written by Abyana Maheswara, B2022

Having a good top notch academic-wise is great and all, but do you know that people who qualifies these “skills” are considered way more reliable and have the chance to succeed more than those who aren’t? Yep. It’s work ethic. You may have heard it, but what is work ethic actually? Work ethic is an ethical principal that places greatest value on hard work and intelligence. It is such a waste for a person to have amazing achievements and is being praised everywhere they go but at the end they don’t know how to work alongside with other people. Work ethic is crucial, especially if you just started working for the first time, whether you’re on internship or full-time job.

Let’s say, you want to get a job, but you don’t have the idea where to apply or what you want to become. What will possibly happen next? You will become desperate and think “just go along with the flow”. Wrong. First thing first you have to set a clear mind. Create a path to the “ideal” world you want to live in. What do you want to be? What career do you think is suitable for you? It is almost the same as searching for dream major and university, except it is broader and universal. To have the “ideal” world set beforehand, you will be able to dig in and explore new information that you may haven’t heard of before.

Professionalism. Be professional. Even though the job would be your first ever job, it doesn’t mean that it’s okay to slack off and play around. The job seeker would have paid attention to your preparations and consider that to your “hireable” point. Suit up, gear up, and don’t be late for the interview. Waiting 30 minutes for your turn is way better than being late for 5 minutes. Next, tolerance. Show respect and be open-minded. You will be working in a space and environment where you are not the only one pedalling your brain. You will work together alongside people with various educational backgrounds and ages. No matter what kind of person or group you will be working with, try to always respect their opinion, ideas, responses and feedbacks, this shows that you value others’ individual worth as well as their professional contribution. Third, flexibility. Grow capability on handling tight schedule, close due-date, emergency changes, sudden meeting and other things related and your reputation will be considered as trust-worthy because your colleagues will appreciate the stability you embody. Forth, integrity. Behave honourably whether someone is watching or not. This will eventually be your biggest “flex” if you manage to apply this while you work, even by yourself. Because when the employees have integrity, their managers can put their trusts in them, knowing that they will work diligently.

Other two essential things are dedication and desire to think. Don’t stop until you finished your job. You never want to go for just “decent” outcome, you want to step further to achieve “outstanding”. Good enough is not good enough for you and your team. You have spent hours perfecting your job and giving attention and devotion to excellence. Your passion shows in how hard you work and the end results you achieve. And lastly, desire to think. It is about how you manage to solve any problems in front of you. Even if it’s not work related, the way you handle and figure things out on your own will also unconsciously examined as valuable to the people around you, knowing that you have high consideration enough to think rational and eventually, people would feel comfortable and love to work with you.