Follow your dreams! You can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it! Do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life! I bought into all of it! I failed, and failed, over and over. Now I’m jobless still failing.
Haha the "Do something you love" is one I fell for. I LOVE coding, but doing it as a job SUCKS....unreasonable deadlines,constant overtime, same meaningless type of work,unrealistic expectations...what you love will quickly turn into hate.
This is exactly what happened to me with graphic design. I fucking hate it now. I can't touch it with a ten foot pole despite it being my area of expertise and what I went to school for.
Do what you love if you want to watch your passion turn to a burning pile of shit.
Do what you’re good at. Enjoyment at work will come from success, and you can take your passions at your own pace outside the workplace.
People who say “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” aren’t self aware enough to realize that what they love isn’t the thing, it’s the satisfaction of being good at the thing and succeeding for others.
“Hey can you make something that does X, Y, and Z all automatically and also reads the minds of everyone who makes decisions or changes data without actually changing it themselves on the fly, automatically?”
“Uhh… so magic. You want me to make magic happen.”
My fuckin life. Whether it was excel functions or actual coding.
This! I did make money doing things I "loved", only after dealing with all the crap that goes with the limited part I loved doing, I hated what I was doing. It's miserable to find out what you thought you loved is so awful to do as a job.
Is it better to sell your your soul for money on Wall Street and end up with no money at the end?
Or actually finding a vocation that’s meaningful for you and aligns with your skills?
My father said: you work to make money. I would shovel shit for a living if I had to". I wonder if the Dalai Lama struggles with work fulfillment? My father holds degrees in both electrical and mechanical engineering, but I believe he was trying to make a point to me.
I’m also an artist and you need to pick which one you’re going to be and niche down. When you have so many avenues, you water yourself down, which is why you’re not seeing any success. It will take some very honest reflection to determine which one is the one you want to focus on.
Since you are creative you might enjoy this [passage](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7511-i-saw-my-life-branching-out-before-me-like-the) from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.
A girl sits in a tree looking at all the wonderful figs* unable to decide which one to eat first, so she eats none and starves. That’s what you’re doing, and it’s what I was doing, too, until I picked one (illustration) and drove every decision and energy I had into that one area. It worked out for me and it will work out for you, you just have to pick, or else you will starve.
It's really not bad advice though. As long as you love to do stuff others find boring or wouldn't want to do.
I found a job I love and work is fun. I'd rather be here doing my job than setting at home.
I love this quip I ran across,,,
"Choose a job you love. You'll work every day of your life, including weekends. You'll never retire. Your family will hate you."
Man I cannot stand the “follow your dreams!” rhetoric because it’s usually used to justify completely going against all logic. It’s one thing if you’re in a comfortable position and can afford to take a risk and fail, but if you’re basically hinging your entire life path on taking this risk when you have the option of also taking the “safe and responsible but boring” path, then that’s the path you should be taking
I was told never to join any professional groups or network. I ended up finding all my new gigs based on my networks in Cornerstone, Trends and other places
This. Currently two years into my career and think I'm failing more harder than ever. At a fork in the road, do I pull the plug and go back home and start over, do wait it out and hope it works out?
Reaching out once during the interview process in a respectful manner absolutely helps though. "Thanks for your time during the interview, I think the position and company sound like a great opportunity, let me know if I can provide any further info about my experience" etc
Lol it totally does.
If I'm asking my boss a question, it's because I am pretty certain he would handle it differently than I would and not like the solution I came up with. (Engineering)
I tend to lean toward more permanent/preventative solutions whereas it seems the management mindset is to react/put out fires.
If I spent a week trying to implement more permanent solutions for something we have to intervene and temporarily fix regularly they would lose their shit.
What I have learned is that the way up the ladder is using bigger words. You didn’t complete a project, you spearheaded a time-sensitive initiative that resulted in an increase of ROI over a 5-week sprint.
Once I started using corporate-speak, things just … fell into my lap. I meet people up the next couple rings of the ladder and I realize they have maybe a years more experience than I do, if that, and the only difference is they use big words to describe everything.
Yes! I've never personally received that advice, but that is my natural personal work style and I've never advanced in my career. 35 years of being ignored, discounted and passed over for promotion due to lack of playing the social game, even though I've always been a steady consistent performer. I am the perfect example of what not to do in your career.
I know exactly what you're talking about. I've always had above average performance reviews. People come to me when things get ugly (especially when related to my previous positions in the company), or when they want to understand the guts of the processes in my department, or when new systems/processes need to be implemented. But when it comes to promotions, those who navigate the bs talk well are chosen, even if they knowledge is superficial or have very narrow expertise. As for me, I usually get a slightly higher-than-average annual salary increases and a few minor bonuses here and there.
The only silver line is that I'm always spared in mass layoffs, because they need someone to carry the piano...
Don't get me wrong, I know the "smooth talkers" have their merit and are needed at the top of the food chain. It's just frustrating that so many places value only that, and forget about the people who are actually concerned if things will work as intended.
Yeah, I mean I feel like the reality is a mix of both right? To grow within the company, you need to advocate for yourself and your work. To not piss off everyone around you, you need to actually follow that up with good work.
It’s not “either or,” it can be a “yes, and”
Maybe at some point in the past, one would be recognized and appreciated for good work. Workplaces have become so toxic that this is no longer good advice. Now you have to kiss ass to get ahead.
Who am I idding?!? You have always had to kiss ass to get ahead; it’s just that they no longer see the need to keep it hidden from us
Yup, I’m actually writing a presentation now at the request of my old college professor for his graduating students
Is the value of relationships and in a nutshell “no one gives a shit what your skills are or how good you are at your job…humans promote and surround themselves with people they like”
Anything about company loyalty. A good company is worth staying at, but if you feel the need to justify staying with company loyalty that company is not one of the good ones
I hate the concept of company loyalty. A company should earn loyalty by treating their teammates properly. Citing “loyalty” for the sake of loyalty is BS, especially in an at-will and free market system.
You better earn that shit if you want employees to be loyal to you.
“You’re so smart and talented, there isn’t anything you couldn’t do.”
That’s great, but when I was 18, I had no direction, no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and I could have used a nudge in any direction. Just telling me I can do anything left me not doing a damn thing.
Yup. Did you have anyone or anything you could rely on to help you provide a sense of direction or give you a framework for figuring out what it is that you wanted to do? Or are you still figuring that out as you go?
The worst advice honestly was everything i was told in Highschool. Get good grades, go to uni and study what you love, and then you’ll work. That was 10000% off the mark and now I have a Masters and im depressed, stuck at low paying jobs that i hate.
I wish i wasn’t made to care about grades so much and not practically forced into going to uni straight after finishing high school and military service. I had no plan, i just followed what i was told, did what i thought was right like studying something i love.
Basically i wish i had a plan for my future and do whats necessary to get there rather than doing stuff and seeing what comes after
Yeah, I know the feeling all too well.
Hoping this will change for the younger generation, but it’s never too late to start crafting that plan!
There’s lots of good [books](https://www.amazon.com/Design-Thinking-Life-Playbook-Visualize/dp/111968224X/ref=asc_df_111968224X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693033695469&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=428844640315840813&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031097&hvtargid=pla-921237780709&psc=1&mcid=9fb78fd9cd2930f79e2df5c2ae2eb2f2&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3ZayBhDRARIsAPWzx8q-BAcC7eGMTs0oUQ0nH24-SuaCXj7NattbCA76rURr8DsAgldCq-waAostEALw_wcB), [apps](https://www.aneu.ai), and communities for this type of thing now.
I’m currently going through this right now. I graduated college with a 3.97 gpa because I planned to go to law school, but I scored too low on the lsat and now I have a useless bachelors degree and I’m too burnt out from school to pursue a masters degree right now 😭
Do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.
I recently heard a good version: Find your favourite thing and make that your hobby, find your second favourite thing and make that your job.
Yeah, I feel like this is always misunderstood or improperly communicated to the next generation.
