Getting the first real job is undoubtedly a milestone in every person’s life. The excitement of feeling grown up, the disappointment of knowing you can never go back to being a child and the several other lessons that will help shape the rest of your life. Your first job is indeed a great teacher! Here’s a list of 10 things your first job teaches you:

1. Mondays suck a lot more when you have a job than when you are in college.

2. You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your colleagues. You learn that sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and get the work done even if it means working with assholes!

3. Deadlines are dead serious when you have a job unlike in college where you could always say sorry to your professor and submit the assignment the next day! Here you miss the deadline and you’re dead!

4. You will realise that you’re not the most important person in the world. You’ll be surrounded by people with experience ranging from 2 to 20 years handling business worth millions!

5. No matter how introverted or quiet you are by nature, you realise that there comes days when you just need to suck it up and make conversation with your colleagues! As unfair as it sounds, connections matter as much as hard work!

6. Your equation with your boss will decide your happiness level to a great extent!

7. Never engage in office gossip because you’re new and you have no idea about who’s friends with who! So the best thing for you to do is “just smile and wave!”

8. Whatever it is you do, little or big, do it efficiently. Because efficiency is a good reputation to take from your first job!

9. There will be a lot of shit flying at you from different directions. Some will be constructive criticism. But sometimes you need to stand up for yourself regardless of your job experience!

10. You learn that the feeling of receiving your first pay-check is something that’s truly amazing!