Reputation

Forcing myself to churn these out.  This is a brief, fragmented post about reputation.

The only important quotation I know off the top of my head about the importance of reputation is from Othello.  In junior year of high school, we were forced to memorize this short phrase: "Who steals my purse steals trash; tis something, nothing; t'was mine t'is his has has been slaves to thousands; but he who filches from me my good name; robs me of that which not enriches him; but makes me poor indeed." It's amazing I still remember this, though I remember nothing about the context and very little about the story.  All I remember is that Iago is the bad guy.  So anyway, I  thought this would be a good, though potentially grossly out-of-context (I don't know), way to introduce the importance of reputation.

But then, I googled something like "reputation quotations", and one of the ones that kept coming up was "Character is more important than reputation."  And I thought, "Oh, that's very true!" Everyone, and especially Christians, should be less concerned with how others perceive us and more concerned with who we truly are, before God, before ourselves. Yet, hopefully, these two should not be widely divergent.  Meaning, good character should eventually result in a good reputation.  If we are Christians, but we have awful reputations, then perhaps there is an opportunity to do some self-reflection to consider whether we are truly reflecting Godly characteristics.

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My dad recently gave me this short advice: When you're an entry level worker, all you need to do is work hard and you will do well.  But later on, it's not enough to just work hard to get ahead.  As you rise up in the company, it's also about who you know.  If you are aligned with good people above you, you can rise with them.

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I think one of the reasons I got this new job was that I basically did an internship in my temp role, demonstrating who I am and what I can do.  The people around me know I'm capable of doing the work.  They also know that I can pass the airline test. "Would I want to be stuck in an airline with this guy on a business trip for several hours?"  In fact, I actually carpooled with a few people and was stuck in traffic for several hours on a business trip, so this was more than just a theoretical test that I passed.

One of the great benefits of my temp job was that it introduced me to many people within the company because my job required me to interact with a lot of different people.  When the position opened up, I initially didn't think I was qualified for the position.  But, I was pleasantly surprised when 3 different people, all from different groups, suggested that I apply for it.  That gave me the encouragement to pursue it, even though on paper, there may have been more qualified candidates applying for the position.  I think I was able to get the job because I was a decent known quantity, while all the other candidates were decent, but unknown quantities.

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What am I trying to say? I learned that we all have a reputation at work, whether we are conscious of it or not.  If you do good work consistently, you develop a good reputation, even with those with whom you rarely work.  Temp jobs or internships provide a great opportunity to demonstrate your ability but also establish a reputation.  The important thing at work is to do your job well, treat others with respect, bring a good attitude, etc. and hopefully things work out. But, eventually, it'll be important to be savvy about how a good reputation can translate into future opportunities. This is where networking and some personal brand management probably helps (being smart without getting self-absorbed).

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During my annual assessment in my prior banking job, my general feedback was that I'm good to work with, I follow directions well, I produce good work, but I need to speak up more and contribute more.  Often I'm silent or quiet in meetings, and it gives off the impression that I don't care or that I'm holding something back. In my defense, that was sort of accurate!  The main reasons I was quiet was: 1. Strategic: I didn't know what to contribute because I was such a fish out of water,  so I was following the rule of "Better to stay quiet and be thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt". 2. Decoy: I absolutely hated my job, so I sort of just kept my head down and tried to suffer through the day so I could get home.

But despite those circumstances, I do know that my natural tendency is to be reserved and quiet, so it's a challenge for me to be more expressive and engaging in my future role, so that I can avoid developing that kind of reputation in an environment where I have fewer excuses.