There is a whole book of advice I would like to give young technical professionals but let me start with something I wish someone had told me years ago.
Business depends on high quality networks and effective information systems.
The reason for having a technical staff is to provide those networks and systems. But we must not lose sight of the fact that our employers spend their telecommunications and information systems dollars to get specific business benefits. Achieving those benefits should become our primary objective. When we design, install, test, train, etc., our focus should be on specific business objectives. Our job is to make high tech gear support the needs of our organization but to do that effectively, we must learn to think in terms of objectives and benefits.