10 Mistakes to avoid at your First Job

posted more than an year ago | category : Careers

Sanket Dantara, author of From Cubicles 2 Cabins: A survival guide to your first job talks about the ten mistakes that we make on our first job.

Your first job is what gets you set for a long and fulfilling career ahead. Fresh out of college, eager to race ahead and make it big, you often overlook some small but nevertheless important items. Some mistakes can be costly some not. Here are some of the most grievous mistakes that young Indians make on their first job.

It is easy to get starry eyed with your pay package and dream about all the things you would be able to do with the extra money. No more asking for pocket money from parents, the independence, the freedom. But in this don't forget your long term objectives. The job which pays you the most right now might not be the best thing for you.

So think from a long term perspective. Once you have spent enough years doing one kind of work (not necessarily in the same company), you will be type casted and your next job will be in a similar setting unless you get another degree or start again at the bottom rung. So for your first job don't go after the job which pays you the most today, but think about what suites your skills, capabilities and interests. Go for the job with the maximum learning potential that complements your capabilities and skills and the money will follow.

In most cases, your first assignment will not be rocket science! You will not be researching the next wonder drug or developing the next smartest smart phone or cracking a huge deal. You will in all probability spend your initial days doing tit bits of routine, low end work. Your desk will be the magnet for all grunt work! This is a big let down for a lot of people. You would have been a topper of your class, but in the corporate world you are still a newbie.