About a year ago, I posted an article on what I've learnt during my 6 months as an SGUnited trainee.
It has been exactly 1 year since I left my 1-year SGUnited traineeship with a local bank to embark on a new career path.
And I finally have the time to sort out and list down Part 2 of everything I've learnt and experienced during the second half of my time at said bank.
Because it is so long, I am breaking it down into multiple smaller parts for it to be an easier read, and adding a more detailed story to every lesson.
Today's lesson is from a mistake I made a few months into the job.
1. The Story
I was a product officer in the local bank.
Let's call my team "Team A".
Several months into the job, I was tasked to run some spreadsheet analysis on a new initiative we were thinking of launching.
The spreadsheet contains the customers and their transaction data.
I was supposed to analyse the data based on a financial model/framework that was developed by another department in the bank.
Let's call that department "Team B".
I was told that I could ask a senior guy in Team B for help on the framework if I had any issues.
I soon ran into problems with the framework and started asking (more like spamming) the senior guy for help cause I had a lot of questions using the framework.
Eventually, the senior guy asked me what was I doing and why I needed to know all this information about the framework.
I told the senior guy what my team was planning on doing and he asked if I could send him my spreadsheet for him to take a look at and help with my issues.
Without hesitation, I was like "Great!", and proceeded to send him the whole file.
The next day at work, my mentor called me and asked if I sent the whole file to the senior guy.
Below is a rough recap of the whole conversation.
Mentor: Did you send 'senior guy' the Excel document you were working on?
Me: Yup.
Mentor: Aiyo! Why did you send him the whole file instead of just a few customers' data?
Me: Why?
Mentor: This morning he called to scold our director cause of what we were thinking of doing.
Me: Huh? What we were planning to do will affect him?
Mentor: Ya, the program we were thinking of launching is something that will benefit our customers and our team's P&L. But the side-effect is it will negatively affect his team's P&L. Of course he will call to scold us.
Me: But net-net the bank still makes the same (or more) money and the customers will benefit more. Isn't it better? And this is just money moving from the right pocket to the left pocket.
Mentor: From the big picture, yes. But the reality is no, cause our P&L will affect our bonus.
The next thing I know, I was off the program without any formal notice.
I was just tasked to do other stuff and never heard of the program again.
Either because Team A proceeded without me, or I had successfully single-handedly ended the program with my mistake (pretty sure it was the latter 😅).
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2. Lessons Learnt
With every mistake made, there were lessons to be learnt.
Here are some of them.
1) Don't disclose too much information
I didn't ask around to find out that the Team B I was speaking to, was the "competitor" team, and that I shouldn't have divulged too much information,
Heck, I shouldn't even divulge too much information to another team, even if it is not the competitor team.
Sometimes, having a bit of secrecy helps, and this applies to work and personal life - you want to be careful who you are being transparent with.
2) There is no such thing as a 'One Big Family' organisation.
Even though we are in the same organisation, it is almost every department for themselves.
There is no right or wrong to be "every department/team for themselves", it is just the way the culture is structured, and every organisation is different.
It is just that in order to survive in this particular culture, one has to position themselves nicely to avoid getting into the cross-fire.
3. Final Words
I'll end off this story with one of my favourite scenes and the second favourite quote from a movie that I like - Cold War, 寒战.
It literally explains what I did wrong.
Translation:
"Every organisation, every department, every role, has their own set of rules, written and unwritten.
The first step is to always learn all of them. But most people are dead before they finished this step.
The second step is the find rules' boundaries are, and lines where when stepped on will trigger the rules' repercussions. Then try your best not to step on those lines. Learn how to play within those boundaries and you will be able to stay alive."
Needless to say, I was "dead" before I finished Step 1.
I didn't learn about the written and unwritten rules of the game I was in.
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