Critical Lessons to Keep Yourself Well Versed in the Rules of Corporate Life

What are the biggest lessons you have learned in the corporate world? Originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

I passed out from college in June 2019, and start my corporate journey in Nov 2019. For almost 3 months, I was almost unaware of what’s going on around me and after few months I came to know about all these things.

I personally notice some important things in these umpteenth months. Here, below is given some important points:

1. Politics Inside the Corporate

In the starting when joined a company it was like I got a new friend circle, a friend who is loyal to me including polite nature. But slowly I came to know that maybe they are spending their time with me but inside they are finding me their competitor and that gave me a shock. I became less talkative with them.

This was the first lesson for me, that In actuality people surrounding you don’t treat you as a part of their personal life. So it’s wasting a time to finding them in this way.

2. No Shortcut to Get into The Top Position

From the day of joining, we always wonder about the hierarchy in our industry. We raise many questions about the promotions plan, salary hike, required things for promotion, etc. But parallelly you need to understand there is no particular shortcut way to get the top position.

You have to go step by step; you can decrease the time limit by showing your extraordinary performance or ability to learn new skills which stand out from the crowd. I must say your skillsets play an important role in achieving good in the corporate world.

3. Healthy Relation with Team Leads

Being an employee in an entry-level position, you should have a good relationship with the people who are at the top positions on your projects or in the same team. This doesn’t only make you more comfortable incorporate but also you will understand all the basic terminologies which you should know being a part of any organization. Through this, you will more active & have a definite goal for getting something good in the future.

4. Good Network with Other Corporate Folks

Try to socialize with others, social sites play a very important role in today’s corporate world, especially LinkedIn.

Your networking helps you to know more about people in the same position in different industries. If in the future, you make a plan for a job switch then you will find this network very useful. You will easily get info like

“how much hike you will get”,

“how many rounds will be there”,

“What kind of preparation need to be done before the interview”, etc.

So, I would suggest don’t feel shy to make a good network on social sites.

5. Adopt Something Creative Hobby

“Finding happiness in small things”

Your happiness is more important than your corporate life, if you aren’t happy while doing any sort of work then there is no use in doing that job. You must adopt a hobby which you can do when you have hushed up the moment while doing work. Through this, you will make happy yourself and your mind will divert from your regular hectic schedule.

If you’re unable to find it then anxiety will create more problems for you. There are many activities going on within every corporate, so don’t shy to participate there, feel free to go there and indulge yourself in that environment.

6. Don’t Be So Conservative

Being a part of a super religious family, or conservative society, sometimes a person hard to accept the diversity around them. As the new corporate world more focussing on diversity and giving equal representation to each & every section of society, so somewhere or the other you have to face this diversity in the corporate world.

Either the people from a different faith, different caste, different color or different sexual orientation. There you can’t show your resistance towards this new era and you have to work with them by accepting this diverse culture.

7. Personality or Dressing Sense

As of now, work from home is going on. But apart from this WFH, the fundamental rule of the corporate world is your personality, your dressing sense, your behavior, you’re talking sense, etc.

Many of the industries already have their own dressing code for particular days, and majority of industry allows them to wear formal dress plus casual t-shirts for one or two days. As much as your skillsets important for your company, your personality enhancement is also the main concern for them and you should have to work on it consistently.

Contributed by Saddam Qureshi, Software Engineer at Accenture India (2020-present)