What I did when I felt my work was 'pointless' as a new graduate

I read Shu Yamaguchi's 'If you want to change your life, change your time allocation.' In it, he argues that you should declutter bad-quality work as much as possible and choose good-quality work. I completely agree. I have no objections.

However, for a young person in their 20s who has just jumped into the world of work, it is difficult to judge the quality of work. When I was a new graduate, I couldn't even turn down bad-quality work.
That was because I had never done good-quality work, and I didn't know where to go to find it.

Taking the first step in my career in a specialized field with a pounding heart

Ten years ago, I graduated from graduate school and took a job where I could use my expertise. I had finally caught up with my friends who had started working after college, and I was excited to contribute to the world.

However, the work that awaited me at the company was nothing but simple tasks that didn't require any thought. In university, I set my own research themes, planned experiments, and verified hypotheses, but at the company, which I thought was the next step, I just followed my boss's instructions. Every day, I silently searched for errors in drawings.

I immediately felt that this was not what I wanted to do.

Am I being arrogant even though I am nobody?

I hadn't even been with the company for a year, yet I was dissatisfied with my work. But I hesitated to voice that dissatisfaction, or to request a transfer or look for a new job to resolve it. At that time, there was a trend of working for at least three years after joining a company, and above all, I thought it might be arrogant for me, having just entered society, to complain that my work was 'pointless'.

Looking back after experiencing 'good-quality work'

After many twists and turns, and after experiencing some good-quality work, I now realize that the work I was assigned back then included a lot of bad-quality work. Because I didn't know that you could do good-quality work regardless of your seniority, I couldn't turn down pointless work, nor could I energetically say 'I want to do this!' about the work I wanted to do, and I worried unnecessarily.

If I could see my past self, I would want to say something.

You are not being arrogant. You just haven't done good-quality work yet.

The story of how I struggled because my work wasn't interesting and consulted my university professor, saying 'I think I'll go back to university,' will be in the next post.