Transition From Campus To Corporate

One of the biggest challenges every student goes through is the transition from college to corporate life. All of a sudden, there is a transition from assignments & mid-semesters to team work and deadlines.
There is a vast difference in the way professors and managers operate. Professors are focused on enhancing learning quotient. They look at improving subject matter understanding; evaluate on the overall learning ability and perhaps to an extent on the implementation. From a manager’s perspective, there is a constant pressure to deliver and meet deadlines using the existing and derived knowledge. So, while one focuses on learning, the other focuses on significant leverage.
Student-life is mostly care-free, typically students live their timings, bunk classes, skip lessons and still make their grades if they burnt-mid night oil. However, in a typically company setting, one is not expected to be on time, forget not attending a meeting. Also to a large extent there is decision making out of team based working.
In this context, finishing schools are springing up, training gurus spend a lot of time consulting and coaching. However, here are a few points for the student community to consider in making a smooth transition.
• Role Model – Role models are typically perceived as successful individuals. These are people who you would like to emulate. They may not be charming per se, but these people exhibit positive behaviors which you may want to imbibe. Have some one as role model. In a difficult situation, think how your role-model might react, that brings in the wisdom to deal with different and difficult situations.
• Mentor – Identify and seek out a mentor in the company that you join, with whom you can discuss professional ideas and as well confide, seek solutions with respect to personal and adjustment problems.
• Personality – Adhere to some very basic timings and time-tables, build a sense of professional attitude. Dress well, look well, speak well, and enhance your overall personality. Enroll in music lessons, cultivate a hobby and be serious about it.
• Manager – As much as you are making a transition, remember that your manager is also making adjustments with you. Also, managers need not know more than you from a subject matter perspective. As long as they can extract commitments and deliverables from people in a meaningful way, they are super-managers. Remember, managers need not be subject matter experts. That is why you are employed you to find solutions to real life problems. So, there is no point in giving rough-time to yourself or to your manager on these irrelevant issues.
• Strategy vs. Execution – Being ambitious is important, but being overtly ambitious drains you. Often youngsters want to do only strategic jobs and want to reach senior management levels in a jiffy. Remember, you don’t grow 6 feet tall by the time you are 5 years old. Everything takes time, seep the experience of working in corporate world, understand the dynamics, else you will end up as a dwarf amongst tall people. Strategy is about a certain direction, the real results are in the execution. So, start with execution, get to see results, work it back to strategy. Grow at a pace where learning adds to wisdom. Don’t be in a hurry to carry a large title, which you cannot carry.
• Learning – This is probably the most important part of managing one’s career. As one keeps climbing the ladder, the breadth of business; domain; technical experience; managerial capability; and leadership direction abilities matter significantly. For even those, who want to be subject matter experts or technologists, basic people & business understanding truly come in handy.
• Communication – One way to give super-shine to your career is having great communication skills. Speak well, write well and understand corporate etiquette. Work diligently on the following - How to speak publicly? How to speak in social gathering? How to make effective presentations? How to write powerful e-mails? etc
• Initiative - Don’t escalate problems, take initiative to solve problems – that is the best way to learn, get noticed and grow. Everybody has problems, but only few take the trouble to solve. Problem tacklers are loved in any company. Importantly, take ownership of problem and take it to completion. Remember, if you take up something, do it with full attention and package it well. It is better not to attempt, if you think you won’t eventually complete it. Management love people who take ownership and accountability.
• Next job – If you have the right skill, there is always a next job available. Do not jump jobs for the sake of just an increase in salary. Look at the larger picture of learning and value-add. Think about the culture, freedom and the access to build knowledge. Know the people who you would want to work with. Can they make a difference to your life? Stick to a company for a long-time; grow with the company’s evolution. See different business cycles, build relationships, innovate, learn, contribute, and leave your signature behind even before you think of moving on. Unless you are being slave-driven, there is no significant need to move to the next job.
• Griping – Leadership always notices people who are positive and want to make an impact. Griping doesn’t take you far. It just unleashes the negative energy and dampens the spirits of people around you. Be an enthusiast, create lively environment.
