10 Random Career Life Hacks
Wanted to post a list of random super easy life hacks that I think have helped a lot over my career. In particular, I wanted to focus on items that I don't hear often from others. I'm not here to tell you to exercise and stay in shape - you've already heard that a million times. Let's just get started.
1. Drink coffee when you get to work
Not on the way to work, not before work but exactly when you sit down at your desk. If you are a coffee addict like me, drinking your first cup at the desk makes you look forward to getting to work every day. Furthermore, you get the rush from the caffeine right as you are starting work. When I grab a coffee on the way to work, it's already wearing off by the time that I'm at my desk.
2. Do the most difficult work in the morning
For anyone that has done serious meditation, you know that your mind is the clearest in the morning with the least jumbled thoughts. You may feel tired but that doesn't mean that your mind isn't at its best. Use that window to figure out the most difficult problems of the day. Something broken in the model? Do it first thing in the morning. I've seen people waste this period on answering e-mails and knocking out random tasks while easing into the day. Don't do it. Tackle the hardest problem first.
3. Arrange the easiest work for your weakest moments
Related to #2, plan on being exhausted later in day. Don't arrange logos at 3 p.m. Save that slide for 3 a.m.
4. Don't drink on Sundays
This is also semi-related to #2. On Monday morning, you will be hit with the most work all week - you need to be sharp for this moment. It shows who is nursing a hangover on Monday and who rested on Sunday when your MD is laying out ideas for the next pitchbook. There is wisdom in that day of rest.
5. Eat Salads 3 or 4 times a week and avoid terrible food
Ok breaking my earlier rule as diets get mentioned on WSO a lot but my point here is that it's not complicated. Eat a couple of salads, avoid pasta, pizza, and fries or anything too crazy and you won't gain weight at 23 years old. No crazy exercise routines necessary.
6. Attend regular religious services
Semi-related to #4. Good to take an hour a week to think about the bigger picture, what's your purpose in life, and what you need to be doing. You can't have an existential crisis if the existential is part of who you are and is embedded in your drive. Very helpful for long term career longevity and knowing your place in the world and what you're supposed to be doing.
7. Never eat lunch at your desk
No matter how busy you are. Take 15 or 20 minutes to eat lunch away from your desk. I've never seen any real work get done while someone is holding a sandwhich in their hands. You neither enjoy the sandwhich nor progess in your project. You will be much more productive and will easily make up for lost time by taking a small break and then getting back to it.
8. Plan your sleep schedule a week ahead of time
I'm not saying like a geek with a pencil and paper but if you're working until 4 a.m every weekday and the same will be the case next week, then you MUST get some sleep this weekend. No going out until 2 a.m. Do something fun until 10 p.m and call it a night. When you have line of sight to a semi-normal week ahead of you, stay up until 2 a.m.
9. Company drinking events are a trap. Always stop at 3 drinks or less
Never let your guard down at company events that involve alcohol. Remain jovial but professional. These are work events....stress work events...not places to have fun and act a fool. Do not be tricked into thinking otherwise. Also, understand physiological reasons why to keep it at just a single drink. Didn't eat all day and have slept 5 hours in the past 3 days but now the company Christmas Party is here? That means you're having one drink and then see #8 on your plans for the rest of the night.
10. Let your boss be your mentor on things unrelated to work.
Does your MD drive a Toyota. Yeah....don't buy that BMW as a first year analyst. Does he wear a Patek Phillipe, probably ok to buy a Rolex with your bonus. Some of the best ways to bond with superiors is realizing that you're on the same page together and you look at the world in the same way in terms of work and other things.
Well that's about it. FIre away with comments.
For the work events, don’t get drunk in front of your seniors. once they leave I get shitfaced as fuck
Would not to this.....here's why.
You get shit-faced and do or say something stupid. Now people are talking about it at the office the next day and your seniors hear about it. There's always a piece of shit co-worker out there that loves talking about how trashed someone got at the company event and further loves even exaggerating what happened. Haven't worked at a company where such a person or persons doesn't exist.
#9 reminds me of a story from my intern days.
