I once had a 12-month contract at the college just before I got married to my wife Jennifer. It's a funny story that I accepted the contract because since my dad and mum never had jobs, I was against getting one myself.
When an opportunity opened up for me to work at the college for 12 months for a maternity leave contract, I was against it straight away and refused to even contemplate the idea.
Jennifer, to whom I was newly engaged shared some words of wisdom and suggested I should at least explore the idea. I was broke at the time trying to start up my software business. So I explored it as she suggested, and I was offered the role for an annual salary of $60,000 AUD. This was more money than I had ever earned. It was a great feeling so I sucked up my pride and accepted the role.
The job was easy. The lady I had replaced was not very good at her role. From talking to the different staff she supported in her role, she was slow, hard to deal with and had a bad attitude. I on the other hand was fast, efficient and friendly. My natural personality was to do a good job. This resulted in me going over and above the expectation of the role.
I was able to complete all my tasks quickly which resulted in a lot of free time. I even had time to build them a software package outside of my scope of pay that allowed the film and video teachers to vote on films submitted by students.
Being a college, some weeks were intense and busy, but then mid-semester rolled along and there simply wasn’t enough to do to keep me busy. My boss never felt the need to meet with me, which was fine as I was used to being self-sufficient and everyone I worked with was happy with what I was contributing.
I used this free time to build my software business. As soon as my college job needed me, I instantly stopped and gave them my full focus. But when there was nothing to do, I got to programming.
This is a season I am very thankful for because, by the time I left that job, my wife and I were able to purchase our first investment property plus my software business was earning more money than my job.
When my contract at the college was coming to an end, my boss begged me to stay. This was a season when the college was laying off staff at the time due to the Australian dollar being strong and a lack of international students attending. This blew me away. Here they were trying to create a job out of thin to make me stay while making others redundant. Unfortunately, I was about to travel the world for 12 months with my wife so it was an easy decline.
When you go over and above in areas like your employment, you not only stand out but it gives you confidence for greatness. I think that no matter what we do in life, whether at a job, volunteering or with our family, we should go over and above as it can lead to possibilities we hadn't expected or planned for.
-Ben
When an opportunity opened up for me to work at the college for 12 months for a maternity leave contract, I was against it straight away and refused to even contemplate the idea.
Jennifer, to whom I was newly engaged shared some words of wisdom and suggested I should at least explore the idea. I was broke at the time trying to start up my software business. So I explored it as she suggested, and I was offered the role for an annual salary of $60,000 AUD. This was more money than I had ever earned. It was a great feeling so I sucked up my pride and accepted the role.
The job was easy. The lady I had replaced was not very good at her role. From talking to the different staff she supported in her role, she was slow, hard to deal with and had a bad attitude. I on the other hand was fast, efficient and friendly. My natural personality was to do a good job. This resulted in me going over and above the expectation of the role.
I was able to complete all my tasks quickly which resulted in a lot of free time. I even had time to build them a software package outside of my scope of pay that allowed the film and video teachers to vote on films submitted by students.
Being a college, some weeks were intense and busy, but then mid-semester rolled along and there simply wasn’t enough to do to keep me busy. My boss never felt the need to meet with me, which was fine as I was used to being self-sufficient and everyone I worked with was happy with what I was contributing.
I used this free time to build my software business. As soon as my college job needed me, I instantly stopped and gave them my full focus. But when there was nothing to do, I got to programming.
This is a season I am very thankful for because, by the time I left that job, my wife and I were able to purchase our first investment property plus my software business was earning more money than my job.
When my contract at the college was coming to an end, my boss begged me to stay. This was a season when the college was laying off staff at the time due to the Australian dollar being strong and a lack of international students attending. This blew me away. Here they were trying to create a job out of thin to make me stay while making others redundant. Unfortunately, I was about to travel the world for 12 months with my wife so it was an easy decline.
When you go over and above in areas like your employment, you not only stand out but it gives you confidence for greatness. I think that no matter what we do in life, whether at a job, volunteering or with our family, we should go over and above as it can lead to possibilities we hadn't expected or planned for.
-Ben