This is how I rose from an assistant to the company’s vice president (reposted)

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In 2004, the technology company under the group was restructured; the executive committee spoke with me and decided to assign me as the vice president of that technology company, in charge of the company’s operations and personnel matters. As a result, the work saw a ridiculous increase in content. At that time, the company hired a large number of new graduates, including recent undergraduates and postgraduates. The average age is 25. That new assistant is a girl I personally hired after multiple interviews. Graduated from a prestigious university with a bachelor’s degree, intelligent and lively in personality. Privately, I have to admit that one of the main reasons I hired her was, apart from her excellent performance in college, her beautiful handwriting. Not many girls can write beautifully, especially someone like her – who appears so feminine with her long hair – yet her handwriting is bold and elegant, which makes me feel much better about her. Teach hand in hand. From work processes to interacting with people. She learns fast too. Many tasks can be done right away once you’re taught how to do them. Became proficient right away. I also get along quite well with my colleagues. I began to gradually assign her some coordination tasks, letting her try to handle the business connections and communication between different departments as well as between various branches. Mistakes start to occur frequently. She was very nervous and came to talk to me. I told her: It’s okay if it’s wrong; just go ahead and do it according to your own ideas. If you run into a problem, come ask me; I’ll tell you what to do. Still wrong. She came to see me again, and this time the conversation was more in-depth. Her confusion was about why she was always asked to do these trivial tasks I asked her at the time: What does a non-trivial job mean? She couldn’t answer; after thinking for a long time, she told me, \"I always feel that my abilities go beyond just these things – I’m capable of doing some more important things as well.\" That conversation lasted 1 hour. I know she didn’t really pay much attention to what I said. Later I said, finish the work at hand first and avoid making basic mistakes. Then proceed step by step. Half a year later, she came to see me and proposed to resign for the first time. I canceled the appointment to talk to her about quitting. When asked about the reason for her resignation, she told me bluntly: She had done well in her four years of undergraduate studies, and though she found a job after graduation, she was forced to deal with trivial tasks every day. There is no sense of achievement. I asked her again: Of all your current jobs, which one do you think is the least meaningful and the most wasteful of your time and energy? She replied to me right away: I’ll help you attach the invoice, then process the reimbursement, go through the procedures at the finance department, and bring back the cash for you. I asked her with a smile, \"It’s been half a year since you’ve helped me fill out the invoices for reimbursement, right?\" What conclusions have you drawn from this incident? She was stunned for a while before answering me: Posting an invoice is just that – posting an invoice. As long as there are no errors in the financial records, that’s enough, right? What information could there be? I’ll tell you about what I did back then: in 1998, I was transferred from the finance department to the general manager’s office to work as an assistant to the general manager. One of the tasks is to do what you are doing now, that is, help the general manager process all his invoices. Originally, this job was just as you mentioned earlier: stick the invoices in place and complete the financial procedures, and that’s it. In fact, an invoice is a type of data record that documents the expenses related to the general manager and the overall operations of the company. What seems like a bunch of meaningless data actually relates to various aspects of the company’s operations and management. So I created a table to record all the expenses reimbursed by the general managers through me, detailing them by time, amount, place of expenditure, contact person, phone number, and so on. My initial purpose in creating this table was quite simple: I wanted to have a record of financial matters, so that if my supervisor asked me questions, I would have accurate data to provide them. Through such statistical analysis, I gradually identified certain patterns in the way senior managers conduct business activities – for example, what types of business activities are carried out in what kinds of settings, and what is the approximate budget allocated for them ； The regular and irregular approaches of the general manager to public relations. Wait, wait, wait. When my supervisor realizes that I handle the tasks he assigns to me in a proper manner. There is some information that he didn’t tell me at all, and I’m still able to handle it promptly and accurately. He asked me why, and I told him my working methods and sources of information. Gradually, based on this positive accumulation, he was entrusted with more and more important tasks. Gradually, a sense of trust and understanding developed between us. When I was promoted, he said I was the best assistant he had ever had. After saying all this, I looked at the girl; she stared at me