3 Lessons for New Grads Navigating the Workplace

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Brennen Clouse, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

The other day LinkedIn notified me through a flutter of new messages that I had reached my three year anniversary at Microsoft. “Congratulations on your anniversary. I hope you’re doing well!,” read all of the conspicuously warm pre-populated messages from my contacts. Three years have a funny way of flying by. In retrospect, it feels important to recount what I’ve learned — both the good and the bad — so that others might learn from it too.

A first job in the “real world” can feel overwhelming, exciting, and leave you very, very confused. At a large company like Microsoft, my first role out of school gave me valuable perspective on how to navigate a new career. Given I’ve never worked at another large tech company, take my commentary as it may apply to your own circumstance. My lessons will not be applicable to everyone’s situation, but I focus on lessons I found are most helpful, regardless of industry or company.

1. We are all salespeople
Early on in my career, I had this perception that sales people were less strategic than those in other functions. “Just selling the product,” I thought, “That’s easy!” But what I wish someone would have told me is that I better become great at sales because all people, regardless of their role or function, are salespeople.

No matter what you do, if you want to make money (or make the company more money), you have to be good at Sales. Maybe you aren’t on a sales floor, picking up the phone every day, but at almost every moment you are likely selling your ideas, your attitude, or your strategy to coworkers, managers, and teammates. When you’re in a meeting presenting, you are selling the idea to other meeting attendees. At the metaphorical water cooler, you are selling your thoughts and perspectives to co-workers in return for social capital. And 1:1 with your boss, you are selling yourself and the work you’ve accomplished.

There really is no way around being a salesperson. Inherently we are all selling something at all times. Looking back, I would’ve liked someone to knock my naive misconceptions right out of my head.

2. No one is watching out for your success, except for you
It wasn’t until late into my second year at Microsoft that I truly discovered how much I needed to own my career success. It hit me fairly suddenly — that no one else was going to do it for me. Failing to get promoted at the 1.5 year mark into my role, or experiencing a sudden change in manager, may have prompted me to open my eyes about my responsibility for my success.

I think coming out of school we (yes, us millennials) have this illusion that we deserve to have someone watching out for us — a guardian angel of sorts. We think we’ve done so well up until this point, with so many supporters, that it will be exactly the same in our jobs. The truth is, everyone is looking out for their own success. And I don’t mean that to sound like we are all in the hunger games, vying for our own lives, but simply put: everyone is putting him or herself first. I failed to realize that as much as I was thinking about my own career progression, my managers were likely thinking about their own success just as much, if not more. I assumed, incorrectly, that those ahead of me would always be looking out for my best interest, strategizing and planning my next move for me. I was wrong.

I learned that I needed to convince my managers to be bought into the idea of my success. I needed to be the one to raise awareness about my current situation and I needed to be the one to voice where I wanted to be in the next months or years. Shortly after this realization, I went to a training by James Whittaker. He said something along the lines of “no one is thinking about your career as much as you,” meaning that in fact, unless you were talking about your career success, no one else was talking about it either.

3. If you’re bored, try something else
There’s no sense in sticking around a job if you feel bored. Be sure your feeling of boredom isn’t confused for not getting the other things you might want, like the shiny office award or the better salary. This is a bit tacky, but one day I found a, “THIS IS YOUR LIFE” poster, rolled up in an empty office. As most corny stories go, the words jumped out at me, practically screaming into my brain. I’d been in a position for nearly two years: just doing what I was told and not really feeling impactful or validated by my work. The words in the poster suggest that you have one life to live, not worth wasting on something you dislike doing every day. So you have to make the realization that you are bored and you have to be the one to decide to try something different.

It is terrifying to gather the courage to leave a job when you’re bored. Boredom usually means you’re comfortable, and maybe too good at what you do. For example, if you’re the financial modeling wizard of the office, you are likely to get bored if all you’re asked to do every single day is financial modeling. You’ll be bored because you have already mastered the skills it takes to complete the model and you won’t be challenged. Stepping away from your current job isn’t easy. In my case, I was bored with a role because the organization was moving people around, and while I still had work to do, it wasn’t the kind of work I liked. I stayed in that role too long because I was chasing a promotion.

As I reflect back, I wish I would have actively looked for a different role and moved right away, instead of waiting around. While I did get the promotion, I regret feeling less fulfilled by my entire experience at Microsoft, as a result. I spent many days wondering how or why I could be shuffled into a role wherein which no one cared if I was passionate about the work I was doing (lesson 2: no one will really care, unless you do). The reality of large corporations (and maybe small or medium sized ones too) is that there are jobs that you will get stuck in that will make you bored, or stop experiencing opportunities for growth. I recommend you give any role some time, to make you feel uncomfortable, learn, and really test the value it is adding to your career. But if you don’t like it, and you find none of these positive qualities, then be proactive about finding another job and leave. You are in control of your happiness at work and in life, and should always keep that in mind.

Three years may seem like a laughably short time. I work alongside colleagues every day that have been at Microsoft for 20+ years. Compared to what they’ve accomplished, my tenure is really very meager. Graduating college today and entering the workforce is not the same as it was 20 years ago when people stuck to the same job for their entire career. I’ve learned these important lessons about growth in a first of many jobs I will likely have in my career. I am forever grateful to the managers who taught me these valuable lessons and who also put up with my entitled millennial attitude. :) And, I’m grateful to Microsoft for the experience and life it has created for me.

The expectations we create in our minds today are not always met by our first jobs. Microsoft has been a playground of new lessons and obstacles for me; I hope by sharing this with other recent graduates, the playground becomes a little less daunting, and instead an occasion for massive growth.