A mind-set shift that transformed work from dull to fun - Zaid Shawahin

00:00

So yeah, I think that kind of forced me into accepting my weak points. And once I realized I've got weak points, I started working them, and I love to say I turned them into strong points.

00:14

Maybe a good place to start is how would you describe your relationship with work?

00:22

With work... As in my company or just work in general?

00:27

So I guess all of this is about you, and kind of less about your company, because I'd love to know how you've gone about deciding on different things over time, but more about you as an individual. How have you approached work?

00:47

It's an interesting question. And I'm going to try to give you the answer that's more related, because it's a very broad one. When I was a bit younger, and let's just say immature, how I approached work was... Because you're somewhat smart if you're a software engineer. Then you think like getting away with the stuff and it's just like university. You can just do all in one batch and it'll never catch up with you. So yeah, at first, that's my main experience is, you don't address it with focus, you don't address [inaudible 00:01:24], you just address it with something that you can overtake and just plow through.

As the time went by, as more and more time went by, I realized that this is not the most [inaudible 00:01:36] and optimized way to do work. But it doesn't work, so university does not work, ironically the same word.

Yeah. So I started revisiting my idea of what work should be and what is my attitude towards work. Because for me it was like, I don't like reading, I like to get away with whatever I can get away with. And I just like minimal efforts, maximum outputs, that's what I was going for. I didn't like reading. I like getting the hands on. So yeah, at first that was my prospect from work. But as more and more experience came through, I started reading more working less. And when you read more, you kind of make less mistakes. And when you make less mistakes, this is how I address work at the moment, is like, try to be as focused as you can be. You will always be distracted if you let yourself be distracted. You need to address when you're being distracted.

Do not punish yourself for it. Just address it when you speak it. Especially when you make it heard by other colleagues who just stated, it makes you more conscious to focus on the next step. Because now you made a thing. Now you're the unfocused guy and you admitted it. You need to be better at it. And once you realize that it makes working like moving smoother again. And what would I say my relationship with work at the moment? How do I see what's a good work? It's the work when you do it, you feel satisfied, and you kind of want to perfect it. It's not the kind of work you want to just get it done with. If it's getting done with, there's something wrong. You should never feel that way. Anyone's like, "Oh I just want to get it done with, I never want to visit this again". It's something that you want to be proud of. You want to wherever you revisit it, you'll be like, "Ah, yes. I remember when I did that, I remember..."

03:35

What a transformation. You've got all the way from minimum effort maximum output, to, "I want to be in a state of flow". What was the moment that you said, "Okay, I accept that I am not doing this right"?

03:50

I think it was in my first for upper undergrad job. So before I did my masters, I was an under developer in Jordan. And it was all right. It was something I'm comfortable with. And I've always kind of been like never leaving my comfort zone when it comes to technical wise, and which kind of kept me afloat. It's just like a little patching. You never really do some proper development. In my head it was like that's enough. But then I moved to the UK, and the market there is way more aggressive. It's way more detailed. Education wise, I started to realize in that one. I did my masters, but after that I worked in a UK company and I realized as time went by, it's not going to cut it. I was just, this attitude will never take you anywhere.

At the end of the day you would feel bad about your capabilities, but your brain is not cooperating with you because of your attitude. And that's when it hit me. First of all, I switched jobs, because these are the things that you can't undo. It's just like you got to get a fresh start. And in your fresh start, you got to start from the bottom up. Forget everything you learned and just do everything right this time. Learn from your mistakes. And I think that's when it got to a point where I was like, "I need a fresh start", because I kind of screwed it over with my first job, which is fine. I think not a lot of people do it. They screw up big with their first job. They kind of eased their way into it.

05:23

How did you screw up?

05:25

Well, it was one of the nicest, it was one of the nicest jobs you can secure as a graduate. And it was very promising. So I was at that status either, I curled up and I just don't do anything about it. And I just keep going down to that spiral. Actually, I just started from bottom up, and build my way back, and I think I got resilience out of that, because at first I was just feeling so hopeless and I was like...

