Best Career Advice You Ever Received
According to a 2017 Gallup report , the average person spends 90,000 hours of their life in the office, yet only one third of U.S. employees are employed at their jobs and in the workplace. It may be inevitable, but making our jobs and careers even a little more satisfying and fulfilling can lead to a significant overall improvement in our daily lives.
With that in mind, yesterday we asked you for the best career advice you have ever received . Here are some of the things you said.
Receive receipts
We’ve written about the importance of keeping track of your progress , and it’s more than one of you has testified. Monojojo says:
When I started my first management job, my father told me to keep a work diary, which was very helpful. This made it much easier to self-assess as well as update updates. It was also very rewarding to just go back and see your growth and be able to put things in perspective – it’s a record of what worked and what didn’t.
And Fritz O’Ham agrees:
- Nobody, NO ONE is irreplaceable.
- Human resources are not your friend
- If you don’t train your replacement, you can never move up.
- Keep a journal of what you are doing, what you are working on, what you have achieved, what you have failed. Use this to protect yourself during a checkout or to write your resume. Don’t expect anyone to give you something someday without first explaining why you deserve it.
Don’t take more than you can chew
As someone who remembers every time someone is late for a meeting with me, Ghost Rider’s advice is pertinent:
Be reliable. If you say you are going to do something, do it. If you said that you will be somewhere at a certain time, come 5-10 minutes earlier. Being reliable is a forgotten professional skill.
MechE31 learned the hard way , so you don’t need to:
Don’t sign up for more than you can handle. Right out of college, I took on every project I could, which meant I had to get it done twice as fast as I should. This leads to a decrease in the performance of the specified tasks and missing the promised deadlines.
Better to say no when you’re overwhelmed.
From Dinne – No additional comments required:
Shut up and listen
Treat people well
Unfortunately for the introverts among us, LilMacAndCheeze’s advice is all too real:
As much as you want it to be, personal connections and networking will advance your career far better than your skill set. On top of that: no matter how skilled you are, no one wants to work with an asshole. Hone your social skills as well as your professional skills and you will go far.
And this means, as acmeindustries notes, precisely building relationships with colleagues:
I usually give terrible advice, but it’s actually a good thing: instead of (or in addition to) sucking up to your bosses, have a good relationship with your peers. One of them will likely become your boss at some point or contribute greatly to your career opportunities. I was recently promoted and now I have some controlling powers over people who were my peers a week ago. Some of them competed oddly with me, which doesn’t think very well of them now.
And it’s not just about being a good employee. Huhullatus as an employer does his best:
If you rely on outside labor at all for your work, pay your employees as soon as they finish their work. I used to be in property management and realized that if I paid the check before the plumber / electrician / painter / anyone else left, they would be loyal converts for life. I was in a market where you could expect a 4 week wait for someone to do an HVAC, but I could find someone the same day. They literally left another job to do mine, and then returned to what they were doing because they left with money in their hands.
So many freelance jobs, no matter how well paid, can be precarious in terms of income. I believe that a freelancer who works at a desk as a graphic designer is no different from a handyman. You will still have to pay them and a quick check can earn you a reputation, no thanks or referrals will ever buy. NEVER make a freelancer wait for money. This is rude and will end up confusing you.
Be true to yourself
Remember, you can always be replaced. So live accordingly, says Unreallystic :
“They don’t care about you.” No matter how valuable you are to the company, if you drop dead on Monday, they’ll be ready to be replaced by Friday. I did absolutely stupid things, worked up to 36 hours straight – trying to impress and climb the corporate ladder. Someone here told me this … older and wiser gentlemen whom I had already passed, so I took it superficially, but literally in the same project I was working on, I saw how far away the “loyalty” is to the company really got you.
And when I talk about loyalty, I do not mean to oppose it with disloyalty – for example, disclosing information and the like, I mean taking an oath against it at the cost of my life.
Finally, if the job isn’t your dream job, there are many things you can try to improve or improve your mood throughout the day. But as some guy on the internet reminds us,
Nobody ever said, “Damn, I wish I could hold out on this shitty job a little longer.”
Anything to add? Let us know.