All of the Critical Career Advice People Haven’t Bothered to Tell You

I have no idea if any Gen Z people/new grads follow me or my work in general, but if you do then hi! Check this out. Since I’ve worked a ton of different jobs in different industries, I’m CHOCK FULL of opinions about how to tackle being a working adult, and I’ve done a lot of reflecting on the strategies that have worked for me and people like me as a first-generation, working-class Nigerian American woman in the U.S. A lot of standard career advice is either mega-obvious (“Try internships to build experience!” Yeah no shit.), way too vague (“know your worth!”) or doesn’t account for the fact that some of us don’t have family support or a big network to fall back on. FUCK that I’m out here trying to give you shit that’s useful. TACTICS. EXAMPLES. Let’s GO. Here’s a quick and dirty list of the things that I wish someone had told me early in my career:

1. Get counselors and advisors

Cold email people from your college, high school, or non-problematic side of the family who have gotten even mildly successful. Ain’t got family or school connections? Surprise bitch, I’M your connection now. Stalk me and your top 5 role models on Twitter (a lot of people who aren’t me don’t answer their DMs on Instagram). Send the occasional DM when the moment pops up. Even though it’s a fact that general Twitter is a Burning Man-sized garbage fire, my friend Bri yelled at me a while back that professional Twitter is amazing. I hopped on and guess what. She was fucking right. My favorite creators actually talk to me there and people post jobs and gigs there all the time. Follow relevant hashtags so those posts will pop up in your feed (for example: “#readblackwriters” or “#wgastaffingboost” if you’re a Black person trying to break into screenwriting). I’ll talk more about mentors and networking in the future.

2. When you’re choosing a role model, choose them not only based on their professional accomplishments, but also on their physical day-to-day lifestyle

Would you really be happy living how they do on an average day? What trade-offs have they made for their level of success or “fame,” and which of those might be deal-breakers for you? Do they have a lot of debt from school? Are they limited to one geographical area where their industry’s best opportunities are? Do they have free weekends? Do they have control and flexibility over what they wear/eat? How much? Do they sleep 7–8 hrs on a regular basis? Do they get time to actually see the sights when they’re traveling somewhere? Do they have privacy? Do they seem to be liked by people who have worked closely with them (a.k.a. are they still emotionally balanced and cool or has the nature of their job turned them into an asshole)? If they’ve been doing their job for a long time, what’s their physical health like now? Do they share your political beliefs? Do they have the leverage to act on those beliefs in their work or do they not have enough power?

3. A job interview is about THEM auditioning for YOU just as much as it’s you auditioning for them

Don’t let them heauxs tell you otherwise. Come with a list of questions to ask about how decisions are made, what the diversity of your prospective team (not just the overall company) looks like, how they enforce work-life balance, how flexible or closely monitored your time will be, what they ultimately hope their platform or product will turn into, what a recent challenge is that they’ve had as a team and what they did to fix it, what problems they anticipate having in the future, what benefits and connections they feel they offer you outside of just pay, etc. Especially at big companies, ask to talk to people who aren’t the executives or people whose job it is to sell you on the role, and go seek these people out on your own on social media. You wanna hear about the flaws or stressors of the company before you’ve taken the job there and are afraid of quitting too early and looking like a flake. But if you got catfished and a job turns out to truly be a nightmare, QUIT. I DON’T CARE IF IT’S BEEN A WEEK OR A MONTH. There’s good work environments out there and you shouldn’t be forced to spend your time in terrible ones. Therapy is expensive.

4. Document EVERYTHING in your work, paid or unpaid

From your wins (big sales or engagement numbers, positive comments from customers, file downloads of cool shit you made, etc) to any wack shit that your company tries to pull on you. Screenshots screenshots screenshots. Pictures and video if you can.

5. Send yourself a daily “What I Did Today” Email (or a weekly version)

Even if you’re unemployed and it’s just a list of applications or DMs you sent out, books you read, or online coursework you did.

6. Put a specific value on your time that you increase every year

Set a general bar of “I’m worth no less than $17/hr no matter WHO’s asking for it.” Commit to building the skills and experience you need to justify that number and its increase every year, but DON’T FLAKE OUT ON IT. If you’re picking up free work to build a portfolio, decide exactly how long you’re going to do that before transitioning to paid work only. SET A DATE. But see #9.

7. Ask for more time/money than you initially think you need on a project

Cuz guess what heaux YOU’RE GONNA NEED IT.

8. Know the importance of recharging.

SLEEP. PEE. EAT A GREEN VEGETABLE. WATCH ANIME & CAT VIDEOS. Plan rest and recharge time into the timelines of your projects. That said, some of us are trapped in bad jobs that don’t let us do that (yeah that’s right she rantin’ about unchecked capitalism again). If your current job makes it impossible for you to properly rest and recharge, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING related to your scheduling and hours, look up and save evidence of the legal rights of workers in your particular industry or geographic area, and craft an exit strategy that’s feasible for you. (We’ll talk about that in a different post.)

