I got myself a new job that starts today, which job scope is something I've never experienced before. Because it's something new for me, I'm looking forward to this new learning adventure. Yup, I view every new job as an adventure.
An adventure is a venture that involves risks, which even if you've done as much calculated risks as you could about it all and asked as many prior questions before you decide to dive headlong into it, there will still be uncertainties you'll never be certain about until you get your hands dirty by actually experiencing the venture first-hand, which is how every new job is. The interviewer can only help you with this much, the rest will be up to you to discover for yourself.
Thus, going into a new job or a new company also requires a fair amount of courage to face that which is unfamiliar and unknown in the initial stages, just like in embarking on an adventure.
I can't reveal what my job entails because I'm a man who keeps the deal of my employment terms & conditions on my end. Every job that I've left, I've never revealed any of their confidential information or trade secrets that I've promised not to on black & white. I once had a colleague who said something way back in 2005 that I still remember till this day and always will:
"Even if your company has developed a rotten reputation in the industry, never allow your own reputation to go bad."
And that, ranks as the best advice I've ever heard in all my years of working. To make this work, my philosophy is: always respect your clients and customers and never promise anything that you know you and your company cannot deliver. Trust is not a given, it's something you have to earn. Honesty builds trust and empty promises break trust. That's how it goes.
Regarding my new job, all I can reveal is that my new company is doing a joint project with the government, which accounts for things being classified. After the initial on-the-job training, I will be going lone wolf all by myself to do my job, and mondays to fridays will see me travelling about the south-western part of the country as I go to my different daily allocated areas in said sector to get to my work sites. The job ad did mention "work near home", which is why I got assigned to the south-western team.
I've always gone for jobs that require me to travel about alone, which is something I've grown to love and already grown accustomed to for years. Besides helping me to keep fit since I'm not stuck on a chair in a cubicle for the whole day but have to be on the move constantly (with all due respect to you cubicle warriors out there), such jobs also teach me to be self-reliant and independent. Since you are going at it alone, you are also your own on-the-spot problem-solver. My only nemesis is heavy rain, which impedes movement speed.
As you can imagine, one has lots of freedom doing such travelling lone wolf jobs and I love that freedom and not having to deal much with the politics back in the office I don't care about, since as far as I'm concerned, I've been hired to work instead of being paid to play games.
In my opinion, some office politics are unavoidable sometimes, but any company that allows their office politics to go seriously out of hand has lost focus and not worth working for, since an out-of-focus company won't last for too long with all the nasty internal power struggles that are detrimental to the united growth of the company as a whole in the long run.
Back to lone wolf travelling jobs: such jobs also mean the need for self-discipline, since when you go about your job alone, you are the only one who can make sure that you are doing your job properly and that you are not abusing your freedom.
Throughout my working life, I've seen people getting fired because they abused their freedom: they got caught skipping work secretly for multiple days and such. Why ruin something good for yourself and have your freedom taken away from you just because of complacent laziness?
Even if you go for multiple coffee breaks and make pit-stops at shops in the mall to check out some goods in-between visiting your clients, customers or work sites, just make sure you deliver what you are being paid to do for the day and go home with peace of mind, even if you go home earlier than usual because you happen to complete your work for the day at a faster rate and you don't have to report back to the office at the end of the day. This is what I mean by 'self-discipline'.
Speaking of going home earlier once you've completed your job for the day, my new job officially allows me to do just that and my pay will not be affected in any way. So I have to make sure that I do my job properly to the best of my abilities and not have this privilege taken away. Since my work time is entirely in my own hands and I can go home once done, I won't complain at all should it happen that I be required to work till later than usual occasionally. Give & take.
In actual fact, based on what I've been taught and shown so far, the tasks required of me is nothing too difficult at all, so it would be stupid to turn complacent and ruin the privileges that come with the job. I'm hoping that the colleagues in my team, who have their own assigned work areas, have the same line of thought - the worst thing that can happen to any team is to have black sheeps that ruin everything for everybody else.. but I'm not holding my breath on this just yet even though I'm hoping for the best; as I've said, trust is something to be earned and we don't know one another well enough yet.
However, I already know that there is just one particular aspect of the job that I hate while everything else seem ok, but you gotta take the good along with the bad and there's no such thing as a 100% perfect job without flaws that rub you the wrong way, yes? So far, it's just this one thing that I don't like, but I can live with just one single bad issue if everything else holds up to be continuously ok. We shall see.
