Listen & Learn

• Bonnie Johnson
• September 27, 2022
• Career Guide Article

Classes, team projects and coursework are invaluable. When you set out on an internship or in your first full-time job, you may be eager to share everything you’ve learned with your new employer. You want to showcase your knowledge and prove your worth. Convincing your employer that they made the right choice in hiring you is at the top of your mind. You want to shout from the rooftops everything you know!

An important part of starting any new job, however, is taking the time to learn about the organization, the business and your teammates. Learn the culture, flow and processes specific to your new employer. No matter your grade point average or years of education, there are many nuances you can only learn on the job.

How do my skills really measure up?

All the knowledge that you built up in class included important hard skills, or technical skills and the ability to perform specific tasks. These are teachable abilities that are easily defined, measured, or quantified. You’ve probably outlined some big personal goals already and you want to get there fast—such as earning money, making the world a better place, or gaining influence.

AgCareers.com asked employers to rank their preferred skills for students and recent graduates; technical knowledge came in last place. What was first? Teamwork.

Beyond the hard skills, your education does not just teach you “what to learn,” but “how to learn,” skills essential for your entire career.

It’s said – and proven – hard skills can get you an interview, but you need soft skills to get the job offer, and then to keep the job!

I often realize that education’s reach is way beyond what they teach in the classroom because it teaches us HOW to learn. These how-to-learn skills, like problem-solving and decision-making, are transferrable to many different situations and environments and are what make us employable. These transferable skills are ESSENTIAL at work, especially when beginning a first job, starting a new career or moving to a different department or business unit. Being a student or recent grad regularly equates to limited work experience. However, you still have transferable skills that allow you to interact effectively with others, a key skill employers are looking for.

This is NOT what they taught me in school.

There’s a popular mantra in recruiting, “Hire for attitude, train for skills.” Many employers will teach new hires technical, product or company-specific skills on the job. While it’s extremely important for you to research the company prior to your first day, please note you won’t – and can’t – know everything about the organization. You’re starting from the outside and need to acclimate to the distinctive qualities of your new employer. It’s impossible to standardize all expectations and methods across the industry because you’ll find differences in every employer based on size, location, customer-base, sector and a load of additional variables.

You might feel overwhelmed, clueless, thinking “I never learned this in school!” Or on the flip side, you may observe practices that you frankly think to yourself, “This is NOT how they taught it in school,” and thus desire to put your two cents in. I encourage you to take a step back to learn more about the organization before sharing your insights, suggestions, corrections or even criticisms. See learning more as continuing the education you began in college.

This leads to one of the most important, if not the most IMPERATIVE soft skill to practice when beginning a new job: active listening. Beyond simply hearing, focus on what the person is saying and not on what you’re going to say next. Don’t interrupt, but do take notes. Those notes prove invaluable when you move to the next step of active listening, which is asking questions.

“Tell me more about…” “Could you fill me in on…” “I’d like to understand….”

Ask questions to understand how the organization works and how and why things are done the way they are. There may be some legit reasons your new employer is not processing something in the same manner school taught you or there are special circumstances you need to be aware of before you put your skills into practice. Strive to understand before you correct or suggest. After you’ve asked questions, take a few days to learn more, process and understand. Then you can slowly start sharing your suggestions positively, and if your boss or employer is doing things right, they WILL ask for your feedback. When they ask is the time to really show them what you know!

“What do you think about….” “I have an idea…” “Have you considered…”

So, the answer is, no, you don’t know it all, and sorry to say, but you never will. There is no shame in that; such is the beauty and benefit of lifelong learning. Keep listening and asking questions to prove to your employer that they made the perfect choice in hiring you! 

Learn more about AgCareers.com today!