9. Your money move doesn’t HAVE to be your passion project

Your (a) passion and (b) what you do to be able to afford rent + Cap’n Crunch can be two totally separate things (and I mean totally separate for some people). In fact, depending on where you’re at in your career and what lifestyle you need, it’s probably a good thing if they’re separated. It may not like that’s true right now. Maybe it feels like you’re falling behind others who have already turned that fun thing into their full-time career. Maybe it feels like having a main job doesn’t leave you enough time to build your passion. But trust me: paying your rent, food, student debt, and medical bills is a LOT of pressure to put on your dream, especially if it’s something you normally do to get away from stress or you’re new to it and still trying to find your voice/style. And if you don’t have a family or a spouse to house/support you, having a day job to support you while you build your passion is CLUTCH — it lets you find your style on your own terms, say no to opportunities that might be exploitative because you’re not desperate for money, etc.

10. You’re never too old or serious to like that weird thing you like.

I’m saying this because I see it ALL THE TIME. Deadass. I don’t care if you’re 22, 32, or 52. Even if you don’t directly monetize it, keep dedicating time to that hobby or interest every week, especially if they’re not directly related to your chosen industry. It’ll keep you sane AND set you apart in interviews, applications, or the independent content (art, stories, videos, tech projects, product inventions) that you make. Oh what’s that, sib? You like Lolita fashion or competitive dog grooming? You’re into Afrobeats music or Tik Tok hair tutorials? You’re learning knitting or Lebanese? You have experience running a Discord because of that one weird fan Discord you started with your friends a year ago? You’ve been in beard grooming or nail art contests? Ah shit would you look at that, this writing team or that coding role is looking for someone who has fan knowledge about exactly that thing. INTERESTING.

11. What skills do you already have? Set up a cheap website that you can link to and list them all.

Even if it’s just a Google Sites page, set up an online destination that lists everything you’ve done or can do, with links or embedded images of things you’ve written, made, or appeared in. A lot of times opportunities for work or experience will pop up in informal contexts like Instagram posts, Twitter threads, or Facebook groups, where it’s way easier to shoot someone a link than it is to try and share a PDF of a traditional resume (although it’s good to have that ready to for formal applications).

What kind of experience or skills should you list? Well if you’re trying to work in media, for example: Photoshop, Canva, Google Slides, managing a YouTube channel (no matter how small), making YouTube and Tik Tok videos, running a camera (even if it’s just a DSLR), setting up lighting or sound equipment (on a film set or in theater), any languages you can speak proficiently, any extended travel experience (you spent 2 months studying abroad in Turkey? You make repeated family trips to China that give you a personal experience with the culture? MENTION THAT), coordinating a team calendar, typing at a certain speed, operating a teleprompter, reading from a teleprompter as a host, managing social media accounts for a group or organization (include the number of followers or engagement rates), doing research (even if it wasn’t for a show or creative content) — all of this kind of stuff counts and has gotten me jobs in the past!

12. Take pictures.

Related to #11, WHEN IT’S APPROPRIATE, SAFE, AND NOT DISRUPTIVE, try and grab behind-the-scenes or on-the-job photos of yourself that you can use on your LinkedIn, career-related Instagram, or cheap personal website. Even if you don’t have those platforms set up now, you’ll be glad to have the visual material later when you do! The less visuals-driven or personality-driven your prospective career track, the less critical this is — you probably don’t need this kind of thing if you’re trying to work as a professional chemist, insurance analyst, or software engineer, but in general have at least a few photos. Some examples:

— (If you don’t wanna show your face) pictures of the supplies you use, your workspace, or in-process shots of the thing you’re building or working on.

— You posing with a finished product (the cake you baked, the stage or set you helped build, the robot you built, the student ambassadors you trained)

— You at a table working on one of your paintings or illustrations, surrounded by art supplies, or while looking at a (clothed) model (who can honestly just be one of your friends)

— You working at a laptop (It’s generic but chill and can break up the page on a website or LinkedIn.)

— You putting together the parts of that electrical engineering project you’re working on

— You running a booth for that startup or nonprofit you interned for, or talking in a small meeting or educational event.

— You writing things on a board for a design or teaching project

— You holding or operating technical equipment

Have your mom, a friend, a passing tourist, or your least-messy coworker take these for you. It WILL feel stupid. Always. Asking someone “Can you take a pic of me smiling while mounting this poster” or “can you take a quick video of me doing a funny explanation for kids of how multiplication works” feels ridiculous. But you’ll be glad to have visuals of yourself that show people (a) you’ve actually done the thing and (b) you’re a real person who smiles under the right circumstances and is probably not an axe murderer.

BIG NOTE HERE: you can obviously set up photos and videos of yourself to best show off your skill/your space/the thing you made, but don’t outright stage photos of things you didn’t actually make or can’t actually do. That won’t end well for you. And don’t take those “smiling with poor kids in [insert low-income country or neighborhood here]” pictures for volunteer or travel stuff. Fuck that.

13. Success is a long game

We live in a weird capitalist fart-puzzle that’s mostly disorganized and irrational, and often based on slowly-built personal relationships. You and your ambitions are not failed or invalid just because you don’t hit it big two, five, or eight years out of the gate. Your career is gonna have long pauses and big leaps, and your goals are gonna change anyway as you figure out what the shit is really about for you. KEEP GOING.

I like AGGRESSIVELY want you to succeed.

What the fuck else is new. I love you, go sparkle.

Was this too much? Probably. Go yell your questions and feelings at me on Instagram or Twitter.