Remember in grade school when they had those character traits you always want to live up to? Things like responsibility, teamwork, respect, and etc. I mean, before we had those “learning skills”, these were the things little kids were given ribbons or little certificates for. You were extra responsible for handing in your assignment a day before it was due- here’s a ribbon! We’ve been raised on this value of treating people well and taking control of your own actions, but I’m pretty sure we can all list of a number of people we know who would definitely not get a ribbon.
We focus so much in school on grades, on smarts, on coming across as a true scholar, but we all tend to forget that in the real world you need a lot more than being scholarly to succeed. When almost everyone in our generation has a degree you need to stand out. You need to show everyone that, you also know the academic stuff but you have more to offer. You need to become someone that upholds those basic traits all kindergartens learn.
Be respectful- as simple as saying please and thank you sometimes. If you don’t give a supervisor respect, no matter how smart you are you’re probably not staying around for long.
Work well in a team- because in the real world, assignments aren’t always individually marked. Being good at working with people means people will tend to like working with you. I think we can all agree that being liked within a company is a good thing.
Take responsibility- it’s your life, only your choices and actions can shape it. Don’t ever expect things to fall out of the sky at you, but if something does make sure to take it. There’s some saying about how if you don’t do something it’s because you don’t want it deeply enough. Don’t make that excuse, every want you have, even the shallow ones, are important. Go out there and show yourself that you can get what you want. Yeah, bad economy, too competitive, things are just too high up there and totally out of your reach.
Well go find yourself a ladder.