What Took You Too Long to Learn About Work?
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I was looking at a few of our older career advice articles, and it got me thinking about something I don’t think we’ve discussed before: what took you TOO LONG to learn about work? Was it something about office politics, promotions, networking, compensation, leadership, boundaries, burnout, job-hopping, professional friendships, or something else entirely?
When I look back on my own career, there are a number of things that seem obvious in retrospect but took me years to figure out. Some were lessons I had technically heard before but didn’t really understand until I experienced them firsthand. Others were things nobody told me at all.
For example:
- Doing excellent work is important, but it doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be recognized or promoted.
- Your job is not your career, and your career is not your life.
- Inspiring confidence in your work is often just as important as doing good work.
- Making your boss look good matters ā but so does making sure you get credit for your own work.
- Professional relationships are often built in the spaces between the work, and people generally prefer to work with people they know, like, and trust.
- Sometimes the fastest way to get a raise is to change jobs.
- If you want to advance into leadership, learn how the business actually makes money.
- A good manager can dramatically affect your day-to-day happiness.
- A bad manager can dramatically affect your day-to-day happiness, too ā don’t stay under one longer than you have to.
Readers, I’m curious ā what took you too long to learn about work? Was it something about office politics, promotions, networking, compensation, leadership, boundaries, burnout, job-hopping, professional friendships, or something else entirely?
And when did you finally learn it ā the hard way or the easy way?
