I Was Let Go from Zcash Foundation, Here’s What I Learned

I have an important update concerning my apprenticeship that I thought I should share with you. Recently, Zcash Foundation let me go about a month ago. Why and how?

It’s absolutely disheartening to unexpectedly leave a company. Despite that, I learned important lessons from my employer and from myself as well.

To all my friends and future employers reading this I will be plain, candid, and most importantly, honest about my experience.

I had a wonderful time working for Zcash Foundation as an operations associate and I’m grateful they gave me the opportunity to be a part of their world-changing team. It was also my first time being an operations associate.

The experience I gained was invaluable. I now have operational knowledge such as running payroll, maintaining databases, and creating spreadsheets. I learned all these things and more within the two months I was there.

What happened?

Basically, it all boiled down to different expectations in company culture and professional standards. It just wasn’t a proper fit for either of us.

My boss was looking for someone who already had some experience and expected perfection or close to it. But I had a different learning style that didn’t match the company culture; I have a scientific approach to learning and I learn best through observation and experimentation. Some people also call this trial and error.

I made several different mistakes such as forgetting to apply formulas to the spreadsheet (I was still learning Excel) and accidentally misdirecting my boss to the wrong tab when we were running payroll together.

I also made the mistake of not telling my boss about signed contracts and other important emails because I had assumed that she would see them since we had a shared inbox.

What did I learn?

Despite several slip-ups, I was diligent in finding solutions and presenting them to my boss. My solutions were simple yet effective and I found them with the help of a few Google searches.

Moreover, I now have a clear idea of the responsibilities of operations related roles and won’t be making the same mistakes that I listed above.

Instead, I’ll remember to always put formulas in spreadsheets (even if it’s as simple as 2+2) and assume that shared accounts such as inboxes are my sole responsibility.

Here are some solutions I found that worked for me:

• Focus! Pay attention closely
• Eliminate distractions, e.g. move to a quiet room/close your door and set strict rules for family members to not distract you while working
• Triple-check your work!
• Do something completely different during breaks, it’ll help reset your brain
• Check my work again with fresh eyes
• Yoga and meditation might help
• Give your undivided attention to each task, e.g. trying to run bills and plan events literally at the same time, instead finish one task at a time
• Listen to music with no lyrics

I added these solutions to my work notes which were shared with my boss. You can view the notes here to get an idea of my organization skills.

Additionally, I learned it helped to repeat my notes to her, in one sentence, at the end of every meeting. Likewise, I then asked her to recap, in one sentence, if I correctly recorded the list of responsibilities for the day.

Moving forward

Life will always throw curve balls and as cliche as that sounds, it’s true. Successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Julia Child were all let go at least once in their careers.

This was an important learning experience for both me and my former boss and it gave us a better idea about management and different learning styles.

My boss gave me constructive feedback and said, “You have a great sense of humility, which is one of the most valuable professional traits you can have.”

No matter what is thrown at me, whether it be critique, criticism, or compliments, I always accept it with grace. I’ve found that you can learn how to improve yourself from the harshest experiences. The trick is to always see the good in people.

If you’ve ever been through a difficult time at work or in your personal relationship, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback.