How to Start Your Career off Right
The second LEAP Career Workshop installment, How to Start Your Career off Right, was held on August 21st and featured three long-time dedicated LEAP mentors, Haichun Chen, Engineering Leader at Airbnb, Ruby Liao, Director of Enterprise Risk Management at MUFG, and John Zhuang,Corporate Legal Counsel at BYD North America. The agenda of the workshop included presentations, breakout room mentoring sessions, and panel discussions focusing on the following questions. 
# eSalon # Topics
●  How to win over my boss and impress them with my work?
●  Does my boss really like me?
●What to do if my boss ignores my questions/requests constantly?
●  What to do if I am not a fan of my boss's management style and team dynamics?
●  Building a strong relationship with my boss and teammates? Sure, but what is the plan?
01
Key Takeaways 
“ Fixing yourself is always for your own benefit - Haichun Chen”
●What if my manager doesn’t like me because I made a mistake? It depends on the situation. Apparently, not all mistakes are born equal. Mistakes are common but one should be proactive in providing frequent and succinct updates to their boss and asking feedback. Feedback can help you fix issues before they worsen. Always ask yourself questions such as “How do you think the project is going?” and “What could have been done better?”
●What if I made many repeated mistakes?  PIP is common in many tech companies but not all companies treat PIP with the same severity. At the beginning of PIP, ask HR for help if managers have biases against you or unfair expectations. Consider this as a self-reflection opportunity and figure out your strength, weakness, and whether this position is a right fit. 
●Adapt, change, or leave! It’s important to know your company’s culture, your team as individuals, and your manager. Understand their management style, whether they are delegative or hands-on, results-orientated or people-orientated,
ambitious or laid-back. A good connection starts with a good self-introduction email. 
“It’s better to over-communicate than under-communicate - Ruby Liao”
●Ask about your manager’s preference and know what kind of information they want to receive on a regular basis. Set up a regular one-on-one meeting with managers to provide status updates and avoid unpleasant surprises. In case problems occur, it’d be a good idea to have a result-driven discussion with your manager. Ask probing questions to know expectations and problems. Research and propose solutions to help with decision-making. 
●The ability to handle a problem, perform independent research, and find solutions is very important. Follow through the projects and make sure the work is delivered completely. Always under-promise but over-deliver.
●Build network and mentorship relationships with people who are supportive and share the same working style. It’s totally fine to flash your newbie card and ask questions. 
“Three golden rules for 1st job success - John Zhuang”
●Provide 5-star service; make 5-star work; practice self-care early and often.
●Show the willingness to work through a problem even in the most difficult situation. Emulate what the rest is doing such as dressing in a similar style. 
●Actively explore career advancement opportunities.
02
Highlights from Q&A
"How to successfully onboard in a remote work environment?"
Turn on your camera during meetings and have small chats prior to meetings. After-work social activities are great places to build connections with colleagues. 

"How to plan for the first 90 days, build trust, and generate impact?"
Prioritize your first month at work for 1-1 meetings, building connections, and knowing what the company does. Cross-functional cooperation is important so that having a good relationship with members from different teams will be a good start. 
03
Audience Feedback
LEAP
In the workshop I learned from Haichun Chen on how to handle the mistakes I made at work, and understand what types of mistakes are tolerable and what types are not. The PIP (performance improvement plan) is something that I didn’t know prior to coming to the workshop. I am glad that I now know the process of PIP and the correct attitude towards PIP. 
From Ruby Liao, I learned the three types of communication which are extremely important in the workplace: (1) knowing my boss’s management style and asking about their preferences and expectations; (2) setting up regular one-on-one meetings, being results-oriented, and proposing solutions that help with decision-making, and (3) building up my network in the workplace through work lunches, coffee breaks, virtual chats etc. 
From John Zhuang’s speech, I learned the 3 golden rules for success in the first-job: providing 5-star service, delivering 5-star work, and practicing self-care early on and often. John also mentioned that the dress code is often important to show professionalism and can help one merge into the office/workplace environment. 
- Keats Hua
Ruby, John, and Haichun prepared great presentations for us who just started our career and answered our questions. I particularly like the breakout session in the end. The three speakers were all very helpful and provided a lot of practical and inspiring suggestions to me.
- Jiachen Zhang
Related Articles
【LEAP Career Workshop】How to start your career off right?
【LEAP Career Workshop】Ace Difficult Conversations With Your Boss
Thank you!
Written by Di Xu
Proofread by Chao Zhang
Layout by Rita Zheng
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LEAP (Leadership, Excellence, Aspiration, Platform) Career Development Forum is a Los Angeles-based 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to building a trustworthy and sustained platform for professional growth and career advancement of young Asian Americans and those from Asian countries currently studying or working in America in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and related fields. 
Launched in February 2013 as an educational program under CESASC (Chinese-American Engineers and Scientists Association of Southern California), LEAP was incorporated in June 2015 to become an independent organization with the exclusive focus on establishing a resourceful and open platform to advocate outstanding leadership, encourage professional excellence, cultivate great aspiration, and provide job opportunities.
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