blankly. I told her straight away: I think your biggest problem is that you aren’t putting in any effort. In tasks that seem simple and require no mental effort, you haven’t put your heart into them; as a result, after half a year, you feel like you haven’t made any progress. She did not make a sound. But the resignation letter was withdrawn. After holding on for another 3 months, she still resigned. This time I didn’t keep her. Let her go. Later, she often chatted with me on MSN. Tell me about her new job. Within a year, she changed jobs three times. I can’t hold on for long every time. Every time, she says the new job isn’t the one she wants. In 2005, she resigned again. They were very distressed, came to me, and wanted to eat with me. I invited her to eat Japanese food at the mall behind the office building. Halfway through eating, he suddenly said to me: I kind of understand what you meant by what you said before. ——Many readers left messages saying, \"Susu, please share your experiences and work history.\" Or you can tell me in a whisper about the problems you encounter at work and ask for my advice. Apart from not liking to give advice to others, I truly believe that no one’s work experience is comparable to another’s. There certainly cannot be any absolute reference value. Therefore, I never really wanted to talk too much about my work on the blog. Everyone goes through a beginner phase; at the start of one’s career, many problems arise. As for the so-called career, it’s actually very difficult to predict what kind of work you will end up doing in the future, or whether that work will be related to the major you studied in college. It is very likely that most people will end up doing a job that has nothing to do with the field they studied originally. During these four years from graduating from university at 22 to the age of 26, what matters is not what you have done, but rather what good working habits you have developed in your job. This good work*habit refers to a serious and diligent work style, as well as the ability to learn how to embrace new things as quickly as possible, to discover the underlying principles of those things, and to master those principles and handle them more efficiently than others. With these elements in place, you will grow into a reliable worker. Everyone has inertia, and they also prefer to use those who are easy to work with. Once you have the foundation for earning people’s trust and gradually demonstrate your reliability, intelligence, and attention to detail in your daily work, more and more job opportunities will come your way. The reason is simple: who would want to spend three sentences or even half an hour explaining something that can be clearly explained in just one sentence and completed easily by you? Communication is also a cost; the less time spent on communication, the less internal friction there is, and this is something that managers understand best. When you have more job opportunities than others to work on tasks you have not encountered before, you have more chances to learn. Everyone likes smart and hardworking students, and this is especially true for managers. For a beginner, or most beginners, there isn’t much difference noticeable over these four years. However, the experiences from these four years laid the foundation for the development of one’s future career, which is of vital importance. Many people don’t mind taking detours in their youth; many think that everyone can do their daily work well, so there’s nothing special about it. Yet it was these simple tasks, carried out step by step in a gradual manner, that became the turning point for future development. The greatest loss of treating grassroots work carelessly is turning what appear to be simple procedural approaches into issues related to long-term development capabilities. Smart people never think there is anything wrong with their abilities. Over time, he would complain about his bad luck, and complain that those who seemed to have average abilities could always be luckier than him. Complaining that she looks better than them, or that he is better at pleasing the boss. Wait, wait, wait. Gradually, it affects one’s mindset. The so-called situation of having talent but not being recognized can be like this sometimes. A job requires a smart person, but it actually needs an honest and dependable person even more. Between being smart and being down-to-earth, I prefer the latter. And being down-to-earth is something everyone can do. It has little to do with innate conditions. One day, I joked with my boss, saying that a company is generally made up of the following types of people: smart lazy people, smart hardworking people, stupid lazy people, and stupid hardworking people. I said: Let smart lazy people be the bosses and make the decisions; they can find the most effective and straightforward ways to save effort in development ； Let smart and diligent people serve as managers, responsible for implementing decisions ； Most employees are lazy and incompetent; with supervision and guidance, they can complete their work successfully. Some can be trained to become smart and diligent individuals who can grow into managers ； I fear most the hardworking but foolish people who cause trouble. Jokes aside, it actually summarizes several stages in a person’s career. A profession, in essence, is about turning oneself into a smart and hardworking person. That's all. This post was last edited by xdcome on 2009-3-11 22:04]