The myth of ‘Us vs. Them’

The point I’m trying to make is that the concept of an “Us vs. Them” is becoming increasingly outdated – not just from a global job market perspective, but from a career perspective as well. As we become more aware of this, we will begin to exchange our services more effectively, and navigate our careers in more dimensions than before – across cultures, social levels, languages, skills and geographical spaces.

However, there are huge risks in making the transition from a conventional job mindset to a more open, radical global job mindset. This could mean shifting from one culture to another, changing the way we communicate, adapting our products or services, and so on. But it is inevitable – the world is becoming increasingly advanced, and it requires a lot of expertise, collaboration and innovation to get there. But it can only do so if the solutions are applied in its proper context.

I’ll try to illustrate this from my own work experience.

Absorbing culture in the workplace

In October 2001, I got a job as an undergraduate research assistant at the University of Kansas’ technology research arm, and they got me programming Java interfaces for a NASA-funded space project. I was a newbie, but they made sure I stuck to the best practices and I learnt a ton from that. It was partly the culture, process, and project opportunity that I absorbed from the job. I took this with me to my next job after I graduated and returned home to Malaysia, after having no luck finding a job in the US at the height of the dot-com bust.

Cultural differences can create opportunities, and take them away

It was unfortunate that my new Malaysian job resembled primordial soup in comparison with the NASA project, with very primitive software practices, spaghetti code and other monstrosities (a work practice difference). It was also my first job in a completely new culture as almost all of my colleagues spoke in fluent Chinese rather than English (a language/cultural difference). This caused considerable tension that I was mostly assigned to projects where I worked by myself – but this proved to be somewhat profitable as I was capable of solely implementing entire systems from the database to the interface, due to expertise I gained from my previous work experience.

I left after 2.5 years, after realizing there was a corporate ceiling above me. The experience I gained developing bespoke, well-designed web applications was well-received by the next company who hired me, which was more diverse in their staffing. This was also reflected in their products, as cultural compatibility was less of a concern, allowing them to handpick developers that were truly proficient in their technical trade. Thus, the company culture mostly revolved around technology itself, and it was a very positive atmosphere to work in. This was an example of cultural diversity resulting in a positive work culture.

At this point, I was experiencing how culture made a difference to my opportunities and work perspectives in the two different companies, but it was only in my next job that I felt I needed to seek a better cultural fit in my career progression.

Seeking cultural fit for career reasons

Due to an unfortunate legal battle in the “diverse” company, it downsized and I joined a multinational telecoms company for my next job. It was here that I took part in projects that spanned multiple countries like the UK, France, Netherlands, Malaysia, India and Singapore – becoming sensitive to how damaging misconceptions about another person’s culture can be. I was also increasingly frustrated and confused when I found it hard to relate more Western ideas about innovation and design to my Malaysian colleagues. And as more people misunderstood me, I felt increasingly out-of-place and isolated.

Leaving my home country of Malaysia and coming to London to pursue a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction was an attempt to find a “career common ground” – and this is the point I want to stress: I believe that the boundaries that used to mark “Us vs. Them” are dissolving because job seekers everywhere are becoming more specific about their career goals, and because of this they may journey much farther out of their comfort zones (culture, family, language, etc.) to find a right match. It may not necessarily lead one to move from one country/state to another, but the movement of employees seeking “cultural fit” in their careers is already happening.

Some of us are taught to accept whatever opportunities that are presented to us, and not to be overly idealistic about our goals. But I believe that it’s in everyone’s hearts to serve in the areas they fit in best. I feel that as we move deeper into the 21st century, there will be an increase of savvy job seekers who are willing to sacrifice their previous experiences for new ones – and in so doing create new movements in job industries everywhere.

I’m one of those weird people who still think crazy things are possible, which is probably why my boss hired me. Thankfully, it’s not one of those startups that have no clue how they’re going to make money – but it’s no Google… well, not yet anyway.

And that’s the thing – you go in with a hunch. And you stay with it. Until the point where you have a good feeling that you’re really going to succeed or really going to fail – and everyone in the team makes a decision to push like crazy or run like hell.

In return, you get to experience and contribute towards the success of a company… and sometimes there’s big money involved. If it becomes a failure, you have the real-world experience of how not to run a business – and that’s very valuable experience indeed.

The worst thing that can happen is that you lose your job. And it’s better to lose your job at a place where you’re doing something you love at than at a job where you wish you were dead every morning you wake up and have to go to work. And even when you’re homeless, you don’t die immediately. It’s not like you lose the skills you had when you did have a job. And it’s not like you can’t learn new things.

Playing safe in a career is overrated. It pains me to see some people go through their working life enduring so much agony.

More so, I feel lost about this blog. How can I assume to have any advice about work, when I don’t even have a regular job?

Job responsibilities are like scout badges you don’t get in graduate school

All my working friends have very fixed schedules – I understand, because the corporate world lives between 9 to 5. It’s very different executing work in practice than it seems in books. There is constant pressure for employees to perform and meet deadlines – a whole system depends on this. If I screw up my assignments, no one else bears the pain (except maybe those who have put their faith in me).

By not being a part of this pattern of work makes me feel like I’m no longer a part of who I used to represent – the workplace, practitioners, and employees. It’s as though job responsibility acts as a “qualifier” for status – the more responsibilities you have, the better you look in other people’s books.

There are almost no scout badges in graduate school. Previous working experience does blur that line a bit, but there’s almost no politics. To some people, that sounds utopian. But politics is real and unavoidable, and we don’t cover this in class.

The gap between academia and the workplace

I also find that there’s a wide gap between academia and the workplace. Ideally, we want this gap to be bridged well so that we can put into practice the stuff that’s learnt and researched. But this is not always the case.

Company goals and academic goals are two very different things, even though they do contribute to each other at times. This conflict makes it hard for students to compare between what’s taught and what’s practiced.

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and forums in the field I am interested to pursue my career, but I find I have no credibility whatsoever, because I’m not doing the ‘real’ work. The credibility that academic folks impart onto students are often based on academic work, which aren’t always a true reflection of what happens in industry.

Associations, events, blogs, and message boards

I’ve been getting my share of the user-experience (UX) industry goings on through associations, events, blogs and message boards. Even though London is small in comparison to the US UX industry, folks here use the Internet enough to get attention, plan meetups, and share ideas – which are all good to pick up on.

Sadly, though – I feel that not a lot of companies are into making full use of students or interacting with them, apart from getting them to fill up questionaires and showing off how good their brand is, and of course, to attract top talent.

Not all practioners are like that, of course. Associations have student discounts to encourage membership, and their events don’t discriminate between students or practitioners. But students tend to take the backseat – as though we were meant to view things from the sidelines. There’s no PR, no real discourse and interaction, no synergy.

Maybe it gets better over blogs, twitter, and LinkedIn. I have yet to find out.

Reprise

The reason for this post is because I love the brazencareerist community, and I’ve learnt so much from people I haven’t met, I’m encouraged to keep sharing my side of the story – because it is as much as adventure to me as it is to another person reading it. I believe that despite my being in graduate school, my career and life goals are very much alive and kicking – and that’s what this is really all about.

Thanks for reading, and for coming back.

My first resignation was extremely low-key. I didn’t tell anyone short of one or two people, until the very last day. One person in particular got offended that I didn’t tell her I was leaving. She saw it as indifference, and that she was a nobody to me, although we got along OK at work. I told her that she didn’t get singled out, since I told almost no one about it, but I also apologized for any ill feelings. The rest didn’t care that much.

My second resignation took place in light of a downsizing exercise of the startup company I was working for. Although the company prepared new roles for us at an affiliated company, I wasn’t the only person leaving. But when I told my boss about it, he was concerned and asked me a lot of questions. The others were mostly silent. But everyone understood and supported my transition.

Resignations are about managing relationships

I don’t think I’ve ever burned a bridge before in my life, but I’ve dealt with all sorts of reactions and people change their views as time goes by.

I still have many of my ex-colleagues on facebook and on IM, and we talk occasionally. Most people get over the fact that a job is still a job. It’s not like Bobby running away from home.

This time though, I took more effort to manage my personal and professional relationships about my resignation.

Tell your managers ahead of time

Firstly, the moment I made the decision to leave, I told my line manager and my CEO about it, months ahead in advance. I know this doesn’t play well with everyone, but I’ve always managed the relationships with my line manager and my CEO to be able to do this. I feel it’s only important to take responsibility for the company’s needs and its people. This is because most HR departments are mostly a function of finance.

