The other day, I was talking to a friend (lets call him Tom) who went to college for accounting and got his CPA, he has now been working in the field for a few years. Though personally I never found accounting to be very interesting, I have great respect for those that make it their mission to understand the complex accounting and tax rules we have in place today. The conversation went a little like this:
Me: "Hey Tom, how is life as an accountant, are you enjoying it?" Tom: "It's great! I work a lot because tax season is upon us, but other than that the hours are steady and the work is easy." Me: "That's great to hear. You said the work is easy, what exactly do you mean by that?" Tom: "Well, I mean that I know how to do all the things that I have to do. Its pretty much always the same more or less." Me: "So are you telling me that your job consists of doing things that you already know how to do and you aren't learning anything new?" Tom: "Well, if you put it like that, sure."
Of course the conversation went on, but it was the above part that really stuck with me and made me wonder. When you have a job in your chosen field, should you just "do the work" and be content? While there is nothing wrong with that, I have always been the type of person that can't do the same task over and over without asking questions. My innate curiosity has led me to a work philosophy that I believe is highly underutilized in today's workforce: always, always, always, aspire to learn.
Though it sounds clichéd, we are never really done learning. Taking this broad statement and applying it to your job can be tricky at times. After all, when the stress dial is cranked way past maximum, who really has time to add learning to the list? The following are a few pointers that I have found to be helpful and use myself in order to constantly learn and become better at what I do.
Five minute Google session:
As part of my job, I read a lot. Some of the material I read can be quite technical and highly detailed, to the point where you have to be a subject expert to fully understand what the author is trying to say. When reading these complex passages, I find myself quickly jotting down questions that pop into my head. I don't act on them right away (sometimes the answer lies in the very next sentence), but keep them and whenever I have a few minutes to spare, I revisit my question and do a quick internet search. An important rule I follow is to never spend more than five minutes on a given question, there is no real need to become an expert on how protein kinase inhibitors work, or what the corporate tax laws of Bermuda are. Rather, the goal is to get an overview that, if you ever come across this question again, you will have a small foundation to work off of and add to.
Question the process:
I once had an internship at which I was told to copy and paste data from one worksheet to the other. This worksheet was then uploaded to an internet portal, reformatted and downloaded. Obviously, my very first question was why it was done this way. The answer was "that is just the way we've always done it", which as you may have guessed by now, did not satisfy me one bit. Generally, whenever you inherit a process, it makes sense to learn the reasoning behind it, why are things done the way they are? You will be surprised how often the answer has either been lost, or is similar to the one I received at my internship. Questioning the process more often than not opens up the gate for you to create efficiencies by improving the process and letting you learn along the way.
Find a (work-related) passion:
Apart from the above, which are directly related to your day-to-day work, I try to find at least one area that I want to learn much more about in the long term that is related to my job. For my friend Tom it may be something like learning more about estate planning; something he does not need or deal with on a daily basis, but something that will be beneficial to him in the long-term. A good rule of thumb is to look at your daily tasks and find one that you are interested in and think you would enjoy learning more about.
These three tips are just some examples of how you can learn while working. Keeping the mind at work in order to become better at what you do is a win-win that many people forget to do and it holds them back in the long-run.
Happy learning!
Bravo! Your points are well made, particularly those regarding the aspiration to learn and questioning the process. I can speak from experience: those two habits have allowed me to consistently improve most processes with which I am tasked at my firm, which then has resulted in the accretion of additional responsibilities and promotions.
My #1 tip to make yourself indispensable: Pick something everyone hates but is necessary to do, and become the best at it.
The writeup is a good effort but in my opinion most everything in life is process driven and by extension becomes repetitive (dull). At the top of this list is of course banking. Yeah, yeah - talk about the "nuances" of every deal to someone else. Neurosurgeons and cardiac surgeons also perform a highly precise and skilled set of repititions.
The only people in this world who are truly learning anything on a consistent basis are those that create. Inventors, software designers / engineers, and business owners who constantly have to adapt to a changing market and competition. The rest of the crowd is just deluding themselves.
I would say everything in life only becomes repetitive if you let it be that way. Even if your job requires severe repetition, you can always look for ways to better the process. You don't have to be a business owner or "inventor" to do that.
There is a difference between learning and doing; independent of task difficulty.
While you or someone you know may have an "easy", or similarly, "repetitive", job, it is important to do more than just do. Anyone can tick and tie a file, fill out a return, put together a model, etc.
Learning on the job comes from understanding what you are doing and how it fits in to the big picture. Filling out a tax return may be repetitive and easy, but you can learn by understanding why certain companies have certain deductions and other return characteristics compared to companies in other industries which could be entirely different.
The thought is that you could be knowledgeable about things beyond the extent defined by your job roles and responsibilities. At this point you can add value and demonstrate proficiency to your employer and clients which will lead to career advancement.
What are some tricks for learning new things more effectively? (Originally Posted: 12/13/2016)
I've enrolled in a few classes for self-improvement outside of work and I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on how to learn things more effectively.
adderall
Lol, I know that already
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