5 Career Mistakes I Wish Someone Had Warned Me About
By: Bianca Zagan
Tags: Life Lessons, Career Advice, Careers, Office Life, Millennials

5 Career Mistakes I Wish Someone Had Warned Me About

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In today’s economy, with businesses under pressure, the working environment is changing. In a sport span of time, it might force some companies to keep only the best performing people, to move ahead.

In this context, while you’re doing your best, you also may wonder: what are the biggest career mistakes to avoid?

Below, I’ve gathered my five lessons learned — the hard way — in the past decade, in the corporate world.

This is what you aren’t taught upfront — I sure wasn’t — because it’s hard to say this bluntly to a new colleague or employee. Not to mention, when some workplaces have a ‘lions arena’ unwritten culture: manage this as you go along, or be ripped off and taken out.

1. ‘But That’s Just for Show Off!’

Don’t complain when there’s too much ‘visibility’ work to do — which requires a massive focus on detail, yet little business impact. Both your reputation and authority in your field benefit.

Think longer term: when in interviews later on, you will display you were the one leading a visible project — also communicated online, that the interviewer might have heard of. Why it’s good? Because… surprise! the big, high-impact stuff you’re working on is likely under confidentiality clause (forever).

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2. Not Giving Life to Ideas You Care About

Worry when you’re left in the ‘mild water’ of rolling in the same processes, when you’re told to first master the repetitive, background work, and only then come up with stray ideas that could improve or add something.

Don’t stay complacent and think ‘well, if that’s what my boss expects of me, why bother and waste my time and energy?’

You’ll be surprised over the years to find what you become known and appreciated for. Hint: it’s not improving by 12% or whatever the efficiency of processes in the job description.

It’s that odd initiative you had: the company public speaking club, the internal lobby for a baby-sitting arrangement near the office for employees, the short Friday movement which you try to roll out after proven success in your team.

These are undertakings that add to others’ wellbeing and which cost you overtime, but you deeply enjoyed building.

3. Empathizing with Complainers

If your colleagues complain about the workplace, refrain from joining them, if you only do it to be accepted into the group.

Being accepted into the informal ‘underworld’ of interaction in an office is important. Although this might not impact your actual job, it matters.

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When? Guess what? when being promoted. The hiring manager will ask people to give feedback about you, and whether they know precisely what you do in the company or not, they will speak.

And the shocking thing I observed again and again in corporations: the hiring manager is influenced by what others say about you. As professional as he or she might be, sometimes just cannot dig deep and ask: ‘this opinion of yours is it based on directly working with the person?’

It’s hard to distinguish between the voices of those who have actually worked with you, and those who merely see you in the morning by the coffee machine and decided they dislike your fashion sense — and, as a result, dismiss you as a professional as well.

4. When Being Too Well Behaved is a Career Mistake.

Gossip is an innate part of the human interaction. No company culture will ever be affective in eradicating it. Be careful with whom you engage in this. I see here three approaches:

a. Being hostile towards colleagues who gossip will cost you — because their opinion about you influence the team’s opinion about you. If you banned gossip from your adult life, this is a situation when being too well behaved is a career mistake.

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b. On the opposite spectrum, joining the gossiping will put your name on the unwritten ‘people we dislike’ wall, for those who aren’t already in category a.

c. If you find yourself in a group where rattle ignites, listen, but don’t engage. Simply be a spectator. I’ve found this to be the most effective way to deal with this challenge. This way, you avoid being labelled by either, and you’ll catch up on what’s happening around.

5. Not Giving Value, First

Counterintuitive, right? Giving your help — i.e. time and expertise — to colleagues can cause you to lose focus on what’s important for your role.

Also, you risk being overwhelmed when project pieces you need to deliver approach deadline. In the long run, this means burnout.

Why give?

Because when you create value and help others, not only you contributed to something being achieved.

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Humans have an innate desire to give back and pay their dues — as Robert Cialdini documented in “Influence — The Psychology of Persuasion”.

So, as long as it’s not a far stretch for you, and you actually come to resent giving a helping hand, do it. It will come back when you’ll need it. Sometimes, in ways you are not aware of (remember feedback given by colleagues to your boss?)

Work too, like any other human interaction, requires emotional intelligence. Sensing the others. Sometimes instant intuition for what is acceptable and what is not.

Sometimes, the right approach in a weird situation might be something against common sense.

These take time to learn, so be patient with yourself. It’s probable you’ll blunder, yet being actively aware of your first years in the career or the first year on a new role, can save much headache.

Everybody makes mistakes! What matters most is learning from them, moving forward and showing grace to others when they have a slip.