I was a senior member in the team, so losing me would mean a gap in the leadership and technical lead area. Still, they didn’t counter offer me anything, but I did get friendly support on my decision.

This is what it’s like to manage your own career, which is how it’s like in most companies

You’re expected to make your own choices, and unless a specific culture or policy has been put in place, communicated, and encouraged, it’s a norm for people to make up their minds to just get their work done, go home, come back the next day to do the same thing.

Prioritize your relationships accordingly

Secondly, the sequence of which I informed people of my resignation was based on my relationship with them. This depended on their authority, how close I was to the person, and on circumstances. Bosses and managers came first. People who were close to me came next. Next were people who worked with me on a project that had a stake in my work. After that came the rest of the team, and then the whole world (which is why I’m writing now).

Some say it’s politics. Some say it’s being nice. I just think it’s important.

Invest in people

I didn’t do this for my first job because I was a noob, but relationships will become more important than a resumes as years pass. Even LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye says this.

Thirdly, I told people why I was leaving. I’ve been accepted to pursue a Masters in HCI in the UK. There are many good reasons for me to do this, so when people asked, I told them. This was okay because I wasn’t going to a competitor firm, and it made sense.

People want the comfort of understanding that their decisions are sound

Almost everyone I spoke to understood my conviction and supported my decision to leave. They also clarified their own positions and didn’t feel threatened by my departure.

No employee should be afraid to leave a job for the right reasons. If it’s well-managed, it can be beneficial and amicable. You just need the right perspective and some effort.

Resources:

• How to be a star performer: 4 things to get good at

• Office politics is about being nice

• 6 Signs You Don’t Care about Workers
• How to quit a job: 5 steps and 2 warnings

• 9 tips for quitting a job gracefully

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I don’t often decline a request for aid, but this has been a common theme with me – I’m the go-to guy for fixing computers. You know the deal.

Recognize if you’re the type who does favors

It starts out when you have a recognizable trait that no one else seems to have. Some cook better than others. Some do the chores better. I just happen to know more about computers than most people.

That’s when everyone and their uncle will want you to come over and cook them dinner, fix their PC, help out with the lawn, and on and on.

That’s all great the first few times… after all, most people start out that way from an interest. Then after the 1000th time, it starts to get old. It takes 2 hours to install Microsoft Office, 3 hours to debug an IP address conflict, or set up an email account. What seems to take minutes can take hours, especially when there’s a tendency for mom to open an email attachment that’s actually a malicious Trojan.

Do it too often, and it won’t get you anywhere

I have a brother-in-law who just graduated with a culinary arts diploma. Everyone and his uncle wants him to cook meals after meals. And now he doesn’t want to cook anymore. He’s obliged to. It doesn’t get him anywhere in life.

I’m probably thinking it doesn’t happen to people who have jobs or careers that are completely undomestic – offshore petroleum engineer, sewage operations manager, mayor, president, pilot, formula one race driver.

But for the rest of us, we’re be cajoled into cooking, fixing PCs, doing the accounts, fixing pipes, mowing the lawn… and the payoff isn’t very rewarding, simply because it’s not part of a career. It’s like a reset button because you’re constantly being reminded that you’re only valuable to most people as a tax accountant, a tech support guy, an assistant chef…

Play it to your advantage, not the other way around

If you have an unmistakable trait that everyone recognizes in the office, you need to be aware of how favors and paying it forward can be a benefit as well as a deterent to you. I’ve personally experienced both the positive and negative aspects of it.

In my first job, I set up the company’s first source control system, and initiated changes that slowly took place within the company, but nobody paid much attention. Everyone else was so busy with their work to realize they were working 10 times harder than they should. But the company rewards them for hard work, not for shortcuts that get the same work done faster.

In another job I took, everyone was pretty much knew how to look after themselves, and we would help each and other out if there was a lack somewhere. We did it because it was teamwork, not because nobody wanted to do the job. If there was something repetitive, we would work to minimize it, by documenting or simplifying or ensuring things were understood.

Solution: Speak up, know what you want in life

Most people won’t reward you much for the little things because it seems like such a small thing, it’s so common sense that anyone can do it except no one wants to. So, sometimes the job gets pushed around until finally someone does it, and that person ends up with a ‘permanent’ role. The rest get to sit back and do the work they need to do to get ahead, and everything seems to happen like clockwork.

