Ideally...

I call myself a pessimist, but something I am surprisingly optimistic about my ability to grow the organization I am with. Do I sound like the stereotypical GEN Y that believes they can change the world?

This post stems from a conversation I had with a recruiter. They asked me, "What would your first job look like*?" And I told them what it was, I said I would like to be in a role where I can consult different internal and external clients then come-up with a solution that I can implement. "Herm, that sounds like a dream job but probably wouldn't be in the scope of your first job. There is a lot of learning that you have to do.*"

Well, they are right. What do I know about managing a billion dollar business? I even have to pause and figure-out how many zeroes are in a billion! In other words, I am naive in thinking I have decision-making capabilities.

Maybe, what I should have said was " My first job is a role where I can see how my work is impacting the organization". That is a big career value of mine and probably a lot more realistic!

Back to the point of naivety. I think it is both a strength and a weakness. It is strength when it is not hardened by the pessimism of 'this is how things are done'. But it is a weakness when one does not realize the full impact of their decisions. Surely, there must be a balance we can strike between the strength of weakness of being naive.

This is where mentors and supportive supervisors come to play. Allow your GEN Y to dream and believe in change but CHECK to make sure they are realistic and implementable.

I cannot imagine any employer intentionally stifling the enthusiasm of their subordinates, but does your GEN Y hire feel it is safe to voice out their opinions? Are you giving them adequate explanations when you shut down their ideas? Have you taught them how to solicit support when they are proposing a change?

It is not that we are stubborn and want to have it all our way, but we just need to know Y.

*Some paraphrasing involved.

You Don't Look The Part.....

Once, a certain supervisor told me:

"Shin, you are small-sized, Asian, and female. You need to work harder at making people take you seriously."

The statement did not offend me, for I understood there must be some truth in it. Besides, they themselves were from a minority background. They probably experienced something similar and were just trying to give me a heads-up for the future. Nonetheless, I did fall silent--no one had ever spoken to me like that.

I knew I was not the typical image of a business person, but never once did it occur to me that my size, skin colour and gender was working that hard against me. These were physical aspects of myself that I could not change. Would this really be the reason in which I had to work harder than everyone else?

Well, regardless of the factors for or against myself, I know I WANT to work hard and see how far I can go. Besides, I believe the world is changing and becoming more accepting of differences.

Will this pint-sized Asian chic become a c-suite executive one day? I don't know. But it never hurts to try!

PS: Napolean complex?

Being Perfect

I have wanted to set-up this blog for a while. A blog written by a career newbie talking about the darker moments in our professional lives. The low moments when we feel there is no point in working hard. The low moment where you wondered "Am I ever going to get a job?". Well, it so happens that I am unemployed so I have found the time to write again!

This blog is meant to be confessional. I want the people that have had internal struggles about their careers to realize someone else feels the same way they feel. We all have had moments of depressing weakness. And it is about time we were honest about it!

Something that I have never understood about the business world is this shame about admitting you have weaknesses. Unfortunately, I subject myself to that shame all the time; I just feel such a strong pressure to be a know-it-all, strong, perfect, happy-happy!  Which sucks for a person that strives to be authentic.

I am the Type A closet pessimist -- has a strong desire to be great but is always fearful that I will never be good enough. I constantly try to hide my worries and doubts behind this 'perfect' image of who I think I should be. Anyone heard of impostor syndrome? My favourite and most powerful TEDTalk by Lisa Cuddy talks about it during the second half of her video. Impostor syndrome is the feeling that no matter what you accomplish, you are still a loser and you do not deserve any of your success. It is a horribly mean way of treating yourself and I do not like it. Hopefully, I can learn to grow out of this.

By the way, I decided to blog instead of keep a journal because I no longer want to hide. I want to admit and accept that I will never be perfect. And just because I am not perfect, does not mean I am less worthy of happiness and success.

Thank you so much for reading this with me, it means a lot. Maybe you can share your moments of weakness with me too, would love to hear from you.