Competence

I was reading yesterday a book from an entrepreneur, where he said (about one of his first jobs) that he was enjoyinng because he was good at it.
And I couldn't stop thinking how true this is.

You enjoy doing something when you are competent at it. It's good to be and feel competent at something. It's good to have people asking for your help and advice or admiring what you are doing.
It's good to feel that you are doing a really good job.

Obviously there are passions as well, things that you get easily engrossed in and as you do them, time just flies without you noticing. These are the things that you should be doing to be on purpose!

But it is also great to do things you are competent at.

The learning for me is that it is absolutely normal that when you start a new job, the 1st months will be difficult. Because you will be dealing with people that are doing it for years and are much more confortable. Because you are in a learning curve, and are not competent yet. Because people expect a lot and it will be difficult in the beggining to meet and even more so to surpass expectations.
But that is normal.
When changing a job, it is important to plan:
- what you want to achieve on the 1st 90 days; detailed plan of what to do, who to go out with, what things to understand, who to meet
- where you will be (what level of knowledge do you want to have); what things you expect to have achieved by then

It's important to do this plan to put things in perspective.
It's also probably a great idea to share it with your boss, to set his expectations as well.
But most of all, it's important to you, in order to limit the pressure you put in yourself!

Farewell part II

The following day, they got everyone in our floor together at 9.30 am and did a little thank you speech to me!
My boss did it and he was really nice. It came as a surprise as in big businesses things do tend to move on quite quickly, usually there are no thank yous, etc
The nicest part was him starting the speech and also finishing it on the same topic: of this not being goodbye as they would love for me to return. It really really made me feel great. I guess the best thing to happen when you leave is for people to value your work and say that you will be missed and the door is open! I am really happy and proud about it!
He went on about all the jobs and assignments I had taken in the last years, and described me as a highly professional manager. I was really moved, as there was a high number of people there, I really felt touched and proud.
The best part of all... came later when I was wrapping up the handover to another colleague. The night before he had taken the train home with my boss (who will be his boss) and he mentioned to him that it was a shame that I was leaving and that he will aim to get me back! It's hard to describe how well that made me feel!!!

I also had a final chat with my boss and his boss: it was really nice, they asked me a lot about my new projects and were really interested. It was quite good, as some of the stuff I will be working on is quite interesting for them, potential business opportunities.

As I write it's Tuesday, yesterday was officially my final day in the old job and have to admit I do feel... nostalgic.
It is difficult to leave a place where you are valued and at a stage where you are quite confortable with the work you are doing, you know the stuff and get things moving quickly and easy. Specially when you move into a new area, where you will be totally out of your depth and a bit lost.
But end of the day, I guess that is the way to learn and grow as an individual and as a manager. I hope I am going to enjoy this new trip.