Don’t Allow These 5 Basic Mistakes to Occur in Your Corporate Job
Spot nuanced errors and immediately correct them before they could snowball into bigger ones
I started my corporate career two and a half years ago.
While it’s not been that long compared to many others in the industry, it did teach me a couple of valuable lessons. But, of course, the lessons learned below have been through trial and error, and it’s my sincere hope that you don’t fall into the same tricky situations as me.
Sustaining in the corporate industry is not easy.
It’s a competitive world that forces you to keep up your game always. Coming from college, I struggled to keep my reins in hand and have almost left it a couple of times due to some basic mistakes. You will too. And that’s normal. The only steps you can take are to be more careful and aware of what’s happening around you.
The below points are mainly to save yourself in your job. To prevent pointing fingers at you and to keep/maintain your reputation. Primarily to set expectations with your colleagues.
1. Respond to emails on time
I know this is cliche, but you have no idea how many people forget to do it.
Scenario:
You are working on task A, and your manager emails you some task B. Now, you either shift your focus to start the new process or complete your current work and then move on. But, in all the hurry-burry of a typical workday, you forget to respond to the email, thinking that you will do so after you have finished task B.
Meanwhile, you leave your manager hanging (especially during work-from-home times) on the other side, expecting an immediate response. Because he/she has to respond to somebody else too. Or worse, your colleague/manager is working from another country, and the time difference ruins everything.
While they can ping you to confirm the status, following up every time becomes tedious after a point of time.
Important Tip:
You don’t have to respond with the solution immediately. But you have to respond to inform the person that you have seen the email on time, depending on the priority of your work(if it’s during work time).
A quick, “Hi XXX, I will get back to you on this task by YYY time" would do. This crucial step would set the expectations from your side, and if your colleague has to inform another person of your task status, they can. You can also confirm the task’s deadline and priority, if possible, in the same email.
This leads to my next point.
2. Confirm the deadlines and priority of tasks before starting work
Scenario:
Your lead comes up with another task (say B) when you are already working on task A. Assuming the new job is more important, you immediately switch to do the B one, postponing task A. But actually, A was more critical and urgent than B. The problem? You forgot to confirm the priority before proceeding. Because of this, you get into unnecessary escalations and become part of a blame game.
Tip:
When our higher-ups forget to inform us of the priority or deadlines because of whatever reason, it is our duty then to get them clarified. Because at the end of the day, we would get blamed since our seniors have assigned the task to us. Also, the deliverables would get affected — yeah, I know this is secondary :)
3. Double or triple-check your email recipients
I cannot stress how important this point is enough.
Scenario:
Your work is hectic, and you have to send emails with screenshots/details regarding the completed tasks. Or have to follow up on something.
Two errors can occur now. You either hit reply instead of reply-all (I have done this so many times!) or forget to add the required people in the email. Then a day or two later, the said colleague approaches you for an update.
Only then do you realize your mistake and hope the earth swallows you up. After that, the situation can either be ignored or might end up being a big deal. You never know, and that’s the problem. When multiple higher-ups are involved, this becomes a basic expectation if you’re experienced in your field.
Tip:
I borrowed this tactic from the world-famous writing advice. Leave a gap between your drafting and editing. I know you can’t leave your mail for days, especially when it’s time-sensitive or urgent. But you can draft the mail, take a 2-minute break and come back to check before sending — especially if you’re sending an important mail.
4. Do not allow your colleagues to send the requirements through chat
Not doing this landed one of my friends into a significant soup last year.
Scenario:
You are working on a project with frequent changes. Even though the client will provide the initial requirements documentation(Technical Specification Document — TSD for technical folks) early on, a typical project will generally change later. And these requirements might not get updated in the file.
Now, when your colleague messages you the changes or, worse, communicates it through word of mouth, you start implementing it immediately. You forget to ask for a change in the documentation since this is an everyday scenario. Days later, your manager comes and questions your changes and asks for the “proof.” Somehow the person has miscommunicated matters to you and does not want to own his/her mistake. What do you do? You fall into a soup.
Tip:
Even if you have a good relationship with your colleague/client, don’t do this. If you can’t change their medium of sending requirements, make sure to have screenshots of the same or send them an email saying, “As discussed…”.
This is you saving your a*s for the future. While this is sad, you cannot deny that corporate culture is competitive. Everyone’s first instinct will be to save themselves, and doing this will eliminate a world of future pain for you.
5. Maintain an excel sheet for your work
Scenario:
You’re working on multiple projects at a time (say A, B, and C). Keeping up with the status of tasks in each of those projects become complicated, especially when the quantity of work in them is different.
For example, in A, you have to put a maximum number of hours, and for C, you only get minimal work, about 2 to 3 hours a week. You might forget or be confused about what was done last in C when your manager suddenly asks about the status. The excel sheet will come to your help!
Another huge advantage is that you can keep a better track of projects and tasks for your reference and work on projects with a clear mind. Moreover, it’ll be helpful to prioritize your tasks for the day too.
Tip:
While it’s challenging to maintain every task you do for the day, I suggest adding all the primary functions. Or at least the point where you left off on things. Allot some time before logging off to save all your screenshots or type in your completed tasks or critical issues to remember. This small action would save you loads of time and confusion later.
A major problem in corporate culture is that you’ll not receive direct feedback from your colleagues most of the time. Unless you ask them directly or work closely with them. I think that’s a problem in any workforce, but still.
Most of us are not mature enough in email etiquette or handling projects (the people operating side) as college graduates. The only times I got to know about my mistakes was when I somehow heard people talking behind my back or when I asked for feedback from my colleagues directly.
Early on, while your colleagues would let you go for your mistakes considering your experience, they wouldn't as you go up the ladder. So it becomes your responsibility to keep an eye out for nuanced errors and immediately correct them before they could snowball into bigger ones.
All the best!