If you’re the guy who constantly gets the simple jobs, you need to speak out. Getting the job done is important, but make sure you’re heard, and if it’s not difficult for everyone to play a part, then call for a reassessment of roles. Make sure you’re being rewarded for your extra effort, and if not, you’ll need to assess your situation to see if this is working out for you or not. The message has to get out, and it has to make sense to everyone. People get trapped in tunnel vision all the time.

If you don’t want your career to be full of fixing small things and doing small jobs, then quit. Spread the work out, do a work rotation or let someone else do that job – people will learn to adapt with outsourcing, hiring temps and so on. If it’s necessary work, it’ll get done somehow – everyone just needs to know what needs to be done and have a spirit of teamwork.

I’ll still fix my parents PC because I love them, and the amount they’ve invested into my life can’t quite compare to the little help I do with their computers. But that’s not the same as doing favors all the time in the office and not getting anything back for it.

Resources:

• Five Things to Change To Save Yourself From Burnout
• Beyond FoA: What’s Fair When Granting Favors to Friends and Family? (read the comments section)
• Five Common Blindspots of Young Workers

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I think that in the West, this might seem like a relational nightmare. This is the equivalent of big family Thanksgiving dinner three days in a row. But somehow, it sort of works out in the East. At least, that’s how it has been for many families here.

Culture has a big part to play. Everyone knows the rules. Some fit in really well. Some just stay by the sidelines. Some are there to make sure everyone gets along. In a social game where there are different players, everyone needs to know the rules. Anyone who doesn’t seem to fit in won’t get included, or force may be applied.

I feel it’s the same in any social setting. Take for example corporate culture. There’s obvious work to be done. There are departments that seem to take on certain forms, which helps us decide how employees relate to them. There are managers, who each have their own personalities. Communicating well with them requires specific skills and opportunities.

Culture is hard to change, and most people learn to adjust and get along instead of rocking the boat. But the good news is that they get to go home at the end of the day.

If I had a choice, there would be certain things I would change about culture, but that would be to suit my selfish needs. Learning to adapt is an entirely different thing altogether, and a more appropriate skill to have, especially when things need to change.

The three options I give myself involve self-initiated productivity, communication and exiting.

Self-initiated productivity is the most active thing I can do as an individual that is healthy and doesn’t require a lot of convincing or persuading. In a way, it’s about doing the work you think needs to get done in your own way, and making sure it fits into the business. It can shape the way you perceive a business, and the way a company perceives you and the work.

Communication is about expressing my opinions, that may or may not change the way people think or work. It’s often subtle, but necessary. Communication is about expressing how the work I do impacts the business, and how effective I see this work plays a part in everything. Sometimes communication is all it takes to shape a healthy culture. Sometimes, it does nothing. But it’s necessary, so that people are aware to make the appropriate decisions.

Finally, exiting happens when there’s no room left to grow, or that the direction you want to move to is going against the grain, or that it may just be time to let someone else take your spot. Whatever the reason, people come and go all the time in the corporate world. But it’s often beneficial for exits to take place, even though it may sound like a sad ending in a story. Exits can shape cultures too. People learn to adapt.

My experience this time round with my family hasn’t changed much over the last few decades. Unlike companies, this particular group of people will never change. The players won’t leave, the rules won’t change, but we’ll all have different stories growing up and that’s just how things will be. The only difference is that there’s a longer time-out, instead of the day’s end where people pack up and go home.

It’s during this long time-out that we go back to playing the game of life, in ways we think it ought to be played, according to our own rules.

Meetings waste time, all the time

The reason why people attend meetings is because they’re obliged to, not because they’re keen to solve a problem. People adapt in social environments to get things done, and they can easily learn to do without meetings to get things done. So there’s no real reason why meetings should save anyone’s time, apart from really important news that someone wants to tell everyone – but what are emails for? It only seems to benefit those who set up meetings (for convenience), not to those who attend.

Things can’t get done during meetings

Only two things happen during meetings – talking and listening. Anyone caught doing anything else isn’t considered to be “part” of the meeting. Hence, since talking and listening isn’t really achieving anything, nothing gets done during that time. If I want to get something done, I speak directly with the people involved, get to the point about what I need, and track the tasks remotely. Constant meetings are a sign that people don’t understand how work gets done best, and it doesn’t appreciate the diverse ways in which people prefer to work. They’re also a sign of inadequate preparation, poor problem solving, and less-than-ideal working relationships – a few important factors required to get things done.

