Things to be careful of when you are new into this Corporate World!

Every world has its own rules and some Do's and Don't's to survive, Corporate World also has some of its own. Obviously, it takes time and practice to master it but when you are new to this world, you should know some basic things to avoid some potential damage. Here are a few things that should be careful of when you are new to the Corporate World: 

Set your expectations right

There is a saying,

 “where there are expectations there is a disappointment”,

So it's better to set your expectations right.

Obviously, the meaning remains the same but the interpretation definitely changes with the circumstances. So, the professional world has its own interpretation as well. In the Corporate world, things are everything but simple, so expecting simple results should be avoided. 

You think that if you have done everything right, you haven’t missed any deadlines, all of your stakeholders are happy with you so you would bomb your next appraisal and should get the promotion that you have eyed upon for so long now? Then you are wrong!

Nothing in the corporate world works with simple mathematics. For instance, for a promotion, there are other thousand variables in play than your performance like if the team needs the next role, how many promotions can be allowed for this iteration across the whole team, your seniority in the team and in the company relative to other team members and most importantly how the organization can benefit from you getting promoted.

So, do not set your expectations sky-high as this will only make you feel the pain of falling down harder.

Your first title may not be your dream title

When we are in college or during studies we set some goals for ourselves, a computer engineer may only want to do coding jobs, a Charted Account only want to go into Taxation, a statistician may only want to go into modeling, and so on. We all set goals for ourselves and sometimes they don’t pan out the way we wanted them to be, so a Coder may land up into a testing job, a stats person can land up into an analytical job and the Charted Account may land up into Audit job as their first working title. Reasons can be anything from the mix of profiles at the organization level, the pressure of getting a job, not having the requirement in the team, and so on. 

So, your first job title can definitely be your worst nightmare that you may have to live in daylight with open eyes and a broken heart!

Sharing work? Better be colleagues than being friends

When you are friends with someone then it becomes very difficult to say ‘No’ which is a prime necessity in the Corporate World to draw boundaries. For instance, if you are sharing your work with a second person then you both have equal obligations towards it that should be fulfilled equally, But when you become friends with your work partner then it becomes difficult to set things right, to tell your partner that you should target the deadlines instead of roaming around, 

that there have been errors that you find difficult to point out just to save the awkwardness

and million other things that you wouldn’t find difficult to say to your partner than to a friend.

It's the Log Off time that matters not the Login time

There is an unsaid rule in the Corporate World, “People who work an early shift are termed as Early goers!” So even if you are fulfilling your needed 8 or 9 hours in the early shift and you are leaving at the designated time, people around you will stare at you as if you are leaving a class full of students in the middle of the lecture. To make things even more uncomfortable there will be a comment, “You are leaving Early ?”  and that can be from anyone,  your boss, or the neighbor (who don’t even work in your time). It's like the most sneaky thing that you have to do while at work

Don’t get surprised when people would only ask “You are leaving Early ?” and no one care to ask if “You came early ?” 

People in the evening/late shift (Commonly called as UK or US shift) would relate to this when the morning hours they spent doesn't get considered and they anyhow have to leave at their usual time.

Learn to be diplomatic, work in harmony, teamwork

If you have to live peacefully in the house then you should better learn to speak a language that won’t disrupt the balance and peace of the house.

A team is like living in a no-door glass house with perfect strangers, you have to learn to communicate in a way that is non-hurtful to others else the balance will be lost and there will be upset faces that will impact the chores and eventually you! A glasshouse where everyone can see and peek inside the house, so you wouldn’t want to give them a scoop that can turn out to be the talk of the upper-level discussions.

Also, believe it or not, it's a very small world out there and you wouldn’t want to create enemies because you never know when and at what point of your life you are going to cross paths with that person in the future. So, you better put a nice person face with a calm tone, rather than creating a new enemy that can possibly jeopardize any opportunity in your future.

Choose your battles to win a War

In order to succeed in life, one must have a vision, and accordingly, you set your targets and goals. Similarly, in your professional life, you should set goals that will align with your vision. So, there will be times when you will have to lose the battles to win a war!

Be wise in choosing your projects, partners, stakeholders, and even promotions, sometimes you may have to drop a lucrative offer to go for something that won’t be appearing that big right now but is fitting just perfectly in the bigger picture.