Career Advice by Experts

Career Advice by Experts

You might have heard tons of career advice such as do what you love, always be the first one and the last to leave, or go the extra mile. That sounds great in an idyllic world but they are forgetting something: nobody cares about your career more than you do. While you might think that giving it all you've got will automatically propel your career forward, this is not usually the case. You cannot wait for others to recognize and reward your brilliance. That is why you must keep looking to improve your possibilities and that will make you valuable to anyone around you. Here are some pieces of advice that will get you moving to start Jan 2019 in the right way to build a solid career:

If your boss is not a good leader, try to find a mentor, someone who are good at their job and get them to lead you. Try and learn as much as you can from them, ask for advice and watch how they work, so you take what you can from it and make some progress.

When you want to learn some skill, look around for someone who is already good at it. Then just watch what they do, and copy it. Find what works for you, and modify it to your own abilities and style. - John Caprani.

In a new job, accept those first few invitations to lunch or happy hour. If you decline them, for whatever reason, they will stop, and you may find yourself an inadvertent outsider. - Laura Cooke, marketing communications director.

Try to make the next person's job down the line easier. For example, if you are working on a project that goes through different hands, see what kinds of things you can do on your end that will make the process flow easier for the next person who performs the next step. - Richard Gary Butler, artist and writer.

Richard Gary Butler also quoted Stephen Covey‘s best seller The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Learn the art of sharpening the saw or the axe, before you begin the job at hand. In all our jobs, there are various tools that we use through the process. Proper maintenance to all these tools, including the tool of oneself, will make the job flow easier and you will be more productive. Trying to do work with inadequate tools or ones that require maintenance, will make the job harder and less productive.

Don't look too busy. I've seen smart and dedicated employees fail to get promoted, because they have taken on too much, working too hard, and appeared too frazzled. If you appear stressed, people will think you aren't prepared to take on more, and you'll miss opportunities for new and innovative projects. - Mira Zaslove, product manager at Cisco.

Always take the high road and avoid hallway conversations about your boss and how ineffective he is.

Never, ever cook fish in the office microwave. - Ryan Harvey, institutional investment consultant.

As you move up, your future success depends on doing unassigned work and responsibilities. Anyone who made it past the hiring process can do the assigned job at the company, but it takes a lot more to deliver value to the company that wasn't assigned or even thought of. - Victor Wong, CEO of PaperG.

Understand when people see you check your phone at every call, then don't answer when they call, they then know you put them on a low priority. - Mike Leary, psychotherapist in private practice.

Help others even if there is no direct benefit to yourself. It takes so little energy to answer questions, provide referrals, open doors, etc., for people who need your help, even if doing so offers you nothing immediate in return. Your efforts will be rewarded in the future in wholly unexpected ways. - Scott Wainner, entrepreneur, founder at Fareness.

Entitlement is a career killer. Focus on staying grateful and working hard rather than feeling that things are owed to you. If you do this you will look for opportunities without falling into the entitlement mindset that many people fall into. This will help you build the habits necessary to succeed. - Scott Miker, author, speaker and small business advisor.

The network of people you know who leave your current company are often times more valuable to you than those with your company. - James Schek, published writer.

The weaknesses that you're unaware of will hurt you the most. This is your blind spot. You must determine your hidden weaknesses and work to overcome them, and you're going to need the help from others to do this. - David Osborne, published writer.

Ask your boss what his biggest problem is, and make it go away. - Victoria Backaitis, published writer.

Don't just look up - look laterally as well, because people with diverse experience usually progress faster than people with more experience. - Vikrant Vaidya, technical lead (consulting) at Jaguar.

Richard Gary Butler also gives traditional advice like making yourself visible to your managers: To increase your value and make yourself more visible, do more than what is expected of you, go the extra mile, and do this with enthusiasm. If you only do what is expected of you and nothing more, you are just another employee. But if you go beyond expectations, you bring value not only to yourself, but to your company. Your manager will also enjoy having you on the team.

But then he gives more interesting advice: Learn and apply the value of proper interpersonal skills. In all of life, especially on the job, we are in contact with people. How we treat those we meet every day, or even intermittently, will determine your true success.