In February, I moved across the country to start my first professional job at a 70-person Bay area startup in a higher education sales role. Little did I know that I’d only experience 3 weeks of going into the office in-person before a global pandemic and round of layoffs would dramatically alter my plans. After having barely wrapped up the onboarding process, I had to learn to manage a work-from-home environment while figuring out how to approach cold-calling people during a time where I felt it was probably not the best time to be doing so given the state of the world. 3 weeks after that, our company had a round of layoffs in which I’d lose my boss and account executive, the 2 people I had worked most closely with during my time there up to that point.
Now that a few months have passed and I’ve gotten a chance to look back on these experiences, I thought it might be worth reflecting on and sharing my approach and learnings, especially as I’ve also been thinking more about my Class of 2020 friends who just graduated college and will soon start their 1st professional jobs in the workforce.
Upon doing this reflection, my main takeaways on how I was able to manage during these times boils down to being very intentional in 4 key areas: staying connected with coworkers, continuing to learn, maintaining a routine, and remembering to see the positives.
Staying Connected with Coworkers
The few weeks I did have in San Francisco made me feel so alive and made me feel like I was in a place that valued my interests and passions. The in-person benefits of working at an office in the heart of Union Square in SF allowed me to enjoy interactions with colleagues through meetings and impromptu conversations, while I could attend edtech and sales meetups after work.
To bridge the gap between all of these in-person interactions and the new WFH environment, I’ve tried to be very intentional about interactions with colleagues that include both unstructured and structured components.
On the unstructured end of the spectrum, I’ve developed a mutual understanding with the coworkers I work most closely with that it’s fine to call each other out of the blue to simulate tapping them on the shoulder in the office to ask a question or going for a walk to talk something through. This helps for exchanges that are more extensive than just a few Slack chats. In addition, whenever I feel like I appreciate something someone did, or have a question, I’ve leaned towards slacking them directly and overemphasizing communication. This has also led to more chances for me to get to know people better and learn more about the company, and helps with morale.
The more structured components include having a few recurring syncs with teammates on the calendar without a meeting agenda, and the intention of speaking with one new person outside my direct team each week to learn more about their background and role. Some of these 1:1 conversations have led to recurring monthly chats, which I liken to consolidating a month’s worth of office banter into one call. Maybe there is the argument too that this intentionality has its benefits and keeps us more focused.
Continuing To Learn
In terms of learning and professional development, it probably didn’t help that my manager got let go in a round of layoffs a few weeks into the job. His belief in me and dedication to helping me grow was a big reason why I initially joined the company. To bridge the gap, I ended up leaning a lot on books, podcasts, and webinars, as I realized there were a lot of ways to continue to learn.
Keeping up relationships with mentors is something that helped me immensely during my time building my startup PeerKonnect, and staying in touch with them during these times became even more essential and honestly felt more like a cheat code in aiding my development these past few months. An underlying challenge for me during these times has been having to figure everything out without having too much knowledge of how things operated at the company without a pandemic, and at a professional job in general. My mentors have helped me talk through challenges and realize many things before I even saw them.
Maintaining a Routine
In terms of continuing a routine and staying productive in the WFH environment, it boiled down to following a few common but useful tips. Some highlights though were that I would have a morning routine of putting on work clothes, eating breakfast, and meditating before I started my day. I also lived in a coliving space so I tried not to ever do non-work related items at my workspace after the workday and on weekends. I also learned to take breaks (cold-calling can get draining after a while) and be nicer to myself given everything going on in the world, knowing that I might not be 100% productive 100% of the time, as I typically unrealistically strive for.
Seeing The Positives
I often observe that I’m only able to see the positives of circumstances after the fact, when I lose what I should have been more grateful for. That being said, I have been able to seek and lean on a few silver linings in these times.
The WFH environment has afforded me more flexibility and less office distractions, and given that our company had been over 50% remote to begin with, It has been a tremendous equalizer for the entire company, and I’ve had more interaction with my colleagues not based in the Bay area as a result.
On the professional development front, the higher education and sales content I’ve been consuming through podcasts and webinars wasn’t as readily available before COVID. Now that we’re in an environment where everyone has to continuously learn and adapt, there’s new information coming out seemingly every day, and the discussions about all of the change happening helps me understand these disciplines better at a foundational level too. I’ve also found that some people have more time on their hands while at home in the current landscape, so I’ve been having calls with Duke alums and others in the industry to get their advice and learn.
On a higher level, I’ve tried to stay grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given instead of sulking over the changes and challenges that have arisen. There’s never a great time for a pandemic, and I’m thankful to have had 3 weeks in the office initially to get acclimated with the company, and am thankful I was able to finish my last semester at Duke in-person, walk at graduation, and have the 6 months after to explore and pursue my own goals. I’m also grateful I have my basic needs met, and strive to stay aware of and provide the support I can to those less fortunate, especially in the realm of my passion in education, where inequity has been notably exacerbated.
All in all, these first 6 months navigating a 1st professional job during these uncertain times has had many challenging moments where I wasn’t sure how I would break through, but I’ve been able to navigate the waters by trying my best to replicate the lost benefits of working in the office and staying open-minded about the positives despite the constraints we’ve all been been put under. It also didn’t hurt that I was able to find a role at a company in PeopleGrove whose mission I align very well with — a company with a leadership team that has moved innovatively and intentionally during these times, and a company where it’s not too uncommon for me to leave All-Hands meetings feeling “Wow, I’m so glad I work for this company.”