Deja vu! Yes, I do find many similarities between being a freshman during the first year in University and being a ‘freshman’ during the first decade of my professional life in the Corporate World. For most of us who take the Junior College route (the most popular path in Singapore), entering University in Singapore resembles a significant departure from the school life that we have been so accustomed to. We used to have only a single major exam after 2 years of study in Junior College. However, we now have to face major exams for every 6 months in University!

Despite the challenges of being a freshman in University – we adapt, survive and thrive! The same applies to the first decade of professional life in the Corporate World. We learn as much as we can, whether through our own personal experience or from those who have been in the Corporate World earlier than us. 

I have recently completed the first decade of my professional life. It has been an amazing journey indeed! During the first decade, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to join seven (7) distinct industries. It ranges from banking, management consultancy, marketing and advertising, trading, manufacturing, hospitality as well as construction industry. I am also grateful to be able to experience the culture in various types of companies, from SMEs, Global MNCs to Public Listed Company with more than 24,000 employees. 

I have learnt tremendously during the first decade in the Corporate World. In this article, I will share the die-die-must-know lessons I have learnt during this period. If you are currently going through the first decade of your professional life, I hope this article can provide you with some guidance in order to make the right decisions that will provide you an edge as you enter the second decade of your professional life. 

Learn, learn and learn

While this seems obvious to many who are in their first decade of professional life, they usually sacrifice the learning opportunity for financial reward too early in their career. After their first job, they start to take up an opportunity that gives them the highest financial reward despite having to perform mundane non-value added tasks every day. This is not only unwise, but also highly detrimental to their future career. 

When I was going through the first decade of my professional life, I assessed every single opportunity by what future transferable skills I could possibly learn by taking up the offer. The strategy of focusing on transferable skills has worked very well and has allowed me to secure 18 interviews in my latest job search. I stopped the job search process as soon as I found the exact role I was looking for, one that again offer the greatest opportunity to learn further transferable skills. 

Consider both SME and MNC

While I started my career in a large public listed company and MNC, I did join 3 SMEs during the first decade of my professional life. I understand that most fresh graduates are more interested in joining MNC than SME, however I believe that they should gain experience from both MNC and SME while they are still in the first decade of professional life. In fact, I personally gave up the opportunity to work for General Electric (GE) and instead accepted the offer from a small marketing and advertising firm with a staff strength of 30 people in Singapore. All my friends thought I was out of my mind at that time. However, the two and half years period I spent with them proves to be one of the best moments of my professional life! 

Many employees love to work in MNC. Let us first look at the reasons what are the benefits of joining MNC in the first decade of your professional life. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to join 3 MNCs within the first decade of my professional life. In general, MNCs tend to have a much structured working environment. In such environment, you will be able to complete your work faster. Of course, that will mean that you get to leave office earlier! 🙂 Nevertheless, it is important to note that your problem solving skills may be limited if you have always been in a very structure environment. You see, the best marathon runners usually come from Nigeria. They train under an extreme condition. There is no way you can be the best marathon runner by training on track mill in an air-conditioned gym! 

If you are an Accountant like me, MNCs give you the opportunity to handle BIG data. That means you can’t possibly be using pen and ruler for reconciliation. You are therefore forced to learn higher level skills, such as Pivot Table, Vlookup and even VBA. 

On the other hand, you need to be able to play a different ball game when you are in an SME. I had the chance to work with 4 SMES in the first 10 years of my professional life. You need to experience both MNC and SME environments for you to be a complete professional in your field. The number one benefit from joining SMEs is that you get to learn everything about business! In an SME, you have to handle everything and that means you have the chance to learn more. That was also the main reason why I turned down the offer from General Electric to join one of the marketing and advertising SME – the decision that I have never regretted. 

It is nevertheless important to understand that many SMEs do not have a very structured environment. That means that you need to have certain level of skills set to survive. 

Be open about contract position

You might be asking, did I myself take up contract positions during the first decade of my professional life? Obviously! Otherwise, I would not have put this down as one of the lessons I learnt during the first 10 years of my professional life. In fact, I took up 4 contract positions which 1 of them I agreed to be converted to a permanent position. 

I will elaborate a little more about this point as there are many misconceptions about contract positions. The idea that contact positions are less favourable than their permanent counterparts is purely due to market perception rather than factual reasoning. As there are many benefits of taking up contract positions, this topic deserves a separate article. In this section, I will elaborate some of the benefits of taking up contract positions in Singapore.

Most contract positions in Singapore are between 6 months to 12 months. In general, the positions have been created to cover the existing employee while he/she is away (such as for maternity leave) or to work on special projects (such as ERP system migration) which require higher level of staffing. Due to the fact that contract positions are for a limited period, such as 6 or 12 months, you are free to take up any other assignments at the end of the contractual period. This will therefore allow you to gain experience and exposure to different types of industry and job nature which in turn will accelerate your career progression without being labelled as a ‘job hopper.’ 

Keep in touch! 

Whether you are in a contract or permanent position, there will come a time when you have to say good bye. Leaving a company should never be seen as complete departure. In the future, they may one day be your customer or supplier. Therefore, it is important to stay in touch with all the companies you have been part of. 

That would be all I have to share for the lessons I learnt in the first decade of my professional life. I notice from analytics that all of you my beloved readers come from all over the world. I, Yanto Wong, sincerely appreciate your visit and I shall see you at the next article!