I had been averaging about five hours of sleep for the past two weeks (lived outside a big city and far from the office, so commuting + workload = little sleep) and we closed a deal on Thursday. Friday morning, when the wire went through, everyone left the office at ~1 PM to grab drinks. Unfortunately, I ate breakfast at 6 AM and didnt get a chance to grab lunch yet due to tying up some odds and ends, but I figured we would go somewhere that got food. While I was correct in my assumption, no one ordered food, and as the intern, it would have been strange to ask for a food menu while everyone else sipped on their old fashions. I had a moderate alcohol tolerance at the time, but due to the lack of sleep and empty stomach, three old fashions in and I was having trouble keeping my composure. I worked in a water and tried my best to mingle with the Analysts, because I knew they wouldnt judge and Id seen them blacked out enough times to know they would have my back.
But, to no avail. Just as I was listening to two analysts discuss their Friday night plans two MDs pulled me aside and decided now was the perfect time to do a deep dive into my internship experience and what I thought about the firm. I initially gave them the normal BS, "great learning environment and opportunities for growth, learned a ton, really liked the culture and team", but they werent having it. They wanted details, examples, and unfortunately, examples of what I didnt like and where they could improve. While the ending is anti-climactic and essentially I just tried to mention looking for something basic like more stretch opportunities, it was a seriously terrifying moment.
Especially when you are an intern, minimize your drinking until its just your fellow interns and the Analysts / Associates, assuming you have close relationships. If you dont trust one more more of the Analysts / Associates, there is nothing wrong with excusing yourself after an hour or two at the happy hour.
would love to hear a version of this story where your MDs pull you aside and you go on a drunken rant
While not an everyday action like the OP, here's some general career advice: identify the rising star above you and latch onto them. They will pull you up with them if you do good work. Or, they will leave the company for a promotion and take you with. Aside from family connections, this is one of the fastest ways to be promoted that I've seen throughout my career.
Contrarian take. Being able to booze helps you get ahead in life. Being the guy that can continue pounding beers while keeping his composure late into the night earns a bewildering amount of respect (for something so dumb). Especially if you can then come in the next morning at 8:30AM, looking and feeling brand new while all of the schmucks that dipped out at 9:00PM are trying not to throw up the two IPAs they drank in a row last night.
I'm telling you, if you spend one late night out, drinking all night with your superiors while keeping it cool, they'll forever have an affinity for you. Same with clients, drink with them until the wee hours after a deal-close dinner and you're their new favorite banker. I had an experience like this with one client and whenever they'd talk to my boss they would ask about me by name and laugh - it earned me a ton of points with my boss for helping "strengthen the relationship" but literally all I did was order copious amounts of car bombs throughout the night on the company tab and laugh my head off whenever someone from the client management team told a corny but edgy joke.
Edit: I do agree with what everyone else is saying though. Know your limits. If you cannot pull the above off DO NOT make an asshole out of yourself trying.
to paraphrase some of your points:
1. ruin your heart with regular caffein intake
2. disregard your personal productivity schedule
3. avoid doing some tasks until it's 3am just because they're too simple, so you can forget doing them or stay up longer
4, 8. don't enjoy your life. build your life around work. you live to serve your bosses.
6. waste your limited free time on worshiping imaginary creatures
7. you can't just watch YouTube at your desk while eating your sandwich. you have to go somewhere out necessarily and stare at the void while eating sandwich.
10. keep licking your bosses boots even when it doesn't relate to work. dress like your boss, drive the same car, talk like him. your life goal is to please your boss.
You sound unbelievably annoying
says who? somebody in "corporate development". you guys hire consultants for everything that needs to be done.
Im glad you tried to criticize these but most of these are just mischaracterizations of what the guy is advising and/or hyperbolic exaggerations of what he is saying to do
“worship imaginary creatures”
Yea all the most successful people in history never went never believed in a higher power right?
Go to a religious service? Gods fake dude grow up
I just let people know about my belief and the sense of place in the world that it has helped me accomplish. It's up for others to decide what they will.
I find it funny that atheists respond angrily denegrating religious people 99% of the time rather than telling others how being an atheist has made them a better person and brought more fulfillment into their life. Just reading the mean comments from most atheists makes me not want to be an atheist even more so.
Personally, I don't go around angrily telling Muslims or Buddhists that they are wrong. I'm just here to say what I think is the truth and what has been life-changing for me in deep profound ways and has saved me from very dark places in my life. Why get so angry that someone has found fulfillment wtih religion?