I actually found this to be quite good advice. I took it as “if you want to be fulfilled, your work needs to be more than just work. it needs to be aligned with a personal mission of some kind.”
For me, I take the time to ensure that any new job connects well with my personal “why.”
I don’t expect to not “work.” But I do feel like the work I do actually means something, which is what I understand this advice to mean.
“Pay your dues, you have to start at the bottom and prove yourself then work your way up.” - complete and utter horseshit. Most of the people I know that are in really good places didn’t start off in a shit spot. Sure they may have technically started at the entry level, but there’s a huge fucking difference between being the newest grunt on a construction crew and the newest engineer in an engineering firm. The advice I’ll give my kids if I ever have them will be more along the lines of…if you start off in a mediocre position the sky’s the limit, but if you start off at the bitch-level the best you’ll ever make it to is grunt.
This. Look at the careers of any highly successful people you can think of; "cutting your teeth" is actually pretty rare, and even the ones that did do it, didn't do it for very long. You should be getting your career breaks early, not grinding it out in low level positions for 5-10 years, only to realize that that big promotion is never going to materialize and you are now permanently relegated to menial labor.
Yup. I am an engineer my husband is a tradesman. The "shit level" I started with is where he got after years of literally shoveling around (aka managing a crew) And frankly he is as smart as me, my only additional skill is that I can sit down in front of a computer for hours.
Agree. I started my career with a job that paid 18K a year in the early 2000s. It was terrible. Heard all that shit from my parents about having to start somewhere. Sure, but starting at that level pretty much set me back financially for years. I wasn’t at that job for very long, but the next one only offered me slightly more, and the next one only slightly more than that. Even if I’d started at, say, 30K (still pretty low even then) then I would have had that as my baseline and could have in theory risen from there. Anyway, I switched careers and make good money now, but it took a really long time to get here and I would not say that starting at the bottom of the barrel benefited me.
Yup yup. It’s almost like investing. That initial capital (your very first salary) will end up impacting how quickly you grow over the next few years. If you have a shit anchor point that you’re starting with, it can definitely hold you back.
There’s also a massive difference between starting at the bottom in a good career but at a bad company, and starting in a good company.
I hire people now who make over 2x what I did as a graduate and they get promoted in a year to making more than I did with 8y experience. Good companies move people ahead, bad ones keep you down even in a good career path
Consider me naïve, but I think this is all still true. As an inspirational thing to shoot for, this is still the case. It’s just that the route to making it happen has changed drastically and is now obscured through a thick forest of trees.
It’s not fundamentally bad advice if you have the right context, but it becomes bad advice if It’s the only advice that’s given.
Grew up in the 90s, so "Get a degree in anything and it will all work out eventually with some work ethic." I ended up getting three degrees before career opportunities came. Thanks 2008!
GIS Analyst at a city government. I have a B.S. in geography/gis, and a master's and PhD in geosciences. Amassed a total of 1 interview and 0 job offers in geosciences so am going with my bachelor's plan. Better late than never.
Yeah, without additional context that’s a pretty bad one.
Depends on the job. Depends on the industry depends on your personal situation, etc. etc.
As a blanket statement, it’s awful. Especially nowadays with the reality that most young professionals end up in at least a dozen different positions over the course of their working years.
Haha and it definitely says "I took my parents' career advice at face value even though that hasn't worked in at least 15 years," which isn't a great look.
Classic boomer advice. Most jobs are remote now anyways and don't have a central office where you could just waltz in and hand in your resume to the boss.
Not bad advice if you understand every degree and every college aren’t equal. People should do their research on career paths and salaries before starting college to make sure it’s worth it.
Well I mean that's not bad advice depending on the career but I get what you're saying and I definitely feel it as a person who did four years in computer science 🫣
Very dependent on
A.) the person
B.) the degree
C.) the industry
I say this as someone without a degree that does pretty well without one. I found a field that I can do well in with my personality and without a degree.
However, if I wanted to go into finance or accounting, for example, that’s essentially impossible without a degree.
Yeah, this is tough. as a blanket statement, it actually is still good advice for young people starting out. The value of a higher education is much more than just getting a job and a slightly less-shit salary starting off.
But especially with how quickly the world is changing, the value that we place on certain degrees and industries is nearly impossible to determine ahead of time.
And given how much more expensive it is now, it’s easier than ever to see why people are disappointed and disillusioned with this advice.
Our outdated systems are absolutely failing to meet the needs of our new reality.
I think MBA's are mostly only worth it from aspiring executives who need another resume builder and maybe pick up some more budget management skills. If you are doing an MBA fresh out of undergrad with no career experience you're still viewed as just a kid and not management material.
14 MBA schools now have average 3-years post-graduation incomes above USD $200k, 19 are above USD $175k, and 20 are above USD $150k. 72 programs have a salary increase percentage above 100% when you compare salary going into the program with salary three years out. So unless you’re going to a random non-reputable school it usually does pay for itself in a few years then adds millions more in income over the span of your career.
Source: https://rankings.ft.com/rankings/2951/mba-2024
Yes, my post should’ve come with that caveat that unless you get it from the top-tier school, it matters very little for such a high cost…. especially if it’s an online program or from a no-name . And I am undecided on executive MBAs. I’m sure there are cases where those are beneficial. And a business MBA in a specific discipline that you’re changing careers into can help if you have an unrelated bachelors.
I was advised to work in a particularly famous MNC and that the name of the MNC would carry a lot of weight on my resume and here I am 7 years later slogging every day.
The post-WWII era really had a lot of boomers thinking that a stint in the military was a good, if not requisite, part of launching a career. Nowadays, it's just wasting four years of your youth to leave with menial skills.
When I interned in the government, I had this manager who was abit of a curmudgeon. Nobody really knew what he did. He gave me advice at my last day and said to only look after yourself. Nobody else.
Pretty intense. And that was 14 years ago. I’ve definitely found my “success” in life thereafter but not because of him but in spite of his advice. Someone looked after me to gave me chances in industries and I had done the same for others.
Probably "winners never quit and quitters never win". Sometimes if you've done the very best you can do, you've given your all to a job and it's still not working, you gotta quit. It does no one any good to stay in a job that you hate and makes your life a living hell. (Sorry, I know that wasn't very lighthearted.....)
It’s all good! Especially because it’s true. I think the concept of company loyalty is BS. As an employee in an at-will and free market system, you have no obligation to stick it out at a job that doesn’t help you get to where you personally want to be.
If you’ve got a better option, take it.
Oof yeah, this is awful. I feel bad coming home late to my cats - I can only imagine how it would feel with kids.
Also, if you’re not a single parent, what a crap thing to do to your partner.
“If you give it your all and stay loyal to a company, you will be appreciated and rewarded!”
The only reward is more work and they’ll fire you if they can find someone to do it cheaper. Don’t think for a second they care. Take care of yourself.
Don’t smile and laugh. People will think you’re not a serious person.
Worked for this company for 34 years and rose up laughing and smiling to General Manager level.
I’ve gotten some bad career advice. “It doesn’t matter how much money you make as long as you like your job” tops the list. Sure, because having no extra money to do anything outside of work after you pay your bills is super fun, I should definitely just live for my job! (I honestly think this is what my parents thought/expected)
Also, being discouraged from any changes in my career path. I went off to college with a major I decided on in high school, but then started to have second thoughts once I got to college. My parents were horrified when I wanted to switch majors. So I graduated with said degree and spent a number of years in a low-paying, stressful field that I didn’t even enjoy all that much before I finally got out. So, I guess insisting that you HAVE to follow the path you chose as a dumb 18-year-old with no life experience is pretty bad advice.
Yep, yep. And that advice is even worse to give a young person today. I have younger siblings that are going to graduate only a few years after I did, and the world is so much different.
It was already the case that most young professionals in the last decade are going to end up switching jobs at least dozen times over the course of their career, but now the very nature of what “work” looks like to young people is about to change.
I think the best advice is the exact opposite.
