Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep188: What my mentor taught me.

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

✅ Get FREE GUIDE, newsletter, join career program 👉 http://www.meiphing.com ✅ Corporate Survivor™ is the ultimate career course for 9-to-5 working professionals, just like *you*, who want to enhance corporate world mindset, skillset and strategy so you can NAVIGATE + GROW your career with clarity, confidence & opportunities... 🚀 ⚡ 📌 ABOUT THIS PODCAST: Welcome to Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing — ex-Corporate Leader turned Career Coach & Founder of The Corporate Survivor™. On this podcast, Mei Phing shares her corporate world insights, experiences and wisdom so you can grow your 9-5 career with clarity, confidence and opportunities. ✅ WEBSITE ⮕ https://www.meiphing.com ✅ FREE GUIDE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/freeguide ✅ NEWSLETTER ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/mondays ✅ CAREER COURSE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co ⚡

Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. When I first started working in Standard Chartered, I was only a global team, there's no policy processes, there was like nothing. And I actually met this mentor, someone that I respect a lot and he's very good at his job. So I was having dinner with him and

I was like complaining and complaining. I'm like, oh my God, all these people are so dumb. Like, you know, I work so late and so annoying and like no one's appreciating. They're not following what I'm saying. Literally, I complained for 20 minutes.

And then he mentioned one thing to me that I still remember until today. He said, Mei Ping, this is your fault. And I'm like,

what the heck? Like, how is this my fault? And then I nagged on for like 10 more minutes, right? So in total, you know, I've already like complained for 30 minutes right so in total you know i've really like complained for 30 minutes he said it's completely your fault because you didn't define actually what your job scope is you didn't communicate with them how you want them to

communicate with you like all these things and you don't even have to do all of these things. And you don't even have to do all of these things. Have you even talked to your boss or what your boss expects? And he's like, this is totally your fault. Like you don't need to be so, you know, annoyed about it. You don't need to actually be even working so hard.

He even told me that maybe you're working too hard. This is crazy. Like you should not be working like this. And he said, this is all your fault. So that conversation

actually stayed with me for a very long time because I realized that, oh, how am I not seeing this? What's actually going on? What's actually going on? Because I was so busy just doing the next thing, the next thing, and the next thing. Oh, need to do this, need to do that. It's like I actually forgot to objectively look at my situation.

And I think that was actually a lesson that took me a very long time to learn. Took me a very long time to learn. Because it's not easy when someone comes to you and just say, hey, Mipin, this is your fault. You are the stupid one. I'm like, okay, maybe I am the stupid one. But tell me, what am I missing? Tell me, what am I missing?

And I found it actually really helpful to just listen to someone that I respect, to listen to their perspective because sometimes it's problems that I don't see in myself. That's why I'm saying that sometimes progress and mindset, like career growth

and career development, it's not something that is like every day. It's not something like every single day you see some magic, but it's not something that it's like every day. It's not something like every single day you see some magic. But it's a process of first learning about yourself, learning about what triggers you,

learning about and also observing how do you feel about certain things? Why are you annoyed if this thing and not that thing? Which pieces of work

or situations make you feel more comfortable, make you feel more comfortable, make you feel more confident as compared to something else. And if you really want to progress and you are not doing that because you're afraid, then does it make sense to still stay in this place for the next one, two or three years? And would it be worse, worse situation to stay in this current space? And if you know it's going to be a worst situation, then wouldn't it be better to just take one step

in the other direction, which is the positive direction, in the corporate survivor as well? It's like you go through this lesson and then you move to the next lesson and then it will continue to make more and more and more sense. And then after that, when you repeat the whole cycle again, you look at it in a very different perspective.

That's because having a step-by-step method that works is way more valuable if you keep practicing it, mastering it, and then adjusting for it to fit yourself versus consistently looking out there and just ask your friend, hey, what are you doing? What are they doing? What are they doing? What's like the best strategy right now? Actually, it's not really helpful. And I think sometimes like we introduce a lot of stress in our life. We introduce a lot of anxiety and confusion in our life because we are always hoping

that there's always the next best thing out there. There's the even better thing out there, but not realizing that you're really the good version, right? But you just got confused along the way. I want you to know that everybody is at your exact situation at some point in their career. It's the same for me as well. The real difference is, are you willing to do something so that you don't regret the next three years. Why not just decide right now, like what's a good career for you?

Never feel this thing is only happening to you and never feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Whenever you feel doubt, you should always tell yourself that, yeah, the power is in me. I thank me first. Before I say thank you to anyone else,

I say thank you to me because you are the person that's going to make a big difference thank you to anyone else, I say thank you to me. Because you are the person that's going to make a big difference in your career. I can help you along the way, but you are the person who's going to determine what does success look like for you? What does growth look like for you?

What is worth it for you, your family, your future? You are the only person who can decide that. Okay? So with that, all the best in your career.