Working full-time has a way of making you understand tasks and roles differently. Offices have unspoken rules, a hierarchy, and hopefully a culture that’s welcoming to everyone. Here at the Institute for Advanced Analytics, we are firmly in the job market season, and in this article, I share some lessons and transferable skills I learned from working full-time. 

Speak up! 

Oftentimes in professional settings, especially if it is your first full-time role, people can find it tough to speak up. This could be due to thoughts like “I do not want to sound dumb” or “I do not have enough experience to add anything to this conversation.” From my professional experiences, I have seen newbies and interns contribute meaningful ideas and have also seen experienced workers make detrimental mistakes.

The point is that everyone’s experiences are valid, and even if you bring a not-so-good idea to the table, at least it can spark a dialogue and lead to something better.

At the Institute, we work in practicum teams, and this can especially be helpful when having a small group discussion about a problem to be solved. If you never speak up, the whole group loses out on a potentially unique perspective/solution. 

Build relationships! 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, people employed full-time work on average 8.4 hours a day during the week. Spending a third of your week at work can certainly feel robotic without any personal connections. Building relationships with coworkers, supervisors, and peers can go a long way towards making the weight of work feel lighter. Some people prefer to keep work relationships strictly business, and that’s fine too, but for those who are willing to share, it allows you to form a more personal connection and even have a better working relationship. This can be done with casual conversations like asking about each other’s weekend plans or vacation and then following up when returning to work. You may even find that you and a coworker have similar interests or hobbies you pursue outside of work. Oftentimes, this can help in the future if you ever need to call on an individual you worked with. 

Document your contributions! 

When working on a team or as an individual, it can be easy to get in a cycle of repetitive work or in the zone and never really look back to see what you accomplished. Documenting your contributions is helpful for many reasons. In today’s environment of remote work, managers can’t be with you for the duration of your workday. When 4:50 hits and you have a Slack message asking what you’ve done, documentation allows you to quickly respond and put your manager at ease. Here at the IAA, many groups try to split work evenly, and documenting your contributions and reporting back to your team makes this possible. Documenting your contributions is also helpful when asking for a raise or updating your resume. It also allows you to be able to answer quickly if someone asks, “What do you do for work?” 

Although I focused on the professional work environment, these tips can be used in other settings as well. Some of them come naturally, and others take practice, but they are all just another tool in your arsenal to make an impact!