Book Review: Your First Job

Friday, July 11, 2008, I bought a book from Nelson T. Dy, a Christian author of the book entitled, Your First Job - A Practical Guide to (Survival) Success, I bought it because I was kinda in a situation where I was "company hopping", meaning I jump from one company to another. And that is not easy for me.

So I decided to look for some book that may help me answer the question as to why I am where I am right now. And this book has blessed me in ways I never thought it would.

After working for so many years I never thought I'd ask my self again the question as to why I want to work? People look for a job after graduation to earn money and to save for their future. I know that most of you who are working right now that it isn't that simple. The book tells me that God is a worker Himself. You know the story of Creation? Read the book of Genesis, there you would see that God made the heavens and the earth, including man in His own image and likeness.

What if Adam and Eve "never ate the forbidden fruit"? Will man never work to provide for himself? If you know the story of Creation, there you would see that God made man to toil...painfully toil the land and eat from it. You may not be toiling the soil but you're still working and eating the fruits of your labor...that's hard work!

In my past employers, I learned a lot from being a slave to being a leader. The book taught of the life of Joseph the dreamer, he dreamed that his brothers would someday bow before him and during those years, dreams were something that are being valued by most people because it relays a message from the future. And people gives a big deal over dreams, but when Joseph told his brothers about it, they ridiculed him and made harm on him. He was sold as a slave to Pharaoh in Egypt.

Bloom Where You Are Planted

• When God gave you a job to be done, always give your best for His name to be glorified in you. When Joseph served as a slave to Pharaoh, he never murmured nor demanded to be free, he just "bloomed where he was planted" he served Pharaoh because he believed that God wanted him to, and that it was no accident that he was there.
• The same also goes to our jobs, after graduation, we pray for God to give us a job, we submit resumes to prospective employers and when we get the job...mostly what happens is we murmur more than we work.

Work is a Blessing, Not a Curse

• Most people here in the Philippines find it hard to look for a job or land on the job they've always wanted. If you have a job right now, you are blessed apart from more than a million of people who doesn't have any.
• When you work always aim for EXCELLENCE...if you want to get rich, forget it! Money is just a by-product of excellence. You get to enjoy more of your salary when you know that you did your best to get the job done!

I have learned a lot upon buying this book. And if you're like me, I'd highly recommend this book for you as well. Let's try to be more diligent and faithful in our jobs and be a blessing in our workplace. Don't think too much of promotions, a salary raise, recognitions, always aim to be excellent in what you do. If you think you know everything, believe me you don't. There's always room for improvement, mold yourself more and don't be afraid to try new things.

Don't ever be afraid of failing. In fact, the most successful person in the world are those who commit mistakes often but learns something out of their mistakes. If God is with you, you don't really have to be afraid of failing because He knows everything even before it happens.

Think out of the box. Don't just limit yourself because of how much you earn try to expand your sight in your workplace, run some extra errands even if it's not in your job description. Expand your horizons.