After 3 days of job shadowing and online training at my new job, I feel like I have learned so much. I realize the importance of job shadowing at the beginning before getting into the technical, in-class training. There was supposed to be another new recruit starting next Monday and so my trainer decided that this week she would make me sit with different people and do some of my online classes throughout the day. I view this as a real privilege. Why? Because as I was sitting in my temporary team and getting to know my colleagues, many of them did not have the opportunity to job shadow much. They either didn’t job shadow for long or they only got to job shadow one or two people. Me on the other hand, so far I have already sat down to observe 6 people! Yes, a lot of the time it is boring I will admit. However, sitting with them allowed me to observe the different type of styles they each used. I was also able to get a lot of different tips and advice. I was able to extract a lot of information using this training method. I was able to observe what to do and what not to do and learn from other people’s mistakes. I was also able to view how different people tackled various issues that came up.
All of this to say, even though it may be boring to sit with different people and watch them work, you can get a lot out of this observation if you are in the right mindset. It is also best to place a new employee to job shadow someone else right at the beginning when they don’t know much about the job and they are most eager to learn. The reason for this is because once the employee has some sort of knowledge of the job, they will get bored faster. On the other hand, if the employee has no knowledge at all of the job, they will be ready, on their feet and become more alert in order to learn how to succeed at their job. People are most alert at the beginning stages because they want to learn as fast they can in order to prevent failure. Of course, for this method to succeed the employee must be motivated to succeed and willing to learn. If they are demotivated then regardless of whether job shadowing is before or after technical training wouldn’t make much of a difference.
In my case, I am eager to learn and to succeed at this job. I want to master the art of selling. I have a mission and a motive. Being granted this opportunity in my hands right now, I feel so lucky because I have excellent training as well as support from all aspects of the business at my full disposal. Everyone in this company is here to help and guide me. I just love it. Instead of paying for a course in learning how to sell. I see it it as I am getting paid to learn to sell. I have all the support systems in place and I am literally getting paid to acquire new skills. That is why even though I did not get a job in my field of study, I don’t care too much because I have other motives. I plan to use the skills I obtain from this job for my future business ventures. That is how everyone should be looking at it.
One of my colleagues told me she worked at a sales job and took shit from her boss for 11 years! Turnover at that company was very high and the company eventually fell bankrupt. But during this time, even though she hated her job she still managed to stay. What did she get out of it? She learned to filter negative comments. She learned to ignore and not take people’s negative comments seriously. She learned that it wasn’t her fault but the person’s and she got stronger as a person. Look at every job you get as an opportunity even if it may be the crappiest job. Because every opportunity is a chance for you to learn. You just have to look at it in a different perspective.
“It never gets easier, you just get better.”
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw
Stay positive! X.O.X.O.
-Fifster
