Fresh Graduates – Few tips to excel
 
Not everyone, who excels in academics at college, excels in the corporate environment. Reason being you don't have specific goals once you are in the corporate environment. 
You decide yourself how fast you want to grow? Unlike college, where everyone takes 4 years to complete the degree, in corporate environment, sky is the limit.
 
This article is written "especially" for people who are about to graduate and will be entering the corporate world soon. I hope that everyone who reads this article won't take
much time to settle in the new place and the altogether new "corporate life".
 
Right before you leave the college
1. Grow the number of friends
Make a lot of friends in your final year. It will be very helpful in the long run. Start talking to people whom you didn't talk to in the previous years.
 
2. Don't increase the number of enemies
You must have made quite a few enemies in the first few years at college. Ensure that you don't make new enemies in the final year by quarreling or fighting.
 
3. Develop good relations with your Professors/Lecturers
Promise yourself to keep in touch with them even after college.
 
4. Share & Collect Contact Info
If you don't have one, create an email id. Give your contact information to everyone and collect the contact information of all your friends and Professors. A regular paper 
diary is not much useful when it comes to collecting the contact info.
 
The best solution is to register yourself at the alumni web site(if your college has one) or you can enter all that information in your address book at Yahoo/Hotmail. If you 
can't do any of the above, create a file contacts.txt to collect all the information at one place. Collect at least 5 things - Name, Email id, Company, Location & Phone No. 
This will be useful when you want to search friends on the basis of a location or a company at a later point. This file is going to be very useful throughout your life so keep
it safe and try to cover as many people as possible.
 
Right after you leave the college and right before you join the new company
5. Alumni Website Registration
If there is an alumni website of your college, register on that site as soon as you graduate.
 
6. Moving to the new place
Inform all your friends/seniors in the new place that you are going to joining XYZ company. If you have an alumni directory, it will be very handy to find out who all are
there. You will also realize now why (1), (4) and (5) were important. J
 
 
Right after you join the new company
7. Get Business cards
Get your business cards printed as soon as possible. Carry at least 5-6 business cards of yours in the wallet at all times. You never know when you will meet someone interesting.
 
8. Explore Library
Explore the library of the company in the very first week and see what all resources does it have? What all books/magazines does it carry? What needs to be done if you want to
recommend a book to your company's library? How to get the books issued & what are the library policies? Making friends with the librarian is usually very helpful.
 
9. Explore Intranet
Explore the whole of the intranet within the first week itself and see what all it has to offer? Create favorites for sites you plan to visit often.
 
10. Spending Lunch time usefully
Lunch time in the company can be time spent really well if planned properly. Ensure that you go to lunch with your team at least once a week. Also, ensure that you are not 
going with the same people 5 times a week. J Use lunch time to grow your network and to soothe your friends who always complain that we never get a chance to meet.
 
Try to visit friends who are in other companies during lunch time or ask them to visit you over lunch. If that is not possible, you can always meet friends from other groups 
in your company only.
 
11. Brown Bag Sessions
In some companies, there is a concept of "Brown Bag". In "Brown Bag", around 8-10 people form a group(generally part of the same team), get their lunches packed and go to
a conference room. And one person(one out of those 8-10 people on a round robin basis) does a one hour presentation on a topic of general interest. If your company doesn't 
have this concept, you can always introduce it. J
 
At Work
12. Managing emails
Never send/receive personal emails from your corporate account. Some companies monitor your mail usage. Use your corporate account for only corporate communication. 
Use your hotmail/yahoo account to get personal emails. Two reasons - Personal email ids don't change frequently and you want to read your personal mails at home and 
even if you are on a vacation. If you are not in the IT field, make sure that you check your emails at least once a week.
 
13. Different directories for work and personal info
Maintain different directories for work and personal information. Create a good directory structure like all your intranet favorites should go to one folder and all others 
to a different folder.
 
14. Address Book
Maintain one consolidated address book at either yahoo or hotmail.com. Yahoo is better because it lets you categorize and search on the address book.
 
15. Calendar
Maintain work calendar on your corporate mail client(outlook, lotus notes, etc) and a personal calendar on calendar.msn.com or calendar.yahoo.com. It is very handy
to keep track of your appointments.
 
16. To-Do List
Generally, people feel a need to maintain a to-do list after about 1-2 years of corporate life. It is always a good idea to start maintaining one as soon as you enter the
corporate world.
 
After Work
17. Using commute time
Some people might end up commuting for 30-40 minutes per day. Commuting time can be spent well if one uses that time to either read something or to listen to 
something good on walkman. And if one doesn't like reading/listening, it can be used to sleep as well. It shouldn't be spent in non-stop chatting by any chance. J
 
18. Societies around your place
Explore all the professional societies in your city and get on their mailing lists to keep track of their activities. Explore all the useful professional/social mailing lists. 
Ask your colleagues and friends what mailing lists they find useful.
 
19. Look for a research institution or an MBA college around your location
Most of the times, one would find an MBA college or a research institution around the place. It is especially easy if the job location happens to be a metropolitan. 
These places hold many lectures/presentations which corporates can also attend. Try to attend as many events as possible. It is useful for learning as well as networking.
 
20. Regular Reading
When one is in college, there is very less time to read books which are not related to academics. Now that you are out of college, cultivate the habit of reading daily
for at least an hour. It could be something on your intranet, your favorite newspaper, a web log or a book. It is essential for fast growth in career.
 
If you are planning to go for further studies, then you probably have an idea of your goals. Otherwise think of ways in which you are going to grow in your career – It
could mean attending in-house trainings, reading books, joining societies or talking to people within or outside the company. In the nutshell, if someone asks you – how
will you grow in the next one year, you should have a concrete answer to that. J
 
This article is for people who wish to excel and not “survive” in the corporate world. Don't worry about surviving because almost 99% survive. J