05:54

But what happened?

05:57

So yeah, like I said, it just kept going bad to worse in my first job. And my reviews were getting bad to worse as well. And when COVID hit as well, oh my God, it was the boiling point, I think, because I was working from home and I was the most distracted person in the world. That's the thing, my mentality was, I need supervision in order for myself to be focused. And when I had that supervision...

06:21

You need an accountability partner in somehow.

06:22

Yeah. And when I had that supervision in the office, it was okay. I could get by. But when I was at home, it was gone. It was destroyed. So yeah, I think that kind of forced me into accepting my weak points. And once I realized I've got weak points I started working them, and I love to say, I turned them into strong points, because in my year review at Volkswagen here, one of the strong points, as I said, that I'm like laser sharp when it comes to focusing, when there's a task I eliminate all the... Which was amazing to hear, one. And two, it was the complete opposite of what's my initial starting point. I was like, "Okay". So I admitted there, you talk about your weaknesses. You don't just brush it under the corner in your brain, and just keep going step by step.

Because it took time. It took time to get to that state. And it's okay if you fall into the old patterns, just you need to admit it, and then make it hurt, make it hurt. So that, one, you eliminate of the doubt of your teammates being, "Mm, this guy's lurking". Once you admit it, it shows that you are working on it. You're not just taking the piss, basically. And you recognize that this is not your normal, or not what you not want to be the normal, which changes the attitude of your team members, and changes the attitude of yourself towards it as well.

07:53

Why has it clicked at Volkswagen?

07:55

That's interesting. I did say that because I know what Volkswagen seems like, seems like this big organization that's got a lot of protocols, and that's got a lot of things, but here in the office, in Lisbon, it's a software development center. And the way they do work is not what you expect Volkswagen to be. It's like one big family. It really is. You sometimes forget that you are working for this huge hierarchy organization, until there's something wrong with the Germany office and you'd have to go through all the ladder. But there's no hierarchy, it's a flat structure. I'd be joking with my CEO every day.

08:34

Is everyone there like you?

08:38

Kind of, yes. And I think this is what's made it nice. It's the hiring process. The way it filters. If you pass them you're like 90% fit for the company culture.

08:48

That's interesting. Because you might have times where someone would say, "You know what? I want to join a company where everyone is not like me".

08:54

I tried that. I crashed and burned. I crashed and burned hard. When I say like me, I'm talking strictly personality wise. We've got like 16 different nationalities, and so many languages in there. But we speak English, obviously. But yeah, in the office we've got 16 different nationalities, but we are all in the same mindset, which is fine, which is the best thing. Because you don't have to... I don't know, fill the gaps. These [inaudible 00:09:29] gaps. We're all in the same wave, which is nice.

If you were to take your definition of what it means to do your best work, I can source it and let everyone else in the company see it. Do you think that there would be similarities with others? Would it be close?

09:46

100%. One of the rules, which on my six months reviews they told me, "Oh, you need to watch for that", I was like, "Yeah, fair enough", which is, you should write a code that nobody will know who wrote it. When I read it, I can assume it's anybody, because I had my ways of writing stuff. But the way we do it is we should kind of, okay, don't change the way you think, but the way we write it. We need to be on the same wave that it's so understandable and so in our culture that nobody can tell who wrote this, unless you go to the get log and see who wrote this. But if you read it, it could be literally any developer. Because initially when I started writing stuff, I had my way of doing it. My namings, my style, and they're like, "Hey, you could tell a bit this year". But after six months after the year they told me, "Yeah, you've done really well. You just blended in with us, which is really good. You can be part of any team and you'll fit in right".

10:41

Where's the line between being micromanaging in that scenario, giving too many prescriptive ideas of how you should work, versus giving, being given in the autonomy?

