3 Hot Tips for A New & Inexperienced College Graduate

Six months before I graduated from college with a Bachelor's Degree, I had to spend  hours making cold calls to companies and send resume to couple hundred places. It was a great challenge me because only experience I had was being a night security in a dormitory (who checks id for underage drunk girls) and a visual basic programming tutor. Most companies were looking for someone who at least have internship experience, and not an alien resident. But  finally I did get an offer as a software developer couple days before I graduated. In this post, I want to share three things I had done right in the first six month in my new job:

I Worked My Ass Off
When you are new and inexperienced, you can easily be replaced by someone else better and cheaper than you. You really do not have the luxury to be as comfortable as your experienced coworker who leaves at 5 PM sharp. If you work your ass off in the first six months (I pretty much spend 50-60 hours per week), you would probably prove yourself to the company that you are a valuable assest which would be hard to get rid of. Another advantage is you will gain much more experience in a very short period of time. Nowadays, I try to get my job done within 45 hours a week, but I do thank myself to be diligent in my first 6 months to be a hard worker.

I Asked Lots of Stupid/Idiotic Questions
I was quite new to the technology industry. In my first in the company, it actually meant a world to me to have very minute portion of my code rolled to production environment used by thousands of customers. I also didn't know much technology jargon, and many things I listened to staffs meeting sounded so foreign (like Chinese). So most of the time I felt stupid to ask questions, such as, what is <insert any technology terms>? how can I deal with this?

I Solved Lots of Problems
When first started, my employer just asked me to feel comfortable with the code, and keep myself busy. I wasn't provide much specific directions. I guess they thought it's my training phase since this is my first job after college. However, my mentor (who has been in the industry for over 10 years) advise me to focus on solving problems. And I am glad I took that advice word for word. I ended up fixing over hundred bugs/faulty code with our softwares in my first year. That really helped me to be a better developer, and have me understand the business much better than reading a book

There you go. I am not sure what industry you are but I am sure the same rules apply for you too. You definitely need to be very comfortable being very stupid (even annoying sometimes because you bug a lots of coworkers), and you would alway be solving problems. Unless you work for a big company, you manager would really appreciate for your strong work ethics to spend extra hours in your job. I even got couple hundred dollar gift cards from my manager few months ago for being so deliberate at my work. Well, if you have any more better ideas for a new college graduate, then feel free to share in the comment section below!

Identity - A Fish Name John!

If a fish is born in your aquarium and you call him John, write out a birth certificate, tell him about his family history, and two minutes later he gets eaten by another fish — that’s tragic. But it’s only tragic because you projected a separate self where there was none

Tolle, Eckhart (2009-03-25). The Power of Now (p. 100). New World Library. Kindle Edition.

So True!!!

Parents

A lot of people I have met in my lifetime have issues with their parents. Some weren't provided enough education. One my best friend's dad actually came out from the closet after 20 years of marriage and got married with another dude. A coworker my mine's foster dad actually turned himself into an woman and still lives with her foster mom. I am sure there are dozens of extraordinary ways we had private issues with our parents. But listening to their stories, I feel like my story isn't such a big deal.

During my teenage years, I hated my dad because he was over controlling and yelled at me all time.  No, he never drink. Yes, he provided me enough education. But there were frustrated times in my childhood when I wished him dead. I hated living with fear all those times. After I left my homeland and got a job offer in a different country, my perspectives had been changed a lot in the last 7 years.

In my mid twenties, I would give anything to hear my mom and dad's voice from the phone. I really appreciate what they have done to me in the past and I am glad they get to be my parents. I am not sure how long they will be alive to hear from me, but it's nice I can see them once in a while during my busy schedule. Thirty or forty years from now, I have no clue what's going to happen to me or them. But I really cherish the moments I share with them, and I am very grateful.

Thanks mom and dad! I know you probably would never read this blog post, but I really mean every word I say! :)

-Chase

How Everything About You Is So Trivial?

