as long as you make sure your questions are thoughtful and posed at the right time, your coworkers will likely be happy to fill you in.Like a lot of young people, the transition from college to the working world was a bit unsettling for me. In the classroom, I felt like I knew exactly what I had to do in order to succeed. Sure, I still sometimes got questions wrong on tests, or got a less-than-stellar grade on an essay every once in a while - but I knew that as long as I paid attention in class, studied a certain amount per week and gave myself enough time to complete assignments, I would do well. S o being thrust into a working environment, where success doesnt always equal X + Y, was a bit jarring.Compared to school, I found work to be less structured, fast-paced and highly collaborative - I was constantly learning new things, pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and working on my communication skills. It was easy to get down on myself when I felt like I was constantly playing it by ear and learning from my mistakes.My big aha moment came after chatting with my older sister. After venting to hear about how incompetent I felt at times, she said something that will always stick with me Everybodys winging it to some degree. Its easy to look at a confident person whos further along in their career and think they have it all figured out, but even your seemingly perfect coworkers make mistakes, pivot and push themselves to try unfamiliar things. They may be better at hiding it, but that doesnt mean theyve completely mastered their job.Its not easy to get over your own sel f-consciousness or self-doubt , and it certainly wont happen overnight, but the more you remind yourself that nobodys perfect (and you dont have to be, either), the more confident youll feel - take it from someone whos been there before.