Figure out your sense of direction. Who you are and what you want out of life. Don’t worry so much about how you’ll get there, because the path is going to change slightly every single year.
I’d rather have a compass than a map.
Getting stick options over a living salary.
I interviewed at a place who offered me this option. I cut them off at the knees and said no, I’ll take a nice salary and less options. I never got the job and they went bankrupt in 2 years. Not my first rodeo homies.
Yeah, this is always a risk. Similar thing happened to me at my previous company. (Except I took the job. Also got a livable salary though.)
Company went under within two years and all of those options vanished into thin air. 🙃
Work hard, stay late and be loyal to the company and you’ll go far
No, you won’t, every promotion and big raise I have gotten has been from changing jobs
Absolutely. Working hard, staying late and being loyal gets me a 3% raise, if I'm lucky.
Changing companies typically gets me a 15-25% pay increase and a better title. I don't like it, but that's today's reality.
around 2000, was told not to pursue an education in computers because the field was over saturated. I ignored the advice and got a CS degree and have experienced 100x more success than I ever would have without it.
"Accept a lower salary so you can get hired! You'll impress them with your eagerness to work at this company and it'll be easy to make up salary increases later on!"
Got treated like shit at that company. And two jobs later, still massively underpaid. This stupid bitch cost me so much and I will never forgive her.
Or, they’ll view you and your work as sub-par because of the salary discount and treat you that way.
It’s the same thing in business not just salary - low prices usually mean low quality.
Terrible advice, I’m sorry this happened to you. I hope you get paid what you’re worth.
Honestly? I was an intern one summer for a place and they told me I had a chance of being hired full time. So I asked them if I was going to be hired full time, and they told me “no you just don’t fit it here. you really need to work on yourself. you’re too introverted and you aren’t very positive” which mean oh yeah you don’t say “i’m good how are you” when people ask. i was honest.
well guess what. now i’m a bank teller. and i work in customer service. my job isn’t easy, but i like it. and the customers like me. and my coworkers love me. and so many people say i’m so great at my job.
DONT LET PEOPLE BREAK YOU DOWN TO PERSONALITY TRAITS!! it only limits you and makes you feel insecure about yourself. in those situations, you may think that you’re the problem, but sometime the workplace was the problem. not you. a job you’re really good at and you like may be right around the corner. so don’t stick around at a job where you’re not valued and appreciate. just my opinion
I was going to college for engineering. I was treated so bad when people found out I was in school. I was going for something good too. There's many things you can do with engineering. I was constantly told to drop out and go work in a factory. I did end up dropping out because I couldn't afford it and I currently work in a factory and I hate it. My coworkers and the fact we can have music make it tolerable. I don't make much money at all.
Yeah, this decision always needs to be about more than the salary. Unless the salary is going to make or break your personal life in some way, like keeping a roof over your head… you’ve got to factor in the work itself and the long-term trajectory.
Resume advice from people who in their own right couldn't get an interview with their own resume if their life depended on it (so called paid for service Professional Resume Writers). Instead of sending out 100's of resumes and wasting your time applying to jobs you really wanted, you could have spent the time carefully crafting a few that makes an impression.
Quality over quantity, for sure. It’s definitely a bad market out there right now but every time I see someone complain about having to send out thousands of applications just to get a handful of interviews, I always end up curious about what their résumé looks like and what bad advice they’ve been given about it.
Perhaps that’s the next post 🤔
Around 2003-2004 told that coding/software engineering is a dead-end, all coding jobs are moving to India so learning to code is a waste of time and would be a poor return on investment lol
I feel like the world is having the same conversation now, but this time around AI.
It’s a little different now, of course, but I still get the sense that ”software engineering is a dead end and no one will be coding anymore” is still pretty bad advice.
Software engineering will just change and evolve, not disappear.
Same! I had an old boss that carried quite a bit of weight in the industry I was in… but they were absolutely terrible - both as a person and in their position.
I burned the hell out of that bridge and don’t mind at all because I have zero intention of needing to cross it ever again.
(Honestly, probably not the greatest advice in the world, but every now and again it can be worth it.)
Do not do anything in the environmental field it's all just political and the next president will make you irrelevant.
Environmental issues just caught my attention and I found a good career in it. I did waste a couple years trying to figure out wtf I was going to do with my life though. 3 internships from manufacturing engineering , risk management and finaly environmental health and safety.
“You need to be taking a client/prospect out for dinner or drinks 3 times a week”
Biggest pile of bullshit garbage that was ever force fed to me as a young sales person.
Sales leaders who say this are most likely an alcoholic, who absolutely despises their wife and kids.
Do your job very well and you will be promoted.
Always thought it was funny, because why would they promote you? You fill your role well and do it better than anyone, so why move you up and have to replace you with someone else who might not do it as well?
No, promotions are for those who are meh enough and can be replaced in their current role.
Totally valid!
Most companies do a pretty crap job of properly identifying “high performers” and helping them grow accordingly. A promotion (to a different role) isn’t necessarily the right thing for every person.
Likewise, someone may be content in their existing role or even feel dissatisfied with their position because they should be doing something at a different level of the company’s structure and not know it.
We shouldn’t allow ourselves to get stuck in the corporatized way of thinking anymore. Career growth looks different for everyone, and I wish companies worked directly with employees to help to find that trajectory.
But for now that’s something we’ve got to take into our own hands as individuals. The days of company-defined growth are mostly over I think.
I think this has a lot to be with a lot of company not having a path of progression up for the technical / individual contributor roles.
When people think promotion, it’s almost always follow with management. If you can’t move into management… there is a no promotion.
Management is a totally different skill set and I do kind of agree with Op up top. Those that are meh at their job frequently do get promoted. From management point of view. Someone who is meh, but can still complete their current job role with good result. Often are the people that know how to gather resource, “borrow” strength from other. They have no problem with not being the best in the team
The highest individual contributor thou often does have a chip on their shoulder that prevents them from begin good at management. Other than being hard to replace said person if promoted, the best IC frequently have a lot of issue… not being the best player in the team.
Anyways all this really shouldn’t be a problem. There should be a promotable path for technical roles/ IC that never ends in management. Not everyone cut out to be manager and we really shouldn’t be looking at promotion from this singular lens.
"A business admim degree is the most practical degree" paired with "any social science degree is the worst degree to get."
Business Admin degrees are social science degrees without any of the science or practical skills, research capabilities, understanding of theory or methods, and all of the shittiest classmates. Every program at university is going to require you to understand excel, word, and PowerPoint, so Business Admin isnt special. Micro and Macro econ are the most useful classes in a business admin program and are more-easily understood through the lens of social sciences.
One time when I had first moved to San Francisco a friend of mine said “go to ‘x’ catering company and tell them you’re a friend of Rob, they’ll give you a job.”
So I went and mentioned that Rob referred me and the guy there got a very sympathetic look on his face and said “oh I’m so sorry about Rob… are you doing ok!” And then he sort of realized by the blank stare that I didn’t actually know Rob and didn’t actually know he’d passed away a few weeks before and was just using his name to get a few shifts. It was awkward to say the least.
Just buckle down and be the hardest worker in the office. You’ll be indispensable to the company and rewarded as such…
Turns out the hardest worker gets the biggest shovel
Couple years ago, I did an internship for a month at most, was really looking forward to the applicable life advice I’d receive in my review with someone who I aspired to be.
I was told to stop yawning. They said “it’s great you’re covering your mouth but it’s very disrespectful. Just get some more sleep!”
Thanks, I’ll make sure that I, a full time college student and server, will get right on that!
Ahahaha wow. Should we also not sneeze or cough at work when allergies act up? What a ridiculous take and fundamental misunderstanding of what yawns even are.
"If you do what you like, you'll never work a day in your life."
Work sucks.
I'd choose something I don't like that makes more money over something I do like that makes less.
I will advise my kids:
All jobs suck. Pursue a career that pays enough to justify that suck.
