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The hard way

One thing I really dropped the ball about this year is carrying some of my (bad) habits from student life into working life.


Overall, I am a very meticulous person with careful attention to detail. When I was in college though, I realized there was just no need for me to THAT attentive to detail--after all, I was dealing with hypothetical case studies in class or a sentimental gift that was merely meant to bless. Initially when I did carry out things to the tee, my teammates either dismissed it as unnecessary, or the attention to detail was unrecognized, hence (in my mind) deeming it as something not worth the investment. So I graduated college without doing everything detail-by-detail, pretty lackadaisically, and in Korean terms, very "dul-lung". My grades didn't suffer much as a result of my half-hearted efforts, which also affirms the recent NYTimes Article about "Skating through B-School" :P

I carried this "I don't really have to be THAT attentive to detail in order to succeed" mindset when I transitioned to working life, and MAN do I wish I had known better.

The first project I worked on at work was in helping prepare a report of top opportunities with current or potential clients. I was merely doing what I was told, but carried my "half-hearted" mindset and ended up messing up big time. After my teammate "called me out" for the mistake, I humbly accepted my (lack of) responsibility and expected him to forgive. Sadly I realized there is no concept of grace in the real world (at least much less of it than what I was used to in biblical community) and I got a nice blow to my face.

Today I spent a couple hours sitting through an online tutorial to receive certification for an online database I am to manage. The tutorial concludes with a final exam where I must answer at least 80% of the questions correctly. The first two times I breezed through the tutorial and took a stab at the final exam, I failed miserably with a 36% average. I see now that when dealing with real clients, real projects, and (ultimately) real money, I can't just "take it easy".

Unsurprising fact, but I just had to learn the hard way.

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