Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Best Advice: Keep track of your achievements, document them, be able to show your affect on a business/goal/project/department.
Once you stop learning and progressing your career and knowledge....leave.
Worst Advice: It's okay to jump from job to job when you're young, explore and find out what you want. Unfortunately it makes your resume look like swiss cheese and it limits your candidacy at a lot of companies.
Also bad advice: A job is a job is a job. Just be happy with the job you have and do it. My parents lived by this philosophy and they've been miserable most of their working lives. I can't live like that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KABurke
I don't know how bizarre, bad or good this was, but I was always told it's easier to find a job when you already have one. However, I've doubted the validity of that theory many, many times.
This is actually completely true and I can tell you so from experience. I was laid off once and it took me 6 months to land a sales job. I tried to be picky early on and I wasn't considered by anyone beyond a phone screen interview. Then I dropped my standards and was being rejected for ENTRY LEVEL sales positions that I had years above the requirements for. Reason: They thought I was just interested in the job because I was unemployed and that I'd leave as soon as I found something better.
Many companies screen people out pre-interview and have a policy not to consider anyone who is unemployed.
If you have a job it helps you two ways:
1. The company doesn't feel a sense of desperation on your part
2. The company feels like they're "stealing" you from another company
3. They want to make sure you think it's the right fit, and they don't want to hire someone who is just taking the job because they need something. It's like dating...would you go out with the guy who was single forever and had asked out every girl whether he found them attractive or not?
1. The company doesn't feel a sense of desperation on your part
2. The company feels like they're "stealing" you from another company
3. They want to make sure you think it's the right fit, and they don't want to hire someone who is just taking the job because they need something. It's like dating...would you go out with the guy who was single forever and had asked out every girl whether he found them attractive or not?
that's 3 ways! haha. i do think you're right that these are all advantages to having a job when you're looking. the one advantage to not having a job is you can start super fast if the company needs that.
i do think #3 is important in general - approaching the job seeking process as not just a quest to get a job, but a quest to get the RIGHT job, is really attractive to employers. i'd say the best job-seeking advice i got was to interview my interviewer (when they ask for questions) to make sure that *i* want to do the job rather than just trying to show them that they want to hire me. any decent manager will appreciate that you are being thoughtful about things and thinking about your fit and not just saying what you think is the right thing to land the job no matter what.
- deliver your resume in person and other various gimmicky things to make you "stand out" that don't have anything to do with your qualifications.
- call once a day after you apply/interview (seriously???)
I am not sure I ever got "career advice", but the worst advice I ever listened to was from Suze Orman, "buy a house, buy a house". That got me locked into a house worth less than when I bought it, and landlocked to a job I had no further mobility, it was an anchor around my neck. Chained up like a dog to a dog house.
Houses cost money. And they are giant sucking pools of cash....I never want another house in my life.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
4,640 posts, read 11,930,296 times
Reputation: 9885
Quote:
Originally Posted by jasper12
I am not sure I ever got "career advice", but the worst advice I ever listened to was from Suze Orman, "buy a house, buy a house". That got me locked into a house worth less than when I bought it, and landlocked to a job I had no further mobility, it was an anchor around my neck. Chained up like a dog to a dog house.
Houses cost money. And they are giant sucking pools of cash....I never want another house in my life.
Oh, I so agree with you about the house. I'm getting ready to list mine shortly. I don't ever seeing myself buying another house again.
I honestly cannot think of any really stellar advice at the moment. But the few that come to mind are.
Good advice -
Always be learning.
Always acquire new skills and skill sets.
Volunteer to gain experience.
Train and learn on your own.
Go for it!
Get a master's because one day bachelor's degrees will be the new high school diploma (hasn't exactly paid off yet but I have it so maybe one day).
(As a person with ADHD) Go for jobs with structure and set processes and procedures.
Worst (from my mom while I was in high school) -
Why go to college when you can sign up for the nearest temp agency and make $8 an hour!
Worst (from my mom while I was in high school) -
Why go to college when you can sign up for the nearest temp agency and make $8 an hour!
In today's climate I wouldn't so easily count this as bad advice.
If you started working at 18 years old and landed a position that allowed specialized training and real world experience, not only would you have a job in 4 years with work experience and some achievements to indicate your success, but you'd also have saved yourself tens of thousands of dollars of loan debt.
For those who say "well how will you find a job in 4 years that you want if you didn't go to college"? I say to them: "How many kids out of college are finding it so easy to land a job?"
So many kids spend 4-5 years for this college education and they can't even get a job when they finish in today's world. At least if you've been working you have experience and I'd put 4 years of successful work accomplishments over any bachelor's degree. College education in this country for undergraduate degrees is a joke.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
