Personal Career Advice: Take Responsibility
Once upon a time, I was young. I was energetic and I was excited. I was named “crack coder.” I was named “sharp coder.” Perhaps, that is where the name “Mindcracker” came into the picture. At the age of 24, I was a published author. My first book was “A Programmer's Guide to ADO.NET with C#” published by Apress. For the next 3 years, I authored a few more books.
Not bad! Huh?
You must be wondering why I am telling you my story.
Well, this is not the only part. I also made several mistakes. However, I did learn from my mistakes and I want to mention them so that you can take something from my mistakes. Smart people learn from others' mistakes.
One bit of advice I can give you from my experience is, take responsibility. When a task is assigned to you, you need to take full responsibility. You need to give 110%. Do not give 99%, give 110%. The same can be applied to your work or your personal life.
We always look for excuses. This is how human nature behaves, avoiding any hard work. Here are some common excuses we make often.
- “Ahh … I did not get a hold of the manager.”
- “I was waiting all day for him”
- “ I didn't see him”
- “I sent you the email. You did not reply to me”
Do you want to be successful? Simple rule! Accept responsibilities.
If you are waiting on somebody to get your task finished and you can't get a hold of a guy from 9-5 hours, call him after 8 PM. Can't reach by email? Call his cell phone. Call him every hour. Send 2-3 emails. Just make sure you get some kind of response from that person.
Get the work done. Get the work done.
At the end of the day, all that matters is the work being completed! This is what a manager cares about. This is what a client cares about. If you have worked hard to get that work completed, you will be noticed. You may not be recognized publicly but trust me, you are being noticed.
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Namaste!