10:56

I would definitely say it's not micromanaging, because you are free to do what you want. This was a developer to developer feedback. It's nobody on top. It's basically... So let's just say we both speak English. And for everybody else to understand us, we try to be on the same accent. I know it's, but we try to be on the same for everybody else to understand, which is understandable. In the company, we have so many languages we speak. I speak Arabic, they speak Portuguese, but our common ground is English. So we always speak in English. Even if I'm the only English person and there's like 15 Portuguese people, they speak English.

It's the same with code. So why do you do your own style, language, and they do their own? It will get to a point where you need to call them. It's like, "What did you mean by this?" "Oh, can you tell me what was here?" But if you do it, you're not changing the way you think, you're changing the way you describe what you think in order to be on the same flat line. And I think it's not micromanaging at all. I think it's a good standard itself.

12:01

How would you say the whole experience that you've gone through most recently finding work will inform how you go about doing it when it comes to the next time around?

12:11

Okay. So in my case it was very unique, because I joined during COVID times, and I was supposed to move to Lisbon October last year. And I only moved to Lisbon September this year. So I worked with them remotely for 11 months before I actually... So I knew everybody to start with, but I kind of knew them but I never saw them except for the camera. And they actually all came to the airport, it was pretty fun. So in my case it's very unique. I don't think it'll happen in any other employer where I know them for 11 months before I see them, but when I see them they already come...

12:40

When they come to the airport.

12:42

Yeah. They were literally like 16 people with all the flags. And it was like, "Oh my God, this is the best day of my life".

12:49

Oh my God.

12:49

Yeah. So it was very unique. And I know for a fact they will never, well, I'll never say never, but it will probably never happen in any new job that I go find in. I know the chemistry as well will be different, because meeting new people, you get a tip and toe about it. I got 11 months of free trial of [inaudible 00:13:08] into know them a little bit, bit by bit, over the camera. Because it's easier. You and me are talking here, is easier to talk over video than in person, because in person you can interpret their body language, you can interpret their actual facial expressions in a proper way. And it's just not, I think it's smoother to start of a video. And I think it's not going to be the same in any new employee because I might do it video for a month, but when I go there, I'm still getting to know them. And you got these things in your head. It's like, "I need to put my best image for them".

But when I got here, I was like, "They already know me, man. They know all my exes. They know all my stories. They know me. I can express myself the way I want. But in the first initial times you get to know the new people. It's got to be a bit more tricky, because they don't know you, whatever you show them at the moment is what they will have their first impression. First three months is what they have impression built over you. And then you kind of either have a good impression or you're screwed.

14:14

So be yourself.

14:17

Yeah, be yourself. Exactly. But sometimes if you be yourself too early, that's what I'm saying. If you be yourself, they might not get a joke you said or misinterpreted. And especially in professional field, it's not like meeting people at the pub. So that's the thing. But when I got here, I was like, I can literally view myself. Don't care what they think. Because they already know me enough to not build their whole judgment on it.

14:44

Zaid, I love your story, man. I feel like you're an absolute hero. Thank you so much taking the time out sharing.

14:52

Yes. I got the picture as well if you want to see it. Wait, I'll put it on the camera. It's on my camera footage.

14:59

I'll share it afterwards too. That's absolutely amazing.

15:08

[inaudible 00:15:08] jokes.

15:08

That's absolutely amazing.

15:08

It is. It is. Honestly...

15:11

You will never find that again.

15:13

I will never. I didn't even know. I didn't even know. I was just walking, I was like texting [inaudible 00:15:16] and I was like, "Right, you didn't really tell me what's the actual deal. Am I going to go and take an Uber?" And the only thing I got was like, "Don't worry, we got you with a wink". I'm like, "What does that mean? Are you going to send me a taxi? I [inaudible 00:15:28] to the office. I don't even have keys. So yeah, they kept me on my toes, but yeah.

15:34

Oh my goodness.

15:34

Yeah, it was good. It was good.