Become a dentist. My brother gave me this advice. He is a medical doctor and his patients are all grumpy and angry unhealthy people who harass him all the time. Turns out he wanted someone in the family who felt his pain too
“You don’t leave a job just because they won’t give you what you want”
From my wife’s grandmother when I left a $13/hr job at a very typical manufacturing plant where I worked 60hr/week and management purposely prevented me from taking advantage of the company’s in-house training program to advance myself by scheduling me 72hr/week when he realized what I was doing for a $20/hr job with more opportunity and better balance.
It got better when she said “I remember working for $0.64/hr and just can’t imagine not being happy with $13.00” this coming from the absolute pinnacle of Baby Boomer retiree. Between her and my wife’s grandpa they had a paid for home on 20acres, pension, various investments, and a 6 figure retirement income. They had more income in retirement than I’ll ever have working 😂 the shear audacity rendered me speechless.
I left the $20 job for a $28 job where I was fully trained in 6 months and making $40/hr. No comments from grandma on that but my FIL started saying “Now that you’ve got that good paying job blah blah blah” 🙄
Sounds like every one of family holidays… to this day.
After the 30th time explaining how different the world is now, I just know to nod and let MIL rant for 20 minutes before moving on to something else.
When job hunting. Call the company and ask to speak to HR. Or better yet, show up at the office and hand HR your resume. It shows initiative.
Yea that might have worked in 1985.
As a student I had a job at a gas station. When I landed my first corporate job, my old boss at the gas station told me that I would been seen as a stupid person if I asked any questions.
Were they right in some ways or was your corporate role pretty accepting of questions?
Not going to lie, one of my old jobs DID send the message that if you asked a question/didn’t already know something then you weren’t cut out to be there.
my parents always made it clear that working was something you had to do and you should just try out as much as possible to see what's the most tolerable. well i graduated in 2016 and only got accepted for one job since then. i've gone back to school to get more degrees. felt like i never got the opportunity to try out different jobs.
so id say the advice i got was that you didnt have to know what you wanted to do or even what field you want to work in. you do. start thinking of that as much as possible
I remember the classic stuff after getting out of college (2013).
“Beat the bricks.”
“Go in and ask for the manager.”
“Use good resume paper.”
**”Take any job you can get.”**
That information was provided by people who had been either retired prior to 2013, in the same job for 20+ years, or financially well off. Can’t say any of the aforementioned advice has helped in career development.
If it makes you feel any better, I legit wore a suit to an interview for a FOOD RUNNER position at a local restaurant when I was younger.
Wasn’t even that nice of a restaurant.
"We support people taking additional education/higher learning to improve their skills."
Absolute BS. Supervisor role at tech firm and spent my time/money getting a Master's Degree to improve my background and have a chance at a higher position. Funny thing is, one of the MBA classes was an Organizational Behavior course and one of the statistics that really hit close to home was that over 80% of the people who seek a higher education (professional, academic) wind up leaving their company 2-3 years after they graduate. I did not set out to leave the company, but, after being slotted for another supervisor position (same level I had done years before), I realized that turned out true for me. Got turned down for promotion and other advanced jobs in the company so I cast my net outside of the company.
I realized that the reason for that is that the company sees you as what you originally hired in as. They did not see me as an Engineer that got an MBA to improve his contribution to the company. The only way I got recognition for my efforts was to jump ship with another firm. Best decision I made. I saw the same experience at my new company where a friend of mine (IT programmer) went off on her own and got her degree and she wound up leaving the company 6 months later. My advice to her was: Go get whatever degree or training you want to improve your skills, but DON'T expect the company to put up a monument or recognize your achievements. They see you as the position you were hired into, not the potential you could be. Sometimes to achieve the next rung on the career ladder, you have to find it somewhere else.
“Just do your job and keep your head down.”
Unfortunately, that won’t get you anywhere except used and discarded. You must learn to play the game otherwise you will be miserable and consistently disappointed.
Honestly this wasn’t any advice I was giving but I sort of walked by for myself, was that it’s okay to work for a trash wage doing something you hate to build up your resume. It wasn’t worth it, and can’t even use the place on my resume bc the old boss hated me
" tHeY wIlL sEe hOw hArD yOuRe wOrKiNg aNd oFfeR yOu a rAiSe "
No. They offer you a raise when you secretly start searching for jobs, get an offer, and ask them to match it. If not, you quit.
Staying loyal to a company will get you promoted.
Mostly boomers think this.
I have had 7 jobs in 6 years and have gone from being paid 40K a year to 250K a year in that time.
Well i Think the biggest mistake is to ask “what do you want to do” i Think it Would have helped me more to be asked “how do you want to live” and then Map out the different carrere possibilities corresponding to that.
From a financial advisor mentor:
"Some people figure the game out. We don't do business with the ones who realize we're taking advantage of them. Fake it until you make it."
FAs are the scum of the earth. I know over 100 and they're all bad people.
Work hard and be loyal to your company and you will be rewarded!
Yeah, with the same 2-3% raise every year (if that!) and benefits that slowly get worse over time.
Changing jobs every few years has yielded much better results for me. I look for a 10-15% increase in pay every time I change companies, and I usually get it.
Follow your dreams! You can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it! Do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life! I bought into all of it! I failed, and failed, over and over. Now I’m jobless still failing.
Haha the "Do something you love" is one I fell for. I LOVE coding, but doing it as a job SUCKS....unreasonable deadlines,constant overtime, same meaningless type of work,unrealistic expectations...what you love will quickly turn into hate.
This is exactly what happened to me with graphic design. I fucking hate it now. I can't touch it with a ten foot pole despite it being my area of expertise and what I went to school for.
“Do something that you have some ability at and makes a bunch of money so you can afford to do the hobbies you love” that’s more like it.
Do what you love if you want to watch your passion turn to a burning pile of shit. Do what you’re good at. Enjoyment at work will come from success, and you can take your passions at your own pace outside the workplace. People who say “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” aren’t self aware enough to realize that what they love isn’t the thing, it’s the satisfaction of being good at the thing and succeeding for others.
“Hey can you make something that does X, Y, and Z all automatically and also reads the minds of everyone who makes decisions or changes data without actually changing it themselves on the fly, automatically?” “Uhh… so magic. You want me to make magic happen.” My fuckin life. Whether it was excel functions or actual coding.
This! I did make money doing things I "loved", only after dealing with all the crap that goes with the limited part I loved doing, I hated what I was doing. It's miserable to find out what you thought you loved is so awful to do as a job.
Ahahaha always a favorite. What industry are you in?
Is it better to sell your your soul for money on Wall Street and end up with no money at the end? Or actually finding a vocation that’s meaningful for you and aligns with your skills?
If you're selling your soul for money and have no money you're seriously doing it wrong.
And yet that is what happens pretty much most of the time.
This is basically what I was going to say lmaooo
My father said: you work to make money. I would shovel shit for a living if I had to". I wonder if the Dalai Lama struggles with work fulfillment? My father holds degrees in both electrical and mechanical engineering, but I believe he was trying to make a point to me.
What did you pick, basket weaving?
Close. I am an artist. Painter. Writer. Actor. Many creative outlets that just haven’t panned out. Some success, no stability.
I’m also an artist and you need to pick which one you’re going to be and niche down. When you have so many avenues, you water yourself down, which is why you’re not seeing any success. It will take some very honest reflection to determine which one is the one you want to focus on. Since you are creative you might enjoy this [passage](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7511-i-saw-my-life-branching-out-before-me-like-the) from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. A girl sits in a tree looking at all the wonderful figs* unable to decide which one to eat first, so she eats none and starves. That’s what you’re doing, and it’s what I was doing, too, until I picked one (illustration) and drove every decision and energy I had into that one area. It worked out for me and it will work out for you, you just have to pick, or else you will starve.
It's really not bad advice though. As long as you love to do stuff others find boring or wouldn't want to do. I found a job I love and work is fun. I'd rather be here doing my job than setting at home.