Meetings encourage pacifism

Studies have shown that people are willing to speak out more in smaller groups than larger ones. This is because channels of communication are multiplied with each new member in the group, which makes things more complicated and time-consuming. Hence, most people resort to silence. After awhile, it becomes a norm, and then a habit. This really destroys creative problem solving, and is the reason why I break down my groups into groups of three during brainstorming sessions.

Meetings are really social gatherings

People gather socially when they want to interact with each other on a group or personal level. This is why it’s easy to find small pockets of whispering, or a burst of laughter from a good joke. But you don’t need meetings to make that happen. It just happens anyway. This is another reason why you don’t need meetings, unless what you really want is a social gathering – then what you really ought to do is call it a social gathering, and manage the work in another way. Meetings are a sign of poor work-life balance. Better to have work done during work-time, and party after that.

Meetings are a poor way to lead

Good bosses understand people, and deal with them as individuals, not as large groups. Groups and teams only make a difference when individuals leverage on each other’s strengths, and not just the sum of common resources. Good managers deal with team members individually better than they do in groups, encouraging them to interact at peer level and create active discourse rather than a passive consensus.

References:

• Be a Good Boss
• Bored Meetings
• Stop the Meeting, I Want to Get Off!: How to Manage Your Team
• Kill meetings to get more done

I think that every job has its own work cycles, and it’s good to observe how these cycles come and go. At the same time, anyone who tells you that it’s the same all year round is bogus. Even worse advice is to take it as it comes – you can get seriously burned out.

As human beings, we’re experts at creating comfort zones for ourselves. We start to gravitate toward comfort zones when we don’t feel a real purpose in our work. This creates an artificial rift against what we say we’re doing.

One example is employees surfing Facebook during work. Given the right working environment, people wouldn’t be glued to their Facebook accounts so much. We tell ourselves that we ought to be doing something more productive, but even that is artificial when we don’t feel that what we’re doing is purposeful.

One solution is to carefully and mindfully plan out what you want to achieve from the job, say – within a year, a quarter, or whatever. Observe the busy-free cycles and take note of those who gravitate toward comfort zone areas. Make a decision how you want to carry yourself in the workplace, and avoid conforming to the status quo just because everyone is.

This makes it easier for you to perform when it matters, and relax when things cool down. It’s also a good way to show that you can perform under pressure, and are mature enough to take advantage of the breaks.

They teach these kinds of things in the project management industry, but it does make a lot of sense no matter what type of job.

That’s all fine – we all need to reduce clutter in how we deal with things. Culture is good to get everyone on the same page, and it’s fun when foreigners come so we can tell them nice stories.

The thing is – culture gets a lot more complicated in business. I think there’s a lot of battle going on about which culture fits best for work. There’s West vs. East, Top vs. Bottom, Boy vs. Girl, Rich vs. Poor, Profit vs. Purpose – all kinds of stuff.

I think the best way to deal with this is to fit in, or leave – and if you’re serving as an employer, you should watch out for these things the minute you start work at the company. The reason is because no one’s looking out for you, and the best person to know if you fit in is yourself.

There’s no point trying to change organizational behavior, UNLESS YOU’RE BEING PAID TO DO IT. The same reasons why people continue to operate under culture even though it doesn’t do good business is because it keeps things manageable. So, don’t bother changing the corporate culture. Change yourself instead, or move out.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with leaving a company, especially if you know darn well what you’re doing. If you don’t know what you’re doing, well … that’s a different story.

In this day and age, no one will ask you why you’ve been jumping companies like breeding rabbits – because everyone knows it’s a tough world out there and companies operate so differently these days with so many factors involved.

The average job seeker has more complex demands than 10 years ago, which is why we jump companies on an average of 2.5 years.

If you’ve been doing just that, THAT’S OK. You don’t have to feel bad. You know what you want in life – you know what skills you can bring onto the table – go for it. Live your life.

My only premise is that you have a powerful story to tell. One that provides meaning and purpose to explain the kind of person you are and the kind of job that matches your very being.