Listen up all you newly minted college grads. Now that you’re entering the brave, new, depressing world that is life post college, you are probably eager to jump start your cube life and pay down your debts. And everyone you talk to is gonna offer up their unsolicited sage advice about careers and working and the real world and blah blah
Some of it is common sense, occasionally its useful, but most of the time its useless. So here are my dos centavos, if you will, a list of terrible career advice for you to never follow...
“say whatever it takes to close the sale and reset expectations later”
Yes it’s important to put up good numbers, but with the ever tightening butthole of today’s economy you do not want to lose your client's trust.
do what you love – don’t stay if its not personally rewarding
Yes you need to be passionate about what you do, but passion won’t pay the bills. Don’t quit your day job and use the money you are earning to fund the stuff you ACTUALLY want to do
Network network network
We’re taught that the business card is the opener of all doors. And while true, it’s not good enough to just know people, you have to actually build relationships for your network to really work. Quality over Quantity.
Apply for as many jobs as possible.
In theory casting a wide net is good, but then you're also more likely to end up in a job that is far removed from your career goals – focused searches are always better.
Do it on your own
Most of your successes will be because of the leg work you’ve put in, but not enough emphasis is put on asking for help. Help others help you
Save it for your review
Most people think its better to keep your head down and your mouth shut, but you should really balance that. Don’t wait for your year end review to voice concerns about work or to talk about your new ideas. The performance review is not the time to blindside your boss.
Whats the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
Embellish on your cover letter. They never check.
This one is really a hit or miss IMO. A job search in a field you want matters quite a bit on luck too. If you work your ass off, have the right background, pedigree and connections (even if it isn't the greatest in the world) you can get pretty close if not exactly what you want for a career. That being said you could work your ass off for no gain - even though people would never admit to that being a possibility.
Whether applying for as many jobs as possible is a good idea depends on your background and personal capacity to go a while without a job. If you graduated non-target XYZ and have no relevant experience & don't have the personal capacity (a.ka. money/savings) to be unemployed for a while you probably should be applying to as many jobs as possible. If "mommy & daddy" got your back, you'll be ok longer but if you need the money don't be stingy - you can lateral later (hopefully). Basically the marginal value of the intial few dollars is substantially higher the lower your personal capacity to go without a job.
My 2 cents.
Worst career advice for new grads = listening to crucifix.
THIS. Oh my God, THIS!
Worst advice I ever got in college (thankfully I could smell this shit a mile away):
My career really came together once I stopped trying to "control" it so much.
All I could think was "Welp, any credibility you may have had is now gone." Promptly proceeded to ignore the rest of the conversation.
Uhhh....
Let's see. I did almost all of the above and...
1) I've gotten internships doing what I love in areas that are top of their respective fields.
2) I applied to 120-160+ jobs/internships every year and got something badass every year (all from online applications.)
3) In order to maintain relationships you have to know relationships that will work out. It's a % game. People are lottery tickets.
You may live in a box after graduation, but people with enough passion, dedication, motivation, and savvy to research their fields enough break through eventually. Life is long and has a funny way of working out. Never give up on your dreams. Never. No matter how unrealistic of a "profession" it may seem. Ever.
Where to find worst advice: Read any article on LinkedIn.
@YellowRanger: true story. Considering setting up a filter to autodelete any email from my well-intentioned uncle containing a LinkedIn article link.
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