What matters to you and why?

I still have a vivid memory of the moment when I first stepped into one of the most prestigious colleges in Ho Chi Minh City – Foreign Trade University. At that time, I used to be a person who always considers that accumulating sufficient knowledge and obtaining good skills is a must which can offer me a large window of employment opportunities with expected salaries and other benefits in the future, so I have to be perfect at those two things. Back to then, what really concerned me was how to achieve good grades or what extracurricular I should engage in. After three years, now I reflect on what has been done so far and realize everything is different from what I thought it should have been.

Regarding an ongoing internship, I was exposed to many novelties and inevitable failures due to my rigid performance based on hypothetical groundings. However, after failures come valuable lessons. At first, giving a mechanical response to the assigned tasks had impeded my comprehensibility to the essence value of the job; then, I myself strived to observe and perceive learning attitude or respect towards surroundings plays a pivotal role. From then, I could notice how my working life has changed day by day thanks to my proactively dealing with tasks and constantly supporting others. Also, more added value is created for myself and other people with my can – do attitude. Therefore, this led to higher efficiency and much faster-paced workplace.

Undeniably, life does not just revolve around studying and practicing – this is what I learned from the 3 – month internship. It is apparent that knowledge and skills may support you at some phases of your work, but attitudes promote lifetime improvements. Thus, instead of relying too much on theoretical understandings, I would reckon our rising generation should pay more attention to pragmatic guide. When adopting humble attitude and enthusiasm in academic environment, I could acknowledge how positively my friends were influenced through my consistent making effort. Hence, I wholeheartedly believe this change will be conducive to self – development and community, especially in a workplace, where people often label it “stiff competition”.

In this day and age, most enterprises seem to appreciate staff’s attitude rather than their understandings or skills. I as well as others have to figure out how to suit this trend since a minor change in attitude can entail a significant result.