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You have an MBA and do not have those skills allready? That amazes me.
OP is 24 y/o. All the 'skills' he listed come w/time and experience. None of them are anything that can be jumped into. None of them are 'technical skills' learned from a book or classroom. I think you employer admires you. I would take each item one at a time, decipher it and make it work. Ask for help from your boss and then check them off as you go. Let him know how sincere you are about getting it all figured out in order to be more of an asset than you already are. Get yourself some books and have 'em piled on your desk so he/she knows you are serious about improving on his suggestions.
Koale
I just graduated from college last year and am working in my first professional job for a very large highly regarded organization. But I am failing!
In College I was basically a 4.0 student and went through my undergraduate program in 3 years and then moved on to an MBA Program which I also excelled at. I worked for three different organizations as an intern while I was in school but these jobs were solitary in nature because I spent the entire time doing research. I could go the entire day without talking to anyone.
Now I am in my first professional full time position, as an Operations Analyst, and they are extremely happy about my technical skills, the long hours I am putting in and the high quality work products I produce. But I am on performance warning. My boss says I have poor soft skills and do not understand the office politics that need to be played to get things done. I don't understand it. My folks told me that if I worked hard and showed my technical skills to my bosses I would prosper in my career.
What is up with all this talk about soft skills and office politics? Isn't hard work enough?
Jason, a 24 year old recent graduate of the University of Minnesot MBA Program in my first professional job
He is implying that you are a "social misfit". Some "nerds" should just be given a pile of work and left in the basement because they don't have the appropriate skills to be seen out in public.
OP is 24 y/o. All the 'skills' he listed come w/time and experience. None of them are anything that can be jumped into. None of them are 'technical skills' learned from a book or classroom. I think you employer admires you. I would take each item one at a time, decipher it and make it work. Ask for help from your boss and then check them off as you go. Let him know how sincere you are about getting it all figured out in order to be more of an asset than you already are. Get yourself some books and have 'em piled on your desk so he/she knows you are serious about improving on his suggestions.
Koale
Good point. I think this is the best thing for you under the circumstance
Honestly it looks like that list came right out of some training materials. No one really talks like that. "Understand power and influence in corporate America". Give me a break. I wonder if the OP really has these issues or his boss just got lazy and starting clicking things on some HR software.
OP is 24 y/o. All the 'skills' he listed come w/time and experience. None of them are anything that can be jumped into. None of them are 'technical skills' learned from a book or classroom. I think you employer admires you. I would take each item one at a time, decipher it and make it work. Ask for help from your boss and then check them off as you go. Let him know how sincere you are about getting it all figured out in order to be more of an asset than you already are. Get yourself some books and have 'em piled on your desk so he/she knows you are serious about improving on his suggestions.
Koale
Exactly.
As for the office politics part, I will say this: It sounds like you are at a big company. Most large companies have lots of groups and "managers" and moving pieces, but there will be no authority figure. By authority figure, I mean a person who can actually tell someone else what to do and has the authority to fire. Large companies are very passive agressive this way. Thus, to get things done, you have to cajole and flatter or be stern, all as the situation demands it. Learn to tell the difference between actual authority figures and people who wield false authority. A false authority person might be an administrative type who got his or her own office simply for being there the longest and then claims an unofficial leader title. Learn to spot these people. You can navigate around them when they try to prevent you from getting what you need. You also need to identify the "helper" type. These are the friendly people who live to help others. Try to become genuine friends with them and you will have a friend and someone who can open doors for you.
Also, as much as you enjoy just doing your work, you still have to go talk to your co-workers and joke about things you probably don't care about. If you try, you can make it fun. If you don't do this, you get labeled as someone who isn't a team player or is a loner, both of which are promotion killers. Your co-workers are probably really lazy and unmotivated. This is extremely common in corporate America, especially in places where people get jobs through nepotism. This is something that may shock you as a 24 year old high achiever. It is shocking to someone like you that others simply don't care and feel entitled to a paycheck. Sometimes you will need to turn off you "work" switch and just be one of them for a while. This is difficult to do, but it is necessary unfortunately.
As for your boss, ask him for advice and show him that you are trying to improve. Some of his points seem like they may be fair and others sound a bit dicey, but he does have the power to write your performance reviews. If you improve and he sees it, then it can have the effect of erasing the previous negative review. Don't assume your boss sees your improvement. He honestly does seem a little dense. Anytime you make any improvement, make sure he knows about it in your "advice" conversations.
Make allies at work who will vouch for you too. Don't let this one person be the sole judge of how good you are. If you stay in the cubicle and don't come out, then you are giving this boss too much power over you. If you get an assignment from one of the other bosses, try to ask for feedback when it is done. You are still young enough that you can use feedback and advice as a way of getting to know the top dogs.
Also, make sure you aren't a doormat. Be firm but friendly when you see something done to you that isn't fair. Office politics involves the older workers treating the younger ones as incompetent children in order to justify keeping the older worker despite their lower output! Be on guard against that, but be forwarned that the older plodders like to fight back when they get called on something.
EDIT: Also, I do agree with one of the other posters that your boss seems to like your potential. If you can nail the technical stuff, it sounds like your job is secure. Work on the other things and you can improve past some of the people who may have those skills but don't understand the technical side.
Last edited by TheEconomist; 01-31-2011 at 08:10 PM..
You ever wonder if this forum only consists of a few people with several different user names?
Some member here like " littlevis" I felt that he didn't understand my post very well , and the second one" soon2Bnsurprise" is think that I was angry or ranted lol !!
In fact, No Thing of this, I was so normal !!
And I wonder from where in my post they guess that ?!
I was surprised of that posts method.
But I guess maybe the structure of the sentences in my post had many mistakes and become unclear to make them feel that.
IN addition,I hoped that I read a constructive criticism on my post and told me what's the strange ?!
the structure of sentences in the expression or my personal opinion " if they were understand my post very well because it's positive " or because it was long at the beginning because I had some mistake that led the sentences in my post to be repeated but at the beginning but, I repaired it when I realized it after that!
I did not find any thing of the " strange"
I think the strange is to tell people that they had a strange post without tell them what's the strange ? what's wrong. Be positive critic, Please .
I know , Although I tried to make it appear clearly but, unlucky maybe,still have many mistakes especially,in the structure of the sentences .
Therefor, you see it a long and boring because, you did not understand it very well as I want .
If u can focus and try to understand it you will find it useful not "nothing" But this is your opinion at the end and I respect it.
My regards
Your sentance structure and use of words is unusual to say the least. That makes it hard to understand just what you are saying.
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