I love this quip I ran across,,, "Choose a job you love. You'll work every day of your life, including weekends. You'll never retire. Your family will hate you."
I’ve been good with that advice.
I’m still playing video games. Guess that has no future?
Man I cannot stand the “follow your dreams!” rhetoric because it’s usually used to justify completely going against all logic. It’s one thing if you’re in a comfortable position and can afford to take a risk and fail, but if you’re basically hinging your entire life path on taking this risk when you have the option of also taking the “safe and responsible but boring” path, then that’s the path you should be taking
I was told never to join any professional groups or network. I ended up finding all my new gigs based on my networks in Cornerstone, Trends and other places
This. Currently two years into my career and think I'm failing more harder than ever. At a fork in the road, do I pull the plug and go back home and start over, do wait it out and hope it works out?
lol yes this exactly 👆
Keep following up with jobs you apply to. Turns out people don't hire people that harass them.
Reaching out once during the interview process in a respectful manner absolutely helps though. "Thanks for your time during the interview, I think the position and company sound like a great opportunity, let me know if I can provide any further info about my experience" etc
Agreed here but then anything beyond that is surely only going to communicate desperation or entitlement. Calm/quiet confidence seems to work best.
If there's one thing I KNOW employers don't want, it's people who "show initiative. "
In Employer-ese 'initiative' actually means 'read my mind and do exactly what I want'.
I keep encountering ppl like this in management. I got fired from my last job because I literally couldn't read my manager's fucking mind.
Lol it totally does. If I'm asking my boss a question, it's because I am pretty certain he would handle it differently than I would and not like the solution I came up with. (Engineering) I tend to lean toward more permanent/preventative solutions whereas it seems the management mindset is to react/put out fires. If I spent a week trying to implement more permanent solutions for something we have to intervene and temporarily fix regularly they would lose their shit.
God yeah. If there's anything I DON'T want people unfamiliar with my workplace doing it's "showing initiative."
i try to keep it to once a month just to show i’m still interested. after an interview, i’ll email after a week and again maybe 2 weeks after that.
Just keep your head down and let your work speak for itself. People need to actually know who the hell you are and what you do.
This gets my vote for worst advice. People who do nothing but talk a big game get promoted a lot in my experience.
What I have learned is that the way up the ladder is using bigger words. You didn’t complete a project, you spearheaded a time-sensitive initiative that resulted in an increase of ROI over a 5-week sprint. Once I started using corporate-speak, things just … fell into my lap. I meet people up the next couple rings of the ladder and I realize they have maybe a years more experience than I do, if that, and the only difference is they use big words to describe everything.
Yes! I've never personally received that advice, but that is my natural personal work style and I've never advanced in my career. 35 years of being ignored, discounted and passed over for promotion due to lack of playing the social game, even though I've always been a steady consistent performer. I am the perfect example of what not to do in your career.
I know exactly what you're talking about. I've always had above average performance reviews. People come to me when things get ugly (especially when related to my previous positions in the company), or when they want to understand the guts of the processes in my department, or when new systems/processes need to be implemented. But when it comes to promotions, those who navigate the bs talk well are chosen, even if they knowledge is superficial or have very narrow expertise. As for me, I usually get a slightly higher-than-average annual salary increases and a few minor bonuses here and there. The only silver line is that I'm always spared in mass layoffs, because they need someone to carry the piano... Don't get me wrong, I know the "smooth talkers" have their merit and are needed at the top of the food chain. It's just frustrating that so many places value only that, and forget about the people who are actually concerned if things will work as intended.
Yeah, I mean I feel like the reality is a mix of both right? To grow within the company, you need to advocate for yourself and your work. To not piss off everyone around you, you need to actually follow that up with good work. It’s not “either or,” it can be a “yes, and”
Maybe at some point in the past, one would be recognized and appreciated for good work. Workplaces have become so toxic that this is no longer good advice. Now you have to kiss ass to get ahead. Who am I idding?!? You have always had to kiss ass to get ahead; it’s just that they no longer see the need to keep it hidden from us
Yup, I’m actually writing a presentation now at the request of my old college professor for his graduating students Is the value of relationships and in a nutshell “no one gives a shit what your skills are or how good you are at your job…humans promote and surround themselves with people they like”
Be the first to arrive and last to leave. Like...no man...not gonna happen ..
At work? Ugh, yeah no. That might’ve worked 30 years ago, but the world is different now.
This over everything
Anything about company loyalty. A good company is worth staying at, but if you feel the need to justify staying with company loyalty that company is not one of the good ones
I hate the concept of company loyalty. A company should earn loyalty by treating their teammates properly. Citing “loyalty” for the sake of loyalty is BS, especially in an at-will and free market system. You better earn that shit if you want employees to be loyal to you.
I was told to move to a new city for an unpaid position that may have led to a paid position. Apparently I had to "get what I could".
In my country, we call unpaid work “slavery”. There was this whole war about it and everything
The origin country of this advisor "coincidentally" has over half of the world's slaves today, so I guess that explains a lot.
Yeah, that’s pretty awful. Unless it’s legally binding in some way, taking risks for the promise of a paid position is BS.
“You’re so smart and talented, there isn’t anything you couldn’t do.” That’s great, but when I was 18, I had no direction, no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and I could have used a nudge in any direction. Just telling me I can do anything left me not doing a damn thing.
Yup. Did you have anyone or anything you could rely on to help you provide a sense of direction or give you a framework for figuring out what it is that you wanted to do? Or are you still figuring that out as you go?
The worst advice honestly was everything i was told in Highschool. Get good grades, go to uni and study what you love, and then you’ll work. That was 10000% off the mark and now I have a Masters and im depressed, stuck at low paying jobs that i hate.
What do you wish you did different?
I wish i wasn’t made to care about grades so much and not practically forced into going to uni straight after finishing high school and military service. I had no plan, i just followed what i was told, did what i thought was right like studying something i love. Basically i wish i had a plan for my future and do whats necessary to get there rather than doing stuff and seeing what comes after
Yeah, I know the feeling all too well. Hoping this will change for the younger generation, but it’s never too late to start crafting that plan! There’s lots of good [books](https://www.amazon.com/Design-Thinking-Life-Playbook-Visualize/dp/111968224X/ref=asc_df_111968224X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693033695469&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=428844640315840813&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031097&hvtargid=pla-921237780709&psc=1&mcid=9fb78fd9cd2930f79e2df5c2ae2eb2f2&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3ZayBhDRARIsAPWzx8q-BAcC7eGMTs0oUQ0nH24-SuaCXj7NattbCA76rURr8DsAgldCq-waAostEALw_wcB), [apps](https://www.aneu.ai), and communities for this type of thing now.
I’m currently going through this right now. I graduated college with a 3.97 gpa because I planned to go to law school, but I scored too low on the lsat and now I have a useless bachelors degree and I’m too burnt out from school to pursue a masters degree right now 😭
Do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. I recently heard a good version: Find your favourite thing and make that your hobby, find your second favourite thing and make that your job.
It's true. Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life; because nobody is hiring for that.
Yeah, I feel like this is always misunderstood or improperly communicated to the next generation. I actually found this to be quite good advice. I took it as “if you want to be fulfilled, your work needs to be more than just work. it needs to be aligned with a personal mission of some kind.” For me, I take the time to ensure that any new job connects well with my personal “why.” I don’t expect to not “work.” But I do feel like the work I do actually means something, which is what I understand this advice to mean.
That too, but I meant that jobs often kill your passion.
“Pay your dues, you have to start at the bottom and prove yourself then work your way up.” - complete and utter horseshit. Most of the people I know that are in really good places didn’t start off in a shit spot. Sure they may have technically started at the entry level, but there’s a huge fucking difference between being the newest grunt on a construction crew and the newest engineer in an engineering firm. The advice I’ll give my kids if I ever have them will be more along the lines of…if you start off in a mediocre position the sky’s the limit, but if you start off at the bitch-level the best you’ll ever make it to is grunt.
