After nearly a four decade career, I sometimes wonder how I survived many early retirement offers and frequent company downsizing initiatives. One reason may be that I picked up a lot of career advice from colleagues and bosses along the way. I listened to some, but not all. Here are some:
– My first boss on the first day told me, “Be nice to people on the way up. You need their help on the way down.”
-Always ask “why”? Look for ways to improve processes and products to increase profitability and productivity.
-Never stop learning. Be excited about taking on new roles.
– When you are given a job, do the best you can even though you don’t like it, You are going to be judged by how well you do in your current job before they promote you to another job you like.
– If opportunity doesn’t knock on your door, put in more doors.
– Develop a strong network inside and outside the company.
– Never say “No” to your boss and his immediate boss.
– Be nice to everyone. You never know who is going to be your boss next year.
– Find out who your boss likes and hates. Never praise the one he hates in front of him.
What is the best career advice you ever got? Or the advice you will give to any one working today?
While many HumbleDollar readers are retired or nearing retirement, there are many more who are still working. They will all benefit from your advice.
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Always do the best you can. You never know when a little thing is really a big thing. People you work for and people who work for you will know, and more importantly, you will know. You have to look in the mirror every day.
Enjoy what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life
Always tell the truth and you’ll never have to remember what you said
It was early in my career as a civil servant and I had just made the minimum time in grade when a position opened up for the next pay grade. I asked my supervisor if I had what it takes to apply for the position and she was totally onboard. I’m very grateful to this day for her response and her willingness to support me.
My parents gave me their best advice, not in words but by EXAMPLE. In other words work hard and you will achieve your goals. My advice to especially anyone new to the job or a new grad, Know what you like and are passionate about, then you will not call it Work! and you will succeed beyond your expectations.
Getting a job that is a good fit with your passions is not always easy. But certainly worth it.
My Mom gave me the best advice when I was tempted to take a job in a brand new field, with a company that was expanding into this area, not knowing how it would turn out. She said “what’s the worst that could happen?” My answer: I wouldn’t like it and could move on relatively quickly (I was in my 30s at the time.) So I took it and was very happy there for 20 years.
Excellent advice. Decision making is a lot easier if you ask yourself ” Can I live with the worst that could happen if I do this?”. That gives you a floor to build on.
Here’s a few:
Here are some more:
-Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there
-If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.
-The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.
Lead, follow or get out of the way.
Sharp, crisp and powerful.
“Be curious and never stop learning”. This career advice was good decades ago and it will continue to be a great advice for decades in future, which will be increasingly shaped by AI.
Instead of saying “No” when someone—a boss, a coworker, a client—asks you for something you can’t/won’t do, say “Here’s what I can do” and give them an alternative that works better for you. I have never not had this work. The person appreciates that you’re trying to cooperate rather than just refusing.
I’ve written about my career in a previous HD article. In my first job there were business consultants who would review what we were doing, how we did it, customer lists, booked work, etc. One day one of the consultants said the entire company was on the the verge of “technical obsolescence”. The company eventually failed, and I easily found new work – but I made sure that “technical obsolescence” was never used as a descriptor for my circumstance ever again.
“You can’t fix crazy”.
Oh … sorry … that was about another part of life.
Or … maybe not 🤪
I could provide a long list, but this is one that got my boss to “retire” and me promoted. He said “we’ve always done it that way” one too many times to the CEO.
Very right. Often I was the oldest person in a meeting. I thought I had seen it all. My first impulse was to say “We tried this a decade ago. It won’t work”. Instead, I learned to say ” How will you solve this challenge posed by your solution?” and let it go.
Never, ever use the words “We have a problem,” and instead always say “We have a challenge.” Challenge denotes the ability to overcome, foster team commitment, and resolve an issue. Problem suggests being potentially insurmountable and implies blame as someone else’s worry.
Further, if you foresee an impending challenge, acknowledge it immediately even if your fault – never, ever lie or try to hide an issue. Early fixes are generally easy to resolve with maybe a follow-up scolding, late fixes are problematic with far bigger consequences for all.
