3 tips I wish I knew when I graduated

I remember my graduation day—I had finally finished my degree in journalism, I had friends and family there and there was, of course, a boring, way too long speech before my name was called and I received my sheet of paper. It was a milestone moment!

As great as this moment was, I had moments when I felt this job is for me, this job hates me, I felt like an imposter, I am sooo bored, did I spend 5 years at uni to do this? And boy, some of my colleagues are weird … and this was just in the first few months. The milestone moment was a relief but it wasn’t my new reality.

So here are 3 tips I wish I knew when I graduated.

God works in the small

Having graduated from one of the top journalism schools nationwide, I started work with a lot of grit and gusto. But what I found was that starting out, work was a grind. Rather than the investigative stories I had trained for, I had soft news stories on giant vegetables, wedding anniversaries, and 100th birthdays. It was easy to despise this kind of work.

But looking in the rear view mirror, I learnt that the soft stories provided important training in active listening, questioning, and accuracy (especially when it came to spelling a person’s name correctly). I was surprised by some of the people I met and learnt to laugh.

God was at work in the small and 15 years later, I can see that clearly now.

My colleagues were my weekday “neighbours”

At uni, I had my fair share of hard-to-work with teammates in group assignments. I saw what free-riding was first-hand. But, I knew I could (gladly) say good bye soon.

But, at work, my team mates weren’t class mates but colleagues. I realised I was stuck with my colleagues for as long as I was with my company.

This posed some real challenges (I had some unhinged managers), but also some opportunities where I got the chance to know colleagues beyond the superficial (a few of my ex-colleagues are now one of my closest friends!).

Later, I learnt to lean into Jesus’ language—my colleagues were my neighbours and my workplace was my neighbourhood and that was the catalyst to changing the way I viewed my work.

There were other Christian workers like me

By the time I had settled into work, I had outgrown my church’s youth group, and there weren’t any Christian journalists at my church. As I caught the lift in the office on Monday, it was easy to feel alone and isolated. Sometimes, this was intensified, when I had so many questions about the workplace, such as “Is it okay to be ambitious?”, “What does loving your unhinged boss look like”, “How do I share the gospel with my colleagues without sounding like ‘that’ person?”

When I was a young grad, I wish I had something like Headstart—a Christian network of young workers who would get the challenges I faced because they faced them too. Of course, God had never left me alone, but meeting other Christian workers just like would’ve been a blessing I would’ve been thankful for.