But ugh, me having to deal with a slight fever and cough is not helping me much during my first day on the job. Still, I shall survive.
An adventure is a venture that involves risks, which even if you've done as much calculated risks as you could about it all and asked as many prior questions before you decide to dive headlong into it, there will still be uncertainties you'll never be certain about until you get your hands dirty by actually experiencing the venture first-hand, which is how every new job is. The interviewer can only help you with this much, the rest will be up to you to discover for yourself.
Thus, going into a new job or a new company also requires a fair amount of courage to face that which is unfamiliar and unknown in the initial stages, just like in embarking on an adventure.
I can't reveal what my job entails because I'm a man who keeps the deal of my employment terms & conditions on my end. Every job that I've left, I've never revealed any of their confidential information or trade secrets that I've promised not to on black & white. I once had a colleague who said something way back in 2005 that I still remember till this day and always will:
"Even if your company has developed a rotten reputation in the industry, never allow your own reputation to go bad."
And that, ranks as the best advice I've ever heard in all my years of working. To make this work, my philosophy is: always respect your clients and customers and never promise anything that you know you and your company cannot deliver. Trust is not a given, it's something you have to earn. Honesty builds trust and empty promises break trust. That's how it goes.
Regarding my new job, all I can reveal is that my new company is doing a joint project with the government, which accounts for things being classified. After the initial on-the-job training, I will be going lone wolf all by myself to do my job, and mondays to fridays will see me travelling about the south-western part of the country as I go to my different daily allocated areas in said sector to get to my work sites. The job ad did mention "work near home", which is why I got assigned to the south-western team.
I've always gone for jobs that require me to travel about alone, which is something I've grown to love and already grown accustomed to for years. Besides helping me to keep fit since I'm not stuck on a chair in a cubicle for the whole day but have to be on the move constantly (with all due respect to you cubicle warriors out there), such jobs also teach me to be self-reliant and independent. Since you are going at it alone, you are also your own on-the-spot problem-solver. My only nemesis is heavy rain, which impedes movement speed.
As you can imagine, one has lots of freedom doing such travelling lone wolf jobs and I love that freedom and not having to deal much with the politics back in the office I don't care about, since as far as I'm concerned, I've been hired to work instead of being paid to play games.
In my opinion, some office politics are unavoidable sometimes, but any company that allows their office politics to go seriously out of hand has lost focus and not worth working for, since an out-of-focus company won't last for too long with all the nasty internal power struggles that are detrimental to the united growth of the company as a whole in the long run.
Back to lone wolf travelling jobs: such jobs also mean the need for self-discipline, since when you go about your job alone, you are the only one who can make sure that you are doing your job properly and that you are not abusing your freedom.
Throughout my working life, I've seen people getting fired because they abused their freedom: they got caught skipping work secretly for multiple days and such. Why ruin something good for yourself and have your freedom taken away from you just because of complacent laziness?
Even if you go for multiple coffee breaks and make pit-stops at shops in the mall to check out some goods in-between visiting your clients, customers or work sites, just make sure you deliver what you are being paid to do for the day and go home with peace of mind, even if you go home earlier than usual because you happen to complete your work for the day at a faster rate and you don't have to report back to the office at the end of the day. This is what I mean by 'self-discipline'.
Speaking of going home earlier once you've completed your job for the day, my new job officially allows me to do just that and my pay will not be affected in any way. So I have to make sure that I do my job properly to the best of my abilities and not have this privilege taken away. Since my work time is entirely in my own hands and I can go home once done, I won't complain at all should it happen that I be required to work till later than usual occasionally. Give & take.
In actual fact, based on what I've been taught and shown so far, the tasks required of me is nothing too difficult at all, so it would be stupid to turn complacent and ruin the privileges that come with the job. I'm hoping that the colleagues in my team, who have their own assigned work areas, have the same line of thought - the worst thing that can happen to any team is to have black sheeps that ruin everything for everybody else.. but I'm not holding my breath on this just yet even though I'm hoping for the best; as I've said, trust is something to be earned and we don't know one another well enough yet.
However, I already know that there is just one particular aspect of the job that I hate while everything else seem ok, but you gotta take the good along with the bad and there's no such thing as a 100% perfect job without flaws that rub you the wrong way, yes? So far, it's just this one thing that I don't like, but I can live with just one single bad issue if everything else holds up to be continuously ok. We shall see.
But ugh, me having to deal with a slight fever and cough is not helping me much during my first day on the job. Still, I shall survive.
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