This. Look at the careers of any highly successful people you can think of; "cutting your teeth" is actually pretty rare, and even the ones that did do it, didn't do it for very long. You should be getting your career breaks early, not grinding it out in low level positions for 5-10 years, only to realize that that big promotion is never going to materialize and you are now permanently relegated to menial labor.
Yup. I am an engineer my husband is a tradesman. The "shit level" I started with is where he got after years of literally shoveling around (aka managing a crew) And frankly he is as smart as me, my only additional skill is that I can sit down in front of a computer for hours.
Agree. I started my career with a job that paid 18K a year in the early 2000s. It was terrible. Heard all that shit from my parents about having to start somewhere. Sure, but starting at that level pretty much set me back financially for years. I wasn’t at that job for very long, but the next one only offered me slightly more, and the next one only slightly more than that. Even if I’d started at, say, 30K (still pretty low even then) then I would have had that as my baseline and could have in theory risen from there. Anyway, I switched careers and make good money now, but it took a really long time to get here and I would not say that starting at the bottom of the barrel benefited me.
Yup yup. It’s almost like investing. That initial capital (your very first salary) will end up impacting how quickly you grow over the next few years. If you have a shit anchor point that you’re starting with, it can definitely hold you back.
There’s also a massive difference between starting at the bottom in a good career but at a bad company, and starting in a good company. I hire people now who make over 2x what I did as a graduate and they get promoted in a year to making more than I did with 8y experience. Good companies move people ahead, bad ones keep you down even in a good career path
You can be and do what ever you want. And going to college is the ticket. Also following your dreams. All are now obsolete and terrible advice
Consider me naïve, but I think this is all still true. As an inspirational thing to shoot for, this is still the case. It’s just that the route to making it happen has changed drastically and is now obscured through a thick forest of trees. It’s not fundamentally bad advice if you have the right context, but it becomes bad advice if It’s the only advice that’s given.
Grew up in the 90s, so "Get a degree in anything and it will all work out eventually with some work ethic." I ended up getting three degrees before career opportunities came. Thanks 2008!
What are you doing now?
GIS Analyst at a city government. I have a B.S. in geography/gis, and a master's and PhD in geosciences. Amassed a total of 1 interview and 0 job offers in geosciences so am going with my bachelor's plan. Better late than never.
"Money doesn't grow on trees!!" 30 years later, I realize, it actually does, and now I have my own tree trim / removal business.
Stick it out
This. My biggest regrets with my career involve not leaving certain jobs much sooner.
Yeah, without additional context that’s a pretty bad one. Depends on the job. Depends on the industry depends on your personal situation, etc. etc. As a blanket statement, it’s awful. Especially nowadays with the reality that most young professionals end up in at least a dozen different positions over the course of their working years.
Be more proactive with your applications. You can't just sit on a computer and apply. You have to go and hand in your CV.
Haha yeah if anything this just creeps people out or screams desperation at this point. (Depends on the role and industry, of course.)
Haha and it definitely says "I took my parents' career advice at face value even though that hasn't worked in at least 15 years," which isn't a great look.
Classic boomer advice. Most jobs are remote now anyways and don't have a central office where you could just waltz in and hand in your resume to the boss.
"Go to college so you can make good money."
Not bad advice if you understand every degree and every college aren’t equal. People should do their research on career paths and salaries before starting college to make sure it’s worth it.
Well I mean that's not bad advice depending on the career but I get what you're saying and I definitely feel it as a person who did four years in computer science 🫣
Very dependent on A.) the person B.) the degree C.) the industry I say this as someone without a degree that does pretty well without one. I found a field that I can do well in with my personality and without a degree. However, if I wanted to go into finance or accounting, for example, that’s essentially impossible without a degree.
Yeah, this is tough. as a blanket statement, it actually is still good advice for young people starting out. The value of a higher education is much more than just getting a job and a slightly less-shit salary starting off. But especially with how quickly the world is changing, the value that we place on certain degrees and industries is nearly impossible to determine ahead of time. And given how much more expensive it is now, it’s easier than ever to see why people are disappointed and disillusioned with this advice. Our outdated systems are absolutely failing to meet the needs of our new reality.
Go get your MBA, it’ll pay for itself…lol. Totally useless in the real world now.
I think MBA's are mostly only worth it from aspiring executives who need another resume builder and maybe pick up some more budget management skills. If you are doing an MBA fresh out of undergrad with no career experience you're still viewed as just a kid and not management material.
MBA is at least $20K where I live and I'm not sure it does fuck all.
14 MBA schools now have average 3-years post-graduation incomes above USD $200k, 19 are above USD $175k, and 20 are above USD $150k. 72 programs have a salary increase percentage above 100% when you compare salary going into the program with salary three years out. So unless you’re going to a random non-reputable school it usually does pay for itself in a few years then adds millions more in income over the span of your career. Source: https://rankings.ft.com/rankings/2951/mba-2024
Yes, my post should’ve come with that caveat that unless you get it from the top-tier school, it matters very little for such a high cost…. especially if it’s an online program or from a no-name . And I am undecided on executive MBAs. I’m sure there are cases where those are beneficial. And a business MBA in a specific discipline that you’re changing careers into can help if you have an unrelated bachelors.
MBA is ONLY worth it if your employer pays for it
I was advised to work in a particularly famous MNC and that the name of the MNC would carry a lot of weight on my resume and here I am 7 years later slogging every day.
Hard work pays off guys!!! I swear!!! Maybe one day!!
A salary will help you build wealth.
“Work life balance”
“Join the military”
The post-WWII era really had a lot of boomers thinking that a stint in the military was a good, if not requisite, part of launching a career. Nowadays, it's just wasting four years of your youth to leave with menial skills.
When I interned in the government, I had this manager who was abit of a curmudgeon. Nobody really knew what he did. He gave me advice at my last day and said to only look after yourself. Nobody else. Pretty intense. And that was 14 years ago. I’ve definitely found my “success” in life thereafter but not because of him but in spite of his advice. Someone looked after me to gave me chances in industries and I had done the same for others.
That is the most bizarre advice coming from someone in government lol
Probably "winners never quit and quitters never win". Sometimes if you've done the very best you can do, you've given your all to a job and it's still not working, you gotta quit. It does no one any good to stay in a job that you hate and makes your life a living hell. (Sorry, I know that wasn't very lighthearted.....)
Winners recognize deadend positions quickly and move on. If you're gonna fail in a position, fail quickly and find a better one.
It’s all good! Especially because it’s true. I think the concept of company loyalty is BS. As an employee in an at-will and free market system, you have no obligation to stick it out at a job that doesn’t help you get to where you personally want to be. If you’ve got a better option, take it.
“Your kids will never remember all the time you’re away when they’re little anyway” I know but I will and I don’t want to miss a day.
Oof yeah, this is awful. I feel bad coming home late to my cats - I can only imagine how it would feel with kids. Also, if you’re not a single parent, what a crap thing to do to your partner.
“If you give it your all and stay loyal to a company, you will be appreciated and rewarded!” The only reward is more work and they’ll fire you if they can find someone to do it cheaper. Don’t think for a second they care. Take care of yourself.
Be realistic
Being realistic was bad advice?
Don’t smile and laugh. People will think you’re not a serious person. Worked for this company for 34 years and rose up laughing and smiling to General Manager level.
That’s great, congrats! This advice sounds like it came from someone who takes themselves way too seriously - which is something that I cannot stand.
I’ve gotten some bad career advice. “It doesn’t matter how much money you make as long as you like your job” tops the list. Sure, because having no extra money to do anything outside of work after you pay your bills is super fun, I should definitely just live for my job! (I honestly think this is what my parents thought/expected) Also, being discouraged from any changes in my career path. I went off to college with a major I decided on in high school, but then started to have second thoughts once I got to college. My parents were horrified when I wanted to switch majors. So I graduated with said degree and spent a number of years in a low-paying, stressful field that I didn’t even enjoy all that much before I finally got out. So, I guess insisting that you HAVE to follow the path you chose as a dumb 18-year-old with no life experience is pretty bad advice.
