Your career is more about your expertise

Several days ago, I had a talk over the the phone with a younger alumni working for a famous U.S. IT company in Shanghai. He is unsatisfied with the working circumstance. He thought he was so junior that nobody took him seriously even though he had contributed a lot.

I told him to take things easy. Well, I think it's the case almost every freshman can encounter. The career is full of challenges. In some cases, it's not about your expertise. But it's about how to deal with the people in your job, how to handle the crucial conversations with others and how to protect your interests while others also feel happy. Yeah, it's no easy work. The very first thing is to make yourself clear about your ultimate goal and your baseline. Your expertise can be the fundamental to promote your growth. But other qualities such as conversation, persuasion and negotiation are essential. Even those serious interest confrontations can be treated as judo but not a fight. The spirit of judo is to crack somebody down using his own strength. A fight in the job, I believe, can more or less hurt yourself even if you still survive.

Anyhow, your career is more about your expertise. Your life is more about your career.