Simple Career Advice for 20-Somethings
Seven tokens of simple career advice to make the most out of your twenties
On the surface, less is at stake in your twenties.
Despite whatever student loan debt you may be touting, you likely have fewer dependents, fewer financial obligations, and fewer commitments overall. If you’re fortunate, you probably have fewer health challenges now than you will later in life. Demands on your time are undoubtedly lower than they will ever be.
Many young professionals, however, get stuck obsessing over early career decisions. What am I supposed to do with my life? How can I get ahead? How will my choices now impact my ability to succeed later?
But there are not necessarily any right or wrong decisions when it comes to your career, especially early on. Why not? Because success is defined differently for everyone. And any right or wrong comes down to whether or not your decisions are pushing you closer to or further from your definition of success.
You will make many decisions along the course of your career. Some may seem right or wrong at the moment, but that will likely change in retrospect.
Instead of obsessing over decisions, focus your energy on what is most at stake during your twenties: your network, your experiences, and your reputation.
Deliberate investment in these areas will correspond with success later on.
Below are some best practices to help you get started in maximizing your network, experiences, and reputation during your twenties.
#1 Be intentional about building your mentor network
Mentors represent more than people who can provide periodic coaching throughout your life. Mentors are co-pilots in problem-solving. They are sounding boards, pillars of perspective that can help highlight the more profound, underlying opportunities whenever professional adversity arises.
Mentors will talk you off the ledge when you experience professional defeat. They will also open doors that can change the whole trajectory of your career.
Often, when I ask younger professionals about their mentors, they typically answer one of two ways:
- “Well, I don’t really have a mentor, but I hope to in the future.”
- “Yeah, I have a mentor. You mean, my manager, right?”
In your twenties, you should strive to find a better answer to this question. While your boss may be a fantastic manager, the best mentors are typically not the result of where you happened to land in the reporting structure.
External mentors, in contrast, can provide solid sounding boards when work-related challenges arise, and you can turn to them for more unbiased career advice.
Finding mentors is not as difficult as it may seem. Even if you’re unsure about your ultimate career, start by identifying others who are living and working in a way that you admire. These may be friends, family, neighbors, former classmates, people you meet playing in a local sports team. These people can evolve to become mentors for you.
Get comfortable finding mentors and then nurturing such relationships. Make a diligent effort to connect regularly. Call and text to touch base, meet over coffee when you can.
Remember that despite any differences in age or experience, great relationships of any kind are a two-way street. Avoid only feeding the relationship when you have a specific need.
Your mentors now may end up being around for life. Or they may change over time, as all relationships do. But one thing is for sure; mentors will support you, shape you, and help define your career story.
#2 Capitalize on experiences, not just paychecks
Often, younger professionals feel that magnetic pull toward the jobs that pay the most. Ego and status can get in the way, and social pressures can be highly influential, causing them to forfeit a great experience solely for a better paycheck elsewhere.
While a good salary is essential to support your lifestyle and financial goals, avoid sacrificing a valuable experience for money alone.
Looking at the big picture, you have many earning years ahead of you. Without altogether abandoning thoughtful financial decision-making, it is far more essential to seek out experiences and exposure above pay, especially during your twenties.
Capitalizing on experiences specifically in your twenties will likely lay a better foundation for your career and, ultimately, your financial success. It certainly did for me.
When I graduated from college, I was privileged to have multiple options when it came to my first “real” job. My final decision ultimately came down to two companies that could not be more different on paper.
On the one hand, I had an opportunity to work in an entry-level position at a global investment firm. I heavily scrutinized this job because it represented more annually than any other offers on the table.
The other job was working for a budding “mom-and-pop” retail store, for 40% less annually.
When I decided to take the lesser of the two offers, many of my close family and friends thought the choice made no sense. But the difference in opportunities to me was night and day.
The job I picked was helping an entrepreneur open a retail store as a second stream of income. During the day, my boss worked as the regional VP of Sales for the same retail company. To me, the position not only represented a way to get experience across many areas of business but also an opportunity to learn from someone like her.
During my time there, I gained first-hand entrepreneurial experience, without the burdens of my own financial investment. I was exposed to operations, finance, and marketing and even got a crash course in management. I was responsible for hiring and managing a team of mostly high-school and college-aged employees, but even some workers much older than me. I helped with budgeting and planning, and after our first season, I was eventually responsible for managing all purchasing and inventory.
My boss entrusted her business to me and granted me a lot