Work in the Real World

Working is completely different than school. School requires more discipline in term of study habits and time management, work is a different beast.  Work requires discipline, time management skills, people skills, social skills, dealing-with-the-boss and coworker skills, fake-it-till-you-make-it skills, etc. Too many skills school fails to teach and emphasize and learning them on my own has been a rocky road with full of frustration and regrets. I have been working full-time for the past two years and everyday I meet new faces and encounter numerous situations that test my temper and my problem solving skills.  There are days where it's hard to get out of bed because of all the stress that work entails but what keeps me going is knowing this experience is pruning and shaping me into a better person; I am a stronger woman and much more disciplined before, I can meet deadlines and follow directions and deal with people in a professional manner.  Fear engrosses me when it comes to dealing with supervisors and difficult clients but my ability to handle problems in a calm and logical manner is improving every day.  My emotions do not get in the way as much as it used to.  Logic dominates my thinking as I learn to solve problems.

One biggest lesson I learned from my current job is how to deal with people. In school, most people are ,for the most part, friendly and easy to get along, it never occurs to me that there exists people who would take advantage of my innocence. In the working world, you will never know who you will run into.  Your coworkers and supervisors are not the only people you deal with, you have to deal with people who work in the same building and, this I will never forget, the clients. My clients come in all shape and form, some are easy going, some are strict, some are plain brutal beyond words, some are just a pain to talk to.  Professionalism and problem solving skills are the two skills I learned from my interaction with my coworkers, it wasn't simple to learn at first but it became easier as I keep holding onto it.

All in all, work is better than school because I am earning an income and best of all, I am actually applying what I learned in lectures and the skills that I accumulated so far will only bring me further in my future career choice.  Everyone has to start somewhere, and my current job is a time to prune me into a grown adult.