What your boss will not tell you

“I love the thing and I hate it at the same time. The reason I love it is that it gives me so much power. And the reason I hate it is that it has so much power over me.”

The quote refers to smartphones, yet the same can be said for our jobs. It’s at the root of our Sunday Scaries. But it doesn’t have to be this way!

There are some unwritten rules that your boss is unlikely to ever tell you. For starters, what it takes to get your career off the ground is not what will keep you fulfilled. You need to shift gears at every step.

Let’s start from the beginning.

Getting picked

How do you get a shot when you have no experience? This is the first dilemma everyone faces.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: nobody ever says: “I want to make a risky hire, someone with limited to no experience who may bomb on the job but may also rise like the phoenix.” If you’re a diamond in the rough, you need to do everything you can to be cut, polished, and sized to fit for the opportunity you’re eyeing.

I used a combination of intense interview prep, doing the job unofficially and saying yes to pretty much everything to become a consultant and later PM.