4 mistakes I made on my first job

Hi TIA community, here’s some of my mistakes from my own personal experience that I’d like to share with you. What’s yours?

1. Falling more in love with the company than the job

Probably one of the biggest mistakes I made. I truly believed that if I got into the company I wanted, I would eventually find the role that was right for me. What was more painful was that I gave up an amazing role in a different company because I liked the branding of my-then-employer.

2. Believing that my manager had all the answer and provided consistently right guidance

 One of the hardest and disappointing lessons I had to learn but soon came to realize was the most valuable. I had a manager that I truly trusted and believed in. Whatever she told me I believed was canon and infallible. It turned out she was just as clueless as I was and had a tenancy for emotional abuse when things got hectic or too hot to handle.

3. Believing that having a black and white viewpoint on business execution was the right path

This was actually an issue – I hope it isn’t anymore – with a lot of the Korean companies at the time. They try to indoctrinate the new grad into thinking that their competitor is “the enemy” or even portray them as “evil” in an irrational mantra. I’m sure it was to gain short-term loyalty, but for a lot of people I know, they picked up a really bad habit of emotionally expending too much time “hating” on their rivals and not thinking enough about the bigger picture of things.

4. Believing that I would start doing “cool shit” day one of my job

This was a funny time in my life as I thought I could take on the world and make the company revenue chart hit a neck breaking hockey stick vector. I soon came to realize I had little applicable skills and had to really learn how to plan, prioritize and execute. Each step was like pulling a tooth but hey, I’m here aren’t I?

Note from Huiyi, TIA’s community manager:FYI TIA Community! 🙂 Saemin is the Managing Partner at Rakuten Ventures. Prior to Rakuten Ventures, Sae was at Google for 5 years from 2008 to 2013 managing Sales and Business Development for Asia. You can find his Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with the TIA community here.