I have always been fascinated by the universe ever since I was a kid. I remember making small space ships using my lego which father bought for me, and played with those my entire childhood. I had a sudden realization in the coffee shop today that everything we believe is important are actually unbelievably trivial!

I watched "Into the Universe by Stephen Hawking" multiple times and always feel awe by the vastness of the universe. It's truly amazing that our planet are probably no more than a small piece of dust compare of the rest of the universe. It's interesting because it makes me feel both important and trivial at the same time.

I feel important because I am part of the universe. No matter what kind of piece of shit I am, I am essential to the existence of the universe. Didn't get how? I think myself as a very trivial piece of  an oval glass. No matter how trivial I am, if I do not exists then the oval glass become imperfect. But the universe is always perfect. It is made up of energy and I am part of it.

I feel trivial because when I look inside me I have created so much problems in my life. I want certain amount of money, maintain good reputation in my work, pay my credit card bill, think of early retirement, want to travel, and have dozens of insecurities I want to cover up to prove I am a real man. When I think of the vast universe, all the big problems I have seem so much unbelievably little!

After I had this realization in the coffee shop today, I actually started to loosen up a little bit. I looked around people and building around me and felt how small everything around me could me. It's always nice to see things in different perspectives!

Do Nice People Finish Last?

There was a point in my life I had a make an important decision - continue to be a dick, or being humble and respectful to everyone no matter what. I ended up become more humble and respectable through out the last five years though I don't have exact evidence to show you.

During my point of life when I was a dick, being an asshole came off naturally so I didn't feel that I was doing anything wrong. I was a teenager and living under the roof of my parents. They provided me food, shelter, finance and education. But as far as I recall, I was truly ungrateful to them. I thought they could have done more to make my life better i.e. buy my extra toys, give me more freedom to party with my friends, provide me more money to spend, and stop bothering me when hooking up with girls. Even though my parents were doing me a favor for me to live a better life, I was asking for more than my pay grade. I remember complaining and whining to my friends  of how lame my parents was to buy me a cheap computer which can't even have enough video memory to play latest games. I also realized I was also a complete dick to our servants (that's what we call back home). I never showed them respects and treated them as a piece of trash. I actually remember couple of times I falsely accused some servants to steal stuff from my desk, which I know they weren't responsible. I did beat some of them up once in a while. Even though it was my fault, I thought it was much easier to place blame on the minorities. Another way I was a douchebag was how I mistreated kids less fortunate than me. I vividly recall beating up a retarded kid couple of times in our neighborhood which was a complete spur of the moment thing for me. It was a fun activity for me because I was bored and needed a living punching bag to boost my ego. Another example I provide is how I treated people from lower class. Back home, one way of transportation was rickshaw when I commute to high school. I remember I was very frugal when it comes for paying less to old, weak and hungry rickshaw pullers just because they were fucking too slow to drive. I guess it made me feel better to give them pain so that they could share my pain to home late for jerking off. As you can imagine from those few instances, I was a pretty close definition of an ultimate dick.

When I looked back those years, I still feel sick in my stomach for being an asshole. But I made up my mind on one thing. I am going to be respectful and humble to someone NOT for his social status, job position and salary, but for him being a human being. I don't believe nice people finish last. If you are trying to be nice to have someone have sex with you, then the person would easily pick up all the signs and signals that you are desperate. Well, you probably would finish last. But if you are genuinely care of someone, it comes off in a positive way. I guess there are 2 different kinds of "being nice" - being nice for expectations, or being genuinely nice.   I think people who are "being nice for expectations" finish last because they are waiting for outside forces to make a difference to their lives. They are much more reactive. The latter kinds of nice people are more proactive. Their nice comes off more naturally, and, they are probably inward focused. I think I belong to both kind of "nice". I do have expectations once in a while, but I still genuinely care of my loved ones no matter what. I also believe there is still a subtle "asshole-ness" in me, but it is less noticeable. 

What kind of "nice" are you? Why?