If you’ve read my blog post about my job hunting adventure, you already know I’m a newly grad surfing through offers, testing the market and refuse to fake my way to get by. Here’s the latest story from that adventure.
I've been working this job for a little more than 1 month and I am fired today. Sitting in the hotel room in China, where I had my “training”, I’m writing this blog post. I’m going to tell you how I take the news and what I’ve learned from it.
Well, first, you gotta know what the job was about. It's basically in the sourcing business. Selling stuff made in Asia to Western market. I gotta deal with people from China, USA, and of course, Vietnam. Details of the job are not relevant so let's move on.
So why was I “let go”? I would not answer you that question, I would tell you what I learned from this experience.
Follow your gut. It’s one of the most irrational ways of living but trust me, it serves you peace. It doesn’t have to be the right way. There’s no right thing anyway. People may tell you there are but they should be honest to themselves, how much do they know? You are the one who decides and most of the times facts don’t present, rationality can’t perform, we ought to call for our gut. Now it’s my decision. I owe it to myself to make it work. Instead of arguing with yourself again and again about which is the best way and properly never arriving at the conclusion, you might as well just choose what feels best. What needs to happen will happen.
Keep your mouth shut if you need the job, if not, well, you know what to do. I was trained as a debater. I’m argumentative naturally. That would not do good in the corporate world, wouldn’t it? I’m trying to curb my enthusiasm and tame my temper and of course, think strategically before open my mouth. I can do it if I decide that’s the way to go. However, I refuse to dumb down my thinking. I can dumb down my saying but never my thinking. I deserve the right to think and judge base on the facts I observe. What’s going on in my head needs not to be said but sometimes they accumulate to the point where the word vomit happens. So the lesson for people who can’t shut up is not shutting up but to “vomit” strategically. I did not. So then I lost my job. However, there was more to the story, I could have tapped my mouth, swallowed the vomit. I did not this time because of lesson one above.
Plan your exit. This is what I’ve learned from my ex-boss and also mentor. The moment you land on a job, you plan for the next job simply because nothing lasts forever (people say love does but I doubt it). The benefits from this are pretty straightforward. One, you feel good. Failure and rejection and over the phone lay off don’t bring you down. I don’t even need ice cream or chocolate this time (if you read my previous blog post, you’ll know why, link here by the way). I graciously accept the reality and move on. Two, you don’t hold grudge. This is hard, trust me. Only when you fully embrace the first benefit will this one come. Oh, one side note, people who say they don’t hold grudge are people who do. People who truly hold a spotless mind don’t even know what grudge is.
Three, you leave the room with grace. This comes after you fully embrace the second benefit which comes after the first one (see? It’s a process). One more thing I’ve learned from my ex-boss or mentor is that the most importance is how you leave a job. Everything else is secondary to that. People have very bad memory. They won’t remember how well you perform, how nice you are to them while still in the team, or even how fine you assist their job. They simply (and conveniently) remember your very last words or behaviors or emails. Anything you do in the very last moment defines your whole existence in their mind. You could not care less. I could not care less. These people will properly have nothing to do with my life in the future or I hope so. Nevertheless, you still want to embrace the third benefit because life is complicated. You may bump into them sometimes later without you wanting it or not but most importantly, you want to leave a legacy behind. Why? For what? I don’t know. I guess I believe in karma. Good legacy, good karma. Plus, I stand a higher moral ground and become a better person. That to me is the ultimate goal of life, hence, the ultimate goal of working (Working is just to earn money to get by? If you think so, you seriously need some soul-searching).
Understand cultures and contexts. Oh well, too much of a platitude? I think so too but sometimes you have to repeat something again and again because people just don’t get it (or don’t want or need to get it). Well, how to say this? I certainly don’t get all the cultures, especially in business context and for sure, no one does. People are complicated and in fact, they have the tendency to complicate things even more. So there you go, a mess to figure out (but an interesting fun mess). I won’t tell you how to figure it out because honestly I don’t know how. Besides, there is a ton of intercultural communication books out there already, grab one if you may. I’ll tell you just one tip though. Keep your mind open and never give conclusion just yet. Culture plays a very important role and it’s best to always include it in the equation before arriving at the solution. By the way, I hate dealing with culture. Can people just be simple and straightforward like I am? I spend too much time trying to understand culture and non-verbal cues, I don’t really have any interest left to enjoy the others’ company.
So that’s it. I’m checking out and back to be a freelancer again. Life is (still) great!
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