Willing Learners Will Always Find Themselves Surrounded By Willing Teachers
For many, the title just sounds like common advice, but the willingness to learn has been so beneficial to me, especially during my time with the Olympic Broadcasting Services and now in Huawei, that I want to write about it and always be reminded to be a willing learner and have humility.
Accept that there are (many) things that you don’t know
In other words, drop the ego. Like many people, I sometimes feel embarrassed when I have to admit that I don’t know about something, and there were plenty of times when I hesitated before asking someone a question. But I realized that by doing this, you’re essentially self-sabotaging by making it more difficult to complete a task and also, wasting not just your time, but everyone else’s.
My experience in Huawei
During my second month in Huawei (which isn’t too long ago), I was assigned to support an operation in a different project, with barely any knowledge of how the system works and, having only done corporate trainings and read crudely-made documentations by other engineers on a similar system, I found myself overwhelmed. The other guys on the team didn’t know (and definitely wasn’t expecting) that I was the new guy either!
One of the managers immediately assigned a couple of issues when I first arrived, and let’s just say, you’re never going to come up with a solution if you can’t even understand the problem! It was frustrating because I couldn’t describe what I didn’t know or what I needed to do, and I ended up spending a very long time trying to formulate questions that I could ask someone (in what was a rather chaotic work environment because of the nature of the operation).
Fortunately, a senior engineer saw what was going on and told me to ask around to get an idea of what they’re doing and try to assist as best I can. Again, I was hesitant, but eventually made my way to an engineer seated nearest to me and began asking questions (that made absolutely no sense). And man I received so much more than what I asked for! Each time I asked someone for help, they didn’t just answer my question but were always willing to share more, from general insights all the way to the special problem solving tools or techniques that they use. To say that I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.
After spending a month in the operation, I finally understood that what matters is not formulating the right questions to ask, but having the courage to admit that you’re completely clueless or wrong about something, and then go to another person for help. Eventually, I was able to learn most of the necessary tasks to actually be productive for the operation thanks to the team, there’s still a lot to learn but it’s always good to know that you have improved.
While all this could potentially make a case for mismanagement and it probably would’ve have been better if I was given some hand-holding, I’m glad I went through this process because the best way to learn is by experience. Personally, I feel that it’s a net positive experience because aside from the 12 to 14-hour-long night shifts and having to also work on weekends, I was able to learn many things about the work that I do and also make connections with people from the project.
During the Olympics
I had a similar experience while I was working as a commentary control room operator in the Olympic games, albeit less traumatizing (haha!) than the one in Huawei. During the games, I was seriously considering a career change after learning more about the broadcasting line of work from professionals and actually experiencing some of it (I eventually decided not to due to the lack of opportunities in Malaysia).
Anyway, I was very interested in switching careers at that moment in time but I lacked the knowledge and experience, which is complete normal for anyone who’s just starting out. What is not normal, is that this was the perfect time to learn because I was surrounded by broadcasting professionals, and I feel like I wasn’t making full use of the opportunity (partly because we were part working and vacationing).
Again, I was extremely lucky to have met some amazing managers and colleagues who were always willing to teach and share their experiences. I’ve even had small learning sessions where I was taught about how the equipment function and how everything integrate and work together. All I had to do was ask and show that I was willing to learn. And It was fantastic!
No conclusion here, I’ve gone off track.
I may have written this piece more like a journal and its content may not be as relevant to the title, but I’m glad I did because I can look back and realize that there’s still so much for me to learn and grow as a person.