No matter how big the issue, all business challenges (Deepwater Horizon, Tylenol, Challenger, 737 Max flaws, VW emissions, college admissions) are eventually resolvable…….except maybe those involving outright fraud – Enron, Theranos, and Madoff.
My dad told me to become a pharmacist; I should have listened.
I was the union rep during my years at the beer distributor. The companies we worked for were generally not bad guys. In most all cases, if a member was “on the carpet” the boss(s) had good cause. Sometimes after a member had been “on the carpet” I would have a talk with him in private. My advice wasn’t usually heeded, but every now and then I got through.
“Never say “No” to your boss and his immediate boss”
i can remember at least one occasion when I did the equivalent of saying “no” to my second-line. Fortunately, it turned out to be the right answer in that situation, and in any case I had the seniority to get away with it. I would also say “no” to schedules that required an inordinate amount of overtime from me or my team, but I might not get away with that these days.
My late father, witnessing my torturous mental vacillations in my 30’s on a career path change, offered that “you’ll rarely regret the things you do in your working life – it’s the things you don’t do that typically will torture you”
Possibly the best career advice came from a co-worker. When faced with a decision needing approval from a supervisor, she said to offer two solutions and allow the supervisor to choose. A great way, in my experience, to enable engagement at the higher level and to maintain a healthly work dynamic.
I hear this works with upset toddlers, too. 😀
Indeed! Upset or not, always offer them two acceptable choices.
I was the Director of a small Physical Therapy clinic for a very short time, as I never wanted to be responsible for other’s work. I used to tell my staff if a problem is bothering you enough to bring it to me, you should think about it enough to also be able to suggest at least two solutions.
The president of the bank I worked for gave me his rule of thumb: “Never approve a loan to a person who lives in a castle, drives a Rolls Royce or wears a wig.” He kept us out of some of the big insolvencies of the 80-90s in Germany.
In one of my sales jobs, I had a boss who would occasionally get fed up with a retail customer who was persistent in trying to beat him down on price. He would show them the exit door and after they left comment, “I want all the good business I can get, but that’s not good business!”
Sometimes you have to recognize that a deal is never going to work for you, and walk away.
Bit of a tangent, but a favourite anecdote of mine. My first boss after uni told me “I’m not important, you’re not important, the only important person on this site is the payroll officer.”
At my first job, in 1990, we sometimes had issues that delayed completion of nightly reports, which should have been done by 6am. It was usually no big deal, but one day the quarterly reports were held up, and the line managers needed those to close out the quarter.
One of the regional managers called me at 8:30am to see what was going on, and I told him we’d had system issues and the reports should be done by 10:30am, but I would call him either way to let him know.
When I called at 10:28am to say the reports weren’t ready but should be done by 11am, he stopped me and said, “No one from IT has ever called me back when they said they would. Keep doing what you tell people you’ll do, and you’ll go far.”
My own advice: Do the best job you can do, but be efficient and productive. I’ve rarely worked overtime, but I get things done. I know people who put in a lot of hours but don’t get things done.
People who know me don’t bother trying to contact me after hours, but when something needs to be done fast and done right, I’m the one they ask to do it.
“Keep doing what you tell people you’ll do, and you’ll go far.”
My children will tell you people not doing this is one of my major pet peeves in life.
Very good advice. When it is crunch time, the boss will always favor the one, who will get it done and make it happen.
I can’t recall ever receiving specific career advice, but my formative business career was heavily influenced by observing the CEO of the company I worked for. It wasn’t through his advice, but by watching how he ran his business and emulating a lot of his operational style after starting my own enterprise. In that sense, I suppose you could say I received career advice by example.
I can relate to advice by example. Years ago in the military I worked for a guy who I technically outranked, but by virtue of our positions was my supervisor in every way except formal performance ranking. Some people would have a problem with this; I did not, partially because this guy was a great leader. I thought at the time, when I’m in a similar position, I’m going to do it the way he does it. I did indeed serve in such position later, and his example served me very well. He was later a general officer.
Thinking back, I think his style also annoyed some superior officers, who fortunately were not in our chain of command 😎