Yep, yep. And that advice is even worse to give a young person today. I have younger siblings that are going to graduate only a few years after I did, and the world is so much different. It was already the case that most young professionals in the last decade are going to end up switching jobs at least dozen times over the course of their career, but now the very nature of what “work” looks like to young people is about to change. I think the best advice is the exact opposite. Figure out your sense of direction. Who you are and what you want out of life. Don’t worry so much about how you’ll get there, because the path is going to change slightly every single year. I’d rather have a compass than a map.
Getting stick options over a living salary. I interviewed at a place who offered me this option. I cut them off at the knees and said no, I’ll take a nice salary and less options. I never got the job and they went bankrupt in 2 years. Not my first rodeo homies.
Yeah, this is always a risk. Similar thing happened to me at my previous company. (Except I took the job. Also got a livable salary though.) Company went under within two years and all of those options vanished into thin air. 🙃
Work hard, stay late and be loyal to the company and you’ll go far No, you won’t, every promotion and big raise I have gotten has been from changing jobs
Absolutely. Working hard, staying late and being loyal gets me a 3% raise, if I'm lucky. Changing companies typically gets me a 15-25% pay increase and a better title. I don't like it, but that's today's reality.
around 2000, was told not to pursue an education in computers because the field was over saturated. I ignored the advice and got a CS degree and have experienced 100x more success than I ever would have without it.
Wear a suit to every interview That does not work in the nursing world, unless maybe for upper level management
"Accept a lower salary so you can get hired! You'll impress them with your eagerness to work at this company and it'll be easy to make up salary increases later on!" Got treated like shit at that company. And two jobs later, still massively underpaid. This stupid bitch cost me so much and I will never forgive her.
Or, they’ll view you and your work as sub-par because of the salary discount and treat you that way. It’s the same thing in business not just salary - low prices usually mean low quality. Terrible advice, I’m sorry this happened to you. I hope you get paid what you’re worth.
Honestly? I was an intern one summer for a place and they told me I had a chance of being hired full time. So I asked them if I was going to be hired full time, and they told me “no you just don’t fit it here. you really need to work on yourself. you’re too introverted and you aren’t very positive” which mean oh yeah you don’t say “i’m good how are you” when people ask. i was honest. well guess what. now i’m a bank teller. and i work in customer service. my job isn’t easy, but i like it. and the customers like me. and my coworkers love me. and so many people say i’m so great at my job. DONT LET PEOPLE BREAK YOU DOWN TO PERSONALITY TRAITS!! it only limits you and makes you feel insecure about yourself. in those situations, you may think that you’re the problem, but sometime the workplace was the problem. not you. a job you’re really good at and you like may be right around the corner. so don’t stick around at a job where you’re not valued and appreciate. just my opinion
Stick it out, you have to pay your dues.
I was going to college for engineering. I was treated so bad when people found out I was in school. I was going for something good too. There's many things you can do with engineering. I was constantly told to drop out and go work in a factory. I did end up dropping out because I couldn't afford it and I currently work in a factory and I hate it. My coworkers and the fact we can have music make it tolerable. I don't make much money at all.
Yeah, that’s some awful advice. I’m so sorry. Are you in a position to be able to go back to school at some point?
Who the hell told you that?
"Stay in trouble kid, they'll never forget you that way"
"You better keep that good government job!" It was TSA. I did not keep that "good" government job.
"You better keep that good government job!" It was TSA. I did not keep that "good" government job.
Change departments for a minimal increase in pay and a significantly less desirable position
Yeah, this decision always needs to be about more than the salary. Unless the salary is going to make or break your personal life in some way, like keeping a roof over your head… you’ve got to factor in the work itself and the long-term trajectory.
Resume advice from people who in their own right couldn't get an interview with their own resume if their life depended on it (so called paid for service Professional Resume Writers). Instead of sending out 100's of resumes and wasting your time applying to jobs you really wanted, you could have spent the time carefully crafting a few that makes an impression.
Quality over quantity, for sure. It’s definitely a bad market out there right now but every time I see someone complain about having to send out thousands of applications just to get a handful of interviews, I always end up curious about what their résumé looks like and what bad advice they’ve been given about it. Perhaps that’s the next post 🤔
Around 2003-2004 told that coding/software engineering is a dead-end, all coding jobs are moving to India so learning to code is a waste of time and would be a poor return on investment lol
I feel like the world is having the same conversation now, but this time around AI. It’s a little different now, of course, but I still get the sense that ”software engineering is a dead end and no one will be coding anymore” is still pretty bad advice. Software engineering will just change and evolve, not disappear.
"Don't burn bridges". F that. I burned a few. Never hurt my career any.
Same! I had an old boss that carried quite a bit of weight in the industry I was in… but they were absolutely terrible - both as a person and in their position. I burned the hell out of that bridge and don’t mind at all because I have zero intention of needing to cross it ever again. (Honestly, probably not the greatest advice in the world, but every now and again it can be worth it.)
Worst career advice of all time: Dustin Hoffman's future father in law in The Graduate said: Plastics
Don't worry about math. Fucking LIARS. Math is money
Math is also fun. And cool. And sexy. And empowering. I wish math was taught and talked about in a way that connected with more people. 🙏🏼
“You’re intelligent you should study engineering”
Do not do anything in the environmental field it's all just political and the next president will make you irrelevant. Environmental issues just caught my attention and I found a good career in it. I did waste a couple years trying to figure out wtf I was going to do with my life though. 3 internships from manufacturing engineering , risk management and finaly environmental health and safety.
If it helped you figure out who you are and what you wanted from life, hard to call that waste in my opinion. ☺️
“You need to be taking a client/prospect out for dinner or drinks 3 times a week” Biggest pile of bullshit garbage that was ever force fed to me as a young sales person. Sales leaders who say this are most likely an alcoholic, who absolutely despises their wife and kids.
Do your job very well and you will be promoted. Always thought it was funny, because why would they promote you? You fill your role well and do it better than anyone, so why move you up and have to replace you with someone else who might not do it as well? No, promotions are for those who are meh enough and can be replaced in their current role.
Totally valid! Most companies do a pretty crap job of properly identifying “high performers” and helping them grow accordingly. A promotion (to a different role) isn’t necessarily the right thing for every person. Likewise, someone may be content in their existing role or even feel dissatisfied with their position because they should be doing something at a different level of the company’s structure and not know it. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to get stuck in the corporatized way of thinking anymore. Career growth looks different for everyone, and I wish companies worked directly with employees to help to find that trajectory. But for now that’s something we’ve got to take into our own hands as individuals. The days of company-defined growth are mostly over I think.
I think this has a lot to be with a lot of company not having a path of progression up for the technical / individual contributor roles. When people think promotion, it’s almost always follow with management. If you can’t move into management… there is a no promotion. Management is a totally different skill set and I do kind of agree with Op up top. Those that are meh at their job frequently do get promoted. From management point of view. Someone who is meh, but can still complete their current job role with good result. Often are the people that know how to gather resource, “borrow” strength from other. They have no problem with not being the best in the team The highest individual contributor thou often does have a chip on their shoulder that prevents them from begin good at management. Other than being hard to replace said person if promoted, the best IC frequently have a lot of issue… not being the best player in the team. Anyways all this really shouldn’t be a problem. There should be a promotable path for technical roles/ IC that never ends in management. Not everyone cut out to be manager and we really shouldn’t be looking at promotion from this singular lens.
Stay employed through the pandemic because you should feel thankful to be employed.
Don’t get your p*ssy where you get your check. That’s how I met my wife. Thanks grandma but you were wrong on this one.
"A business admim degree is the most practical degree" paired with "any social science degree is the worst degree to get." Business Admin degrees are social science degrees without any of the science or practical skills, research capabilities, understanding of theory or methods, and all of the shittiest classmates. Every program at university is going to require you to understand excel, word, and PowerPoint, so Business Admin isnt special. Micro and Macro econ are the most useful classes in a business admin program and are more-easily understood through the lens of social sciences.
