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 — 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 — don't stay under one longer than you have to.
Readers, I'm curious — 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 — the hard way or the easy way?
Only give 60%. The only prize for being amazing is more work.
Great comment. I’ll add that if you’re an intelligent high-achieving woman, your 60% is most people’s 100%.
sing it, sister
When I got out of law school I reframed my thinking incorrectly — I stopped looking at it as a sprint because the partnership track was 9 years. But i never wanted to make partner, so I should have reframed it as a 3-year time period to learn as much before I went to a new job. Some of my colleagues did and seem much happier these days.
A gap in your resume will always hurt you. The impacts compound over time. It does not matter why there is a gap – cancer, childbirth/family caregiving, or genuinely being a bad fit for a position – you cannot escape it.
This can be reduced to “it’s easier to get a job when you have one” but it so much more than that. It’s missed opportunities and connections that you can never make up for.
ugh this makes me think of a family member who hasn’t worked in like 14 years (starting around age 33) for reasons that are kind of a mystery to the family. Double Ivy. laid off from a biglaw employer, then wanted to take time to work on a startup idea, then seemingly got sidetracked by various health issues. Startup never materialized.
I have a small business and I offered to hire them as a consultant for a small project so they could get the final 2 Social Security credits… and they said nah, they had plenty of time to get them and didn’t need to work with me. Like there will be a million job opportunities for an almost-50 year old who hasn’t worked for 14 years.
Mine is to let your ambitions be known. I stayed in a job for a while that was boring and well below my abilities because I wasn’t sure what else to do and there was no clear next step. I wound up leaving to go to law school, which was ultimately a good move, but looking back I think if I had sat down with some higher ups and been clear that I wanted to stay with the company but do something more, help me find a path, they would have worked with me.