Mind Your Decisions

Liking the Tasks You Hate, and Learning while Getting Paid

This article is cross-posted at Employee Evolution

I used to fear calling random people on the phone. It was so bad that I didn’t like calling for delivery pizza. It did not affect too much of my daily life until my first summer job where I had to call vendors about shipping problems. I cringed at the task and was unable to get out of it. For a whole week, I hated going to work.

It was a change in attitude that improved my situation. I realized that as much as I hated my task, I was learning a valuable skill. More importantly, someone was actually paying me to do it. I began to view the task as an opportunity to improve communication skills. Not only did I do my current job better, but I carried that skill into my next job.

Since then, I’ve always sought to learn while being paid even if that meant doing something I was scared of or didn’t doing. Since most of us change jobs every few years, learning general skills can help you suit up for the next job.

Here are five methods I’ve used to gather general skills while getting paid:

1. Take a reimbursable class, or find free seminars

This is the most obvious way to learn on the job: take classes your company will pay for. In some jobs, this is a stated benefit. Make sure you get proper approval and take advantage of it.

If tuition is not a stated benefit, ask if people have taken seminars or had classes paid for by the company. Often companies will help out if you can demonstrate how it applies to your current tasks.

If your company won’t pay for classes, consider looking to vendors for free seminars. Some data providers (like Bloomberg) give free and useful seminars regularly as part of their marketing. You can even get a free lunch out of some of these talks.

2. Write about a specific task in a self-review

It is a natural tendency for your company to staff you in roles you are well suited. For instance, since I have a technical background, I tend to get staffed in quantitative analysis. While I enjoy these roles, they don’t expand my overall skills.

To keep learning more skills, I specifically mentioned in my self-review that I wanted to work on qualitative skills. I wrote a specific task about working with presentation slides. My advisors took note and mentioned an opportunity when it arose.

3. Keep an eye out for unusual activities

There were times when I was too busy to take a class and where I also could not be staffed to learn what I wanted. One time, I wanted to improve my presentation skills. Nothing was coming, but I kept a vigil eye out for opportunities.

Soon there was an opening with on-campus recruiting. I thought, “Well, it is not a presentation to a prestigious client, but it does involve similar skills.” And it was a lot of fun. Not only did I get to work on presenting skills, but it was a chance to introduce myself to people in the recruiting department of my company.

4. Take initiative and create a task

Sometimes there really are no opportunities to help you work on a skill. In this case, be creative and take initiative. During one period when I had some free time, I was very tempted to read blogs and check sports. But I had the company resources at my disposal, so I became creative. I spent a couple of days developing a slide presentation about the kind of cases I was involved in and then got approval to present it to other employees over lunch. I was able to work on my skills and get other people trained in my line of work.

5. Learn to like a task that you hate

This is my least favorite way to learn, but yes, you can view those boring tasks as learning opportunities, like I did when I had to call people. No matter how much you hate your task, there is probably a way you can learn from it. And just keep in mind you are getting paid all the same.