In my forty three plus year journey, I have learned a thing or two. Believe me, I don't live with my head in the dirt, always, I tell me boys, head on a swivel. Look around, learn, good people always want to teach others. It is a pleasure to see a young person pick up a good habit from you, especially when you take pleasure in doing a job or activity.
My third point on the road to being a productive man, once you are responsible for your actions and have gotten in the habit of being punctual, is learn. Learn from the books, pamphlets, power points. Especially, learn from the people that do the work. Employers don't want knuckledraggers, they want people with some spark, some ability. Looking good in the company shirt works for the model in the commercial, the other 99.9% of employees have to actually deliver the goods, make it, present the data, whatever your job description. The reality of a job can be downright dirty, but you do it, and you learn to do it well because you want to be a man,
My boy is a server at Alamo Drafthouse, seems like once a month or so, somebody trips him runs into him, or he just loses concentration and he spills a tray full of drinks. It is embarrassing, and a lesser person would want to run and hide, but he toughs it out, cleans the mess, best he can and keeps moving. One of those times, he even got a root beer float dumped on his back by some kid. It was all accidental, I'm sure he wanted to kick the kid, but he took it like a man and cleaned up. That kinda stuff makes me proud of my Boy. Some day he'll be an engineer or something like that, but he is learning the value of a dollar right now, and he is seeing and learning what it can be like when the opportunity we are giving him to get a degree is not there.
He does pay attention, and even though he does it only part time, while in school, they have offered a few opportunities, such as becoming a trainer, or becoming a waiter, not just a server. He doesn't want to commit because we tell him school is his priority, but maybe during the summer, he can do more for them. This is because he shows up ready and alert, and thus he kicks ass on the floor.
Similarly, I started my career at AMD some 19 years ago. I tried coming in as an engineer, but they would not hire me. So I took an alternate route, I started as an operator, working in the fab, making wafers (semiconductor chips, stuff that goes in computers). After a year, I looked for an opportunity, and found one on night shift. My salary doubled overnight and I found a job I loved doing for three years, still working in the fab, but as an engineer. When things started looking bad, I found a position elsewhere within AMD, and by luck, I ended up in the cushiest position imaginable. Maybe the work just agrees with me, but I love what I do, doesn't even feel like work when I have the coffee going and the music blasting. Sounds easy enough, but those of us left have had to survive like seven different layoffs. Seems like every two or three years this place shakes off people.
Best I can tell you, go in to a new work environment with eyes wide open, learn as much as you can, make yourself valuable, not the nugget that can be fired cause the boss is hung over. Offer yourself to work those hours nobody else wants to do. I worked through about 12-14 years of Thanksgivings when I started. It's been only the last two or three that I have been home for that holiday. At this moment, it is Friday December 26, most everybody is home on a Friday evening. I am at work, doing OT, I don't let those opportunities slip by.
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