Single best piece of career advice you ever received?

[Anonymous]

Work smart, not hard (my dads mantra, regularly said to me literally as young as I can remember).

Be value added, drama free for your boss. Everything you do is solely to make the boss’s life better - so every project you do, every email you write, Every five minute convo you have with her, should be from the perspective of how will this make my boss’s day easier. If you do this AND don’t have drama (No whining, neediness, intra office problems etc), you are ahead of literally 90% of employees, even if you are not a superstar at your job content If you do this one right, you are “working smart” and can get away with working less hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In MBA classes they often said "Don't ask a question at work unless you already know the answer". And if you don't know the answer, work and research more until you do. Easier said than done, but the best advice anyone ever gave me.

This is so sad. No wonder everyone hates their job. How can that possibly be collaborative?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's just as easy to fall in love with a rich [person] as a poor [person]. This is not advice I followed but in retrospect, wish I had.

I love this one, and initially thought it was silly. But, over time, I see it has merit.

What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Your reputation is your most important asset. Do what you need to do to safeguard that asset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Also, HR is not there for employees, they work for the company. Do not consider them a confessional.

This.

HR is evil and anyone in the department is not to be trusted.

[Anonymous]

Don’t gossip about coworkers. Ever.

[Anonymous]

Your job is to make your boss look good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Work smart, not hard.

+1

[Anonymous]

If you find a good job, hold on to it tight.

[Anonymous]

Persevere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Also, HR is not there for employees, they work for the company. Do not consider them a confessional.

This.

HR is evil and anyone in the department is not to be trusted.

Hellll yeah. HR is evil. It took me a decade to realize that. Never approach them, approach a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Work smart, not hard (my dads mantra, regularly said to me literally as young as I can remember).

Be value added, drama free for your boss. Everything you do is solely to make the boss’s life better - so every project you do, every email you write, Every five minute convo you have with her, should be from the perspective of how will this make my boss’s day easier. If you do this AND don’t have drama (No whining, neediness, intra office problems etc), you are ahead of literally 90% of employees, even if you are not a superstar at your job content If you do this one right, you are “working smart” and can get away with working less hard.

So important! Yet, so rarely done.

[Anonymous]

“Never come into my office without pen and paper”.
- from first manager while he threw a notepad at me

He was right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a timely thread. My youngest daughter is entering the career field in 2021, as she plans to graduate in December. She told me she wishes she had more real-world advice. I’m thinking I’ll buy her the parachute book, but I’m open to recommendations for more contemporary/helpful books to get her started. She doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.

Tell your daughter to make friends with the receptionist, the janitor, the copy room people, the secretaries. Remember their kids names, their birthdays. These are the gatekeepers and the people who will whisk away your garbage pail when you've puked into it, the people who can tell you when and where to run into the high-level person you're desperate to speak with, the people who will save your ass when you thought you needed 2 copies but now realize you need 22 copies in 2 minutes.

Tell your daughter to find the truly cool girls at each job. Not the popular ones, but the genuinely cool ones. The ones who agree they will all help each other out, will amplify each other's ideas in meetings, will always give credit where credit is due. I worked at a law firm full of women like this, and it taught me so much about the people I wanted to hang out with at work. If you put it out there that you don't gossip and you like to support other women, the other women who feel that same way will find their way to you.

[Anonymous]

I over heard a stressed-out attorney say this to his secretary, who sat next to me:

"Don't bring me a problem without also bringing me a solution."

I thought this was brilliant and noticed that the people I worked with really appreciated when I did this, even if they didn't take my solution.