A system for the most important skill

Continuous learning in today’s world is super - important. Gone are the days of stopping learning after you enter the workforce. If you do that today, you’re doomed.

With the rapid pace of changes in this world, you will be left behind if you choose to ignore changes and don’t adapt to the market.

Every time you change your job or even projects within your company, it feels like people around you speak French and Greek. This is because, knowledge has become highly specialized. On top of these we have company processes, systems & acronyms.

From my experience, it takes around 3 months to really understand what’s going on in the new team / company. During this time, your learning curve should be steep.

Without the right tools and systems, you will be totally lost.

The system I follow is quite simple. It has worked for me whenever I changed projects and want to keep learning.

1. Create a knowledge tree.

I like mind maps, so I create this tree of what the job needs you to know. You can build this over time by:

• Job description.

• Problems you’re solving.

• Day - to - day discussions.

In the above example, I was a product engineer at a tier - 1 automotive exterior lighting company.

The idea is not to be an expert in everything, but to understand what topics you need to know about to be effective at what you do.

2. Note down stuff / ask questions.

In meetings / daily discussions, you will start listening to some strange new words and terms digital - twin / FMVSS / agile etc. You can do 2 things:

• Ask a question. Use your judgement here e.g. who is in the audience, how many people are in the meeting etc.

• Note it down in your second brain (I use Microsoft One Note at work and Notion for personal stuff).

3. Block 10% of your time to learn 1 & 2.

When you have a fair idea of what’s going on in the team and know where your gaps are, you need to block some times in your calendar to just sit and learn all this new stuff.

I block Fridays 12 - 4 PM to learn and explore things related to my current project/ industry. You can go to what you noted in points 1 & 2 and start learning.

While learning, try to understand the basics:

• What is it?

• How does it work?

• Why is it important here?

To make sure you really understand what you’re learning, use techniques such as Feynman technique. It’s super helpful.

Hope this helps you navigate your new project/ job.

What methods do you use to keep learning at a new job? Let me know so we can have a conversation.