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Up until now, educators have been required to be clear about expectations (rubrics, curricula, syllabi) and outcomes (grades, certificates, report cards). It varies a bit by profession, but that sort of structure goes away very suddenly once your career starts. In some ways, that structure is already an illusion because many professions utterly ignore grades after only a few years of experience are added to a resume. Initially, it is very liberating to not have another quiz, test, dissertation, or other deadline looming. Enjoy that reprieve. People canny about doing excellent work and advancing their careers will soon notice that they have a relatively open feedback loop. They deliver work, someone accepts the work with little constructive criticism, and then they move on to the next bit of work. But was it 'A' work? We're there mistakes to be corrected? Was the work below average in quality? Was it overproduced? Will your work get you the raises and promotions you want? The next job you want? Will it advance the goals of your team? Does it even give you decent job security? Typical companies will have annual or semiannual feedback processes, but that is like turning in all the homework, quizzes, tests, papers, etc., then only getting a semester report card for feedback. And only then finding out that your grader ignored homework and valued office hour participation highly this whole time. What to do? Understand that it's your job to seek high quality feedback from whoever you can find. Peer reviews, mentors, your boss, your boss's boss, people who have the kinds of jobs you want, and so on. You might have to get out and network professionally to grow a set of people to help you in this way. That means, to be excellent at your job and career, do not exclusively take direction from your immediate supervisor. Certainly be an excellent team member and keep your boss proud of you, but if you are only waiting around for the next assignment from the boss, you'll likely stunt your growth. There is no set program for you to follow anymore. If you don't want to be wandering around blind, you need to do your own research and get your own feedback. ADDENDUM: I guess I didn't say this explicitly. For the same reasons, it's also your job to make sure expectations are clear before starting an assignment, project, or other goal. Good bosses are good at this, but everyone has flaws and you want to thrive even under mediocre or poor management. |
Agree. Not always of high quality, but also for "reality check". For example, you'll have to write a feedback tool yourself (i.e. for a B2B, private software that hundreds of people can use daily), so you get how the users value the product (typical star system with optional comments, etc).