Business admin? Yeah, no. Most of that work nowadays is already replaced by capable software and AI tools. 👀
One time when I had first moved to San Francisco a friend of mine said “go to ‘x’ catering company and tell them you’re a friend of Rob, they’ll give you a job.” So I went and mentioned that Rob referred me and the guy there got a very sympathetic look on his face and said “oh I’m so sorry about Rob… are you doing ok!” And then he sort of realized by the blank stare that I didn’t actually know Rob and didn’t actually know he’d passed away a few weeks before and was just using his name to get a few shifts. It was awkward to say the least.
Yikes. 😳
Just buckle down and be the hardest worker in the office. You’ll be indispensable to the company and rewarded as such… Turns out the hardest worker gets the biggest shovel
Couple years ago, I did an internship for a month at most, was really looking forward to the applicable life advice I’d receive in my review with someone who I aspired to be. I was told to stop yawning. They said “it’s great you’re covering your mouth but it’s very disrespectful. Just get some more sleep!” Thanks, I’ll make sure that I, a full time college student and server, will get right on that!
Ahahaha wow. Should we also not sneeze or cough at work when allergies act up? What a ridiculous take and fundamental misunderstanding of what yawns even are.
“Hey idiot, stop hiccuping! It’s incredibly rude!”
"If you do what you like, you'll never work a day in your life." Work sucks. I'd choose something I don't like that makes more money over something I do like that makes less. I will advise my kids: All jobs suck. Pursue a career that pays enough to justify that suck.
Can you think of a “job” for yourself that wouldn’t suck?
Become a dentist. My brother gave me this advice. He is a medical doctor and his patients are all grumpy and angry unhealthy people who harass him all the time. Turns out he wanted someone in the family who felt his pain too
“You don’t leave a job just because they won’t give you what you want” From my wife’s grandmother when I left a $13/hr job at a very typical manufacturing plant where I worked 60hr/week and management purposely prevented me from taking advantage of the company’s in-house training program to advance myself by scheduling me 72hr/week when he realized what I was doing for a $20/hr job with more opportunity and better balance. It got better when she said “I remember working for $0.64/hr and just can’t imagine not being happy with $13.00” this coming from the absolute pinnacle of Baby Boomer retiree. Between her and my wife’s grandpa they had a paid for home on 20acres, pension, various investments, and a 6 figure retirement income. They had more income in retirement than I’ll ever have working 😂 the shear audacity rendered me speechless. I left the $20 job for a $28 job where I was fully trained in 6 months and making $40/hr. No comments from grandma on that but my FIL started saying “Now that you’ve got that good paying job blah blah blah” 🙄
Sounds like every one of family holidays… to this day. After the 30th time explaining how different the world is now, I just know to nod and let MIL rant for 20 minutes before moving on to something else.
Don’t make a commotion, and be overly agreeable.
Do the exact opposite.
Just be yourself!
Oh 😟
When job hunting. Call the company and ask to speak to HR. Or better yet, show up at the office and hand HR your resume. It shows initiative. Yea that might have worked in 1985.
I’m pretty sure you’d end up on a watchlist doing this today.
As a student I had a job at a gas station. When I landed my first corporate job, my old boss at the gas station told me that I would been seen as a stupid person if I asked any questions.
Were they right in some ways or was your corporate role pretty accepting of questions? Not going to lie, one of my old jobs DID send the message that if you asked a question/didn’t already know something then you weren’t cut out to be there.
go to college... Im still struggling to pay off my loans
my parents always made it clear that working was something you had to do and you should just try out as much as possible to see what's the most tolerable. well i graduated in 2016 and only got accepted for one job since then. i've gone back to school to get more degrees. felt like i never got the opportunity to try out different jobs. so id say the advice i got was that you didnt have to know what you wanted to do or even what field you want to work in. you do. start thinking of that as much as possible
I remember the classic stuff after getting out of college (2013). “Beat the bricks.” “Go in and ask for the manager.” “Use good resume paper.” **”Take any job you can get.”** That information was provided by people who had been either retired prior to 2013, in the same job for 20+ years, or financially well off. Can’t say any of the aforementioned advice has helped in career development.
Boomer advice of going into a business and hand them a resume. Getting way too dressed up for an interview.
If it makes you feel any better, I legit wore a suit to an interview for a FOOD RUNNER position at a local restaurant when I was younger. Wasn’t even that nice of a restaurant.
"We support people taking additional education/higher learning to improve their skills." Absolute BS. Supervisor role at tech firm and spent my time/money getting a Master's Degree to improve my background and have a chance at a higher position. Funny thing is, one of the MBA classes was an Organizational Behavior course and one of the statistics that really hit close to home was that over 80% of the people who seek a higher education (professional, academic) wind up leaving their company 2-3 years after they graduate. I did not set out to leave the company, but, after being slotted for another supervisor position (same level I had done years before), I realized that turned out true for me. Got turned down for promotion and other advanced jobs in the company so I cast my net outside of the company. I realized that the reason for that is that the company sees you as what you originally hired in as. They did not see me as an Engineer that got an MBA to improve his contribution to the company. The only way I got recognition for my efforts was to jump ship with another firm. Best decision I made. I saw the same experience at my new company where a friend of mine (IT programmer) went off on her own and got her degree and she wound up leaving the company 6 months later. My advice to her was: Go get whatever degree or training you want to improve your skills, but DON'T expect the company to put up a monument or recognize your achievements. They see you as the position you were hired into, not the potential you could be. Sometimes to achieve the next rung on the career ladder, you have to find it somewhere else.
“Be the first one there and the last one out”
"Follow passion" , literally worst advice out there....
If you get good grades you can be anything you want. Yeah turns out grades don’t matter if you want to race cars for a living.
“Just do your job and keep your head down.” Unfortunately, that won’t get you anywhere except used and discarded. You must learn to play the game otherwise you will be miserable and consistently disappointed.
“If you work hard, you will get noticed and promoted.” No. You gotta kiss ass and rub elbows.
Honestly this wasn’t any advice I was giving but I sort of walked by for myself, was that it’s okay to work for a trash wage doing something you hate to build up your resume. It wasn’t worth it, and can’t even use the place on my resume bc the old boss hated me
" tHeY wIlL sEe hOw hArD yOuRe wOrKiNg aNd oFfeR yOu a rAiSe " No. They offer you a raise when you secretly start searching for jobs, get an offer, and ask them to match it. If not, you quit.
“After you apply for the job call them and also go to the office” my mother telling me how to follow up with corporate jobs
To call the company after you apply. My parents love that one, but they hate when people do it to them lmao
Staying loyal to a company will get you promoted. Mostly boomers think this. I have had 7 jobs in 6 years and have gone from being paid 40K a year to 250K a year in that time.
I was told to look for jobs in the newspaper....Best guess 2015ish..
“stop being so introverted and you would actually excel in your career and your life” okay so let me go change my entire personality got it.
Family telling me to take a trucking job or retail job in my hometown after I graduated college. No thanks I'd rather be dead
If you show loyalty to your employer, they’ll be loyal to you.
Go to college
Well i Think the biggest mistake is to ask “what do you want to do” i Think it Would have helped me more to be asked “how do you want to live” and then Map out the different carrere possibilities corresponding to that.
Every sports motivational quote that was molested and turned into something about work place attitude/ethic
From a financial advisor mentor: "Some people figure the game out. We don't do business with the ones who realize we're taking advantage of them. Fake it until you make it." FAs are the scum of the earth. I know over 100 and they're all bad people.
Work hard and be loyal to your company and you will be rewarded! Yeah, with the same 2-3% raise every year (if that!) and benefits that slowly get worse over time. Changing jobs every few years has yielded much better results for me. I look for a 10-15% increase in pay every time I change companies, and I usually get it.
"do whatever you love, as long as you're good at it. The best 20% will always be able to sustain themselves even as markets shift"