Think like your colleagues

When an employer looks for an employee, they like to look for those who can 'fit into the organisation'. Or so they like to say. What that may actually mean for them is that they're looking at your personality / personal character, apart from the usual academic background and work experience screening. Of course, a more polite person is usually favoured above one who uses profanity in every sentence as the former is likely to be seen as one who can probably get along with almost everyone in the organisation.

That's usually what job seekers should expect when joining a new organisation - to fit in with the crowd, especially fresh grads. You'd really never know what you're gonna get.

When I first started working 4 years ago, I never had a clue what to expect. Blur as I always was, and still am, I'd just go with the flow of things. As the months passed by, I finally understood that it was very critical to think like my colleagues, especially when some of them were dimwits, enough to drive you nuts. I'm not saying that I was above them, but somehow there was the lack of intelligence, or sometimes common sense, in some of them. It's either that they don't see things the way some of us did, or they were just ignorant f**ls.

When I started working with my present employer, I had to point out to my new HR colleague that whenever she drafts e-mails / announcements, that she must think like the people who were going to read that e-mail / announcement. I know from experience that if you do not think like your colleagues, it's going to be very tough (and annoying when you already have so many other things to do) when they come and ask annoying questions, which incidentally may / may not have been addressed in the original e-mail, and they were too ignorant / lacked common sense to figure it out themselves.

Heck, even when the most detailed instructions are given, inclusive of all possible what-if situations, there will be at least one colleague who would send a reply to enquire about something.

Rule of thumb when working with people, always, ALWAYS think like your colleagues, especially the ones who can't think for themselves.