• Visibility – Be visible in subtle ways. Besides putting forward your views and pointers in meetings, try participating in company extra-curricular activities, social events. This improves visibility at the leadership level.
• Be Cheerful ¬ You only have one life. Live it, make merry, enjoy, and kiss the world. Inculcate good friends, go out, watch movies, listen to music, and love somebody. Bring cheers to others and you can feel happy in the reflection of others happiness.
• Teamwork – Esoteric word for a lot. Essentially, it means “working-together” and not working at each other. The focus should always be the task at hand and how to help each other to accomplish that. Schools teach you winning by performing. Corporate teaches you winning by performing “together”. Philosophically speaking, there is nothing as “winning or losing” - it is just a state of mind. True win is when your team mates win.
• Recognition – All our lives we have looked at getting patted in the back. We do something and look up to our parents, friends and well-wishers to pat us and feel good. There is no end to how much recognition one needs; it is just ego-massage. True recognition is self-recognition, where you truly feel happy for having done something wonderful. If you feel perfectly satisfied at having achieved something, then celebrate and feel good. Best form of recognition is to recognize others who have made your life meaningful. Praise others; you don’t lose anything, nothing in fact.
• Social Work – Give back something, because you have gained so much from the society and the country. Meet with the less fortunate, spare some time, understand the motivations. There is always a soft-glow underneath. It will stimulate to think differently and inculcate a sense of citizenship and responsibility.
• Failures – Nobody has learnt to play football without scars. Great players have fallen more than they have risen. It is the rise, which often gets portrayed though. People have put in hard-work, failed and importantly learned - what not to do; what doesn’t work and how to make things happen. Don’t be worried about failures; worry if you haven’t experienced some. Experiment before somebody else does and learns.
• Dream – Dream of what you want to do. Unless you dream, you will be log on the river and will float with tide. Dream to make difference to this world. Dream to become something, be passionate about something which you desire.
• Family roots – Family matters so much. Nuclear families are self contained and at times develop so much freedom & independence that relationships perish. Be in touch with your family, make them feel good, especially give a lot of love to your parents, they will not be with you forever and they need you now more than ever. It is a difficult time for every parent when the birds at home fly to make their lives. It is transition time for them as well. Hold their hands, speak to them regularly and spend time with them - otherwise one fine day, you will notice that you have climbed the career ladder, but don’t have your family anymore to share the joy with you.
• Health – At your age, everybody takes it easy on health because body auto-corrects most ailments. So indulgence in excesses is common and it eventually takes its toll. You don’t have to spend enormous amount of time worrying about it, thankfully God has made the body robust enough for you us to live a long and healthy life. A little care, good habits, a small walk, little exercise, a sport, moderation in eating – really go a long way in creating a successful career roadmap.
• Yoga, Meditation & Spirituality – Everyone needs time for the mind to chill. Develop a sense of spirituality, feel the power from within. Yoga and meditation are the in-thing in corporate setting. A calm mind can think better and brings clarity of thought. This is so essential to cut the clutter and arrive at solutions which can create significant impact
• Money & Comparisons – Some of your class-mates will always earn better than you, some others will earn much lesser than you. There is no end to these comparisons. In fact the more you compare, the more uncomfortable you will feel. Instead, look for learning and value-addition to the company and to yourself. Money will always flow to good people. Capital follows knowledge. That is the mantra of the new economy. Look at long-term wealth creation, don’t day trade; invest in your career for the long-term. Having high disposable income at early stages in career changes your life-style which perhaps you may not be able to manage, just in case there is a dip in the company results and in your compensation.
• Entrepreneurship – We always here stories of people from college making it big with their ideas. That is great. However, remember that the success stories we hear are less than 0.5% of the student population. Ideally, a little experience, great idea, great partners, pre-existing customers, reasonable capital will give a good start to the overall entrepreneurial experience. Don’t be in a hurry, take your time. Some are really lucky to work in successful start-ups. Typically in start-ups, one gets a breadth of experience in start-ups, gets to learn more, matures fasters, gets good business perspective, grows faster and hopefully makes good money eventually.
Good Luck and enjoy life, for you have only one!

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