I say had three dream jobs because this past year, while still in college, I have seen all of those dreams come to fruition. I got a job as the Student Intern at church, and I loved it. (I even secretly loved when people used Intern as my name.) I currently work at Chick-fil-A and enjoy (a little too often) the free food that comes along with that. This summer, I will be going to Peru to work with a local institution that loves on and cares for girls ages 10-17.
A mug my boss at church only presented to me once during my internship there
Photo: The Onion
Before I become a college graduate, I will have attained all the dreams I've had for employment. It's time to start dreaming a little bigger, I guess, and decide what the dream jobs are moving forward. Before that happens, though, I wanted to look back on my occupational experiences this year, so I have compiled a list of the things I have learned.
My attitude matters.
There was a coworker that I really didn't like working with. She was just unpleasant, but I decided that I was going to try my hardest to like her. Now, as you'll see soon enough when you read on, some people and situations are just going to be unpleasant forever. But I'd bet that 80% of the time the situation will improve if you try your hardest to improve it yourself. I tried hard to like this girl, and now she is one of my favorite coworkers. I love the shifts when I get to work with her.
It also helped to realize that sometimes I was the problem. If I was frustrated that something wasn't getting done, could I be the one doing it? If I was frustrated with someone, was it because I was being selfish? A simple change in perspective solves A TON of problems.
Unfortunately, there are also times when even a good attitude doesn't help.
I can't change people, even with the best of attitudes. There are people who aren't going to like me. I can choose to let that bother me deep down, I can choose to retaliate and be rude back to them, or I can shrug and move on. Just like my identity doesn't ride on whether people like me or not, I won't let my attitude ride on whether others are pleasant to me or not.
People are fun. Also, people are stupid.
There are coworkers I love and coworkers I don't. I work with irresponsible people, stubborn people, arrogant people, selfish people, obnoxious people, and lazy people. I also work with awesome people, funny people, positive people, intelligent people, hard workers, creative people, nice people, and loving people. I can't avoid everyone that frustrates me or annoys me. I also can't avoid all the rude customers. I can, however, try to maximize the effect the good people have on me and minimize the bad.
There is time now, and there may not be time later.
Procrastinating could almost be considered one of my strengths. I am seriously good at putting things off. The things always get done, but I end up more stressed in the process when I wait until the last minute. I located the lie this year, which is that there will be plenty of time later to do X. The problem is, something else usually comes up before later and I always wish used the time I had before to get it done.
"The Procrastinator's Clock"
I don't always get to do things the way it makes sense to me.
I am a task-oriented worker, which means in most situations it is a task that is important to me, more important than people or time. I will work until the job is done, and I don't like pausing in between tasks. At my current job, though, the customer is king, and sometimes I have to drop what I'm doing to serve the king. I have to leave things unfinished, which also means that someone else may pick up where I left off and do it differently that I was doing it (read: wrong).
Someone in a position of authority over me might also have me do something in a way that makes no sense to me. I have to find the balance between when I have to do what they say exactly and when I can respectfully offer a suggestion of a more efficient way.
I have to let those things not be a big deal; I have to trade in what I personally think is important or correct for what really is important to everyone involved. I have to be a team, which means I don't always get to do things my way.
Work is a selfish place.
Employees get wrapped up in what they are doing, and usually end up accidentally acting pretty self-centered. Work is a place where we are all competing to be the best and make the most, whether we realize it or not. We all want to get to the top or just get our own work done so we can be the one going home early, etc. The good news, though, is that small selfless acts don't go unnoticed, because they are so far from the norm.
Next time you are at work, try to notice ways that employees are just naturally selfish. It's not always because they are selfish people, it's just the environment. Then look for ways that you can help someone else before you do your own job. It can be something so small that you think will be completely insignificant to the other person, but in my experience they notice. When you finish all your work, help someone else. It may not always seem like it, but working for the same company puts you on the same team. I have found that being a team player makes the work environment much more enjoyable, and when you make it a point to help others, others help you too.
Ideas are vulnerable.
My job as the Student Intern consisted of a lot of creative work. I would sit in my office just thinking of ideas- events, lessons, room decor, games. I always got super nervous before presenting my most recent idea to my boss and the other intern. Ideas come from a really personal place, and it sucks when one it shot down. I learned a couple good lessons about ideas, though. First of all, even the bad ideas spark good ones. Ever been in a brainstorming session and been told that there are no bad ideas? That's crap- there are lots of terrible ideas. The sentiment here, however, is that a bad idea may make someone else in the room think of a less bad idea which might make someone else think of a fantastic idea! I learned to not take it so personally when someone doesn't like my idea or tries to tweak it.
I also learned to be more confident when sharing my ideas with others. Fortunately, I was working in an environment where I was allowed, even encouraged, to run with crazy ideas just to see if they'd work. It was kind of a, "Why not?" mentality, which I loved! I got to run a game night where every game was somehow played with bananas, for goodness sake. I got to do crazy things and then discuss with my coworkers why that did or didn't work and what we can do to make it or ourselves better for the future. And you know what? A lot of my ideas did work. I learned that ideas are a strength of mine, and that I can learn from the bad ones and be proud of the good ones.
I will not receive feedback about every single thing.
In school, I submit something, I get a grade. Given that school has been my 'job' since I was 6, I have gotten used to receiving almost immediate feedback on almost everything I do. Work is different, though, and not getting that feedback was something I was really uneasy about for a while. 'No one is telling me I did/am doing a good job, therefore I must not be,' was a recurring thought in my head. In some jobs, no feedback is actually a good thing. I learned to treat compliments about my performance as more valuable since they came less often, but I also learned to be confident in the work I am doing. I had to learn not to assume I was doing a terrible job just because no one was telling me the opposite. I do good work, and I learned to believe that for myself.
Not everyone works the way I work and thinks the way I think.
Well, duh. But this is seriously something that had to be pounded into my brain for some reason. The expectations I put on coworkers, and therefore the frustrations I have when those expectations aren't met, are because I am expecting them to do something the way I would do it. Other people don't make sense to me, but I also have to remind myself that I probably don't make sense to a lot of people.
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I have had so many great professional opportunities so far. I have worked for small, local companies who treated me like family. I have worked for organizations like CIY and Chick-fil-A that have missions I can wholeheartedly support. I have worked for a church I call home. I have done things I love and gotten paid for doing them. I realize how lucky I am to have had these opportunities, even when they came with unpleasant pieces and some hard lessons to learn. I'm so hoping my luck doesn't run out after college and that I find more opportunities to work at things I love doing and to continue learning the difficult lessons of employment.
i'm excited to hear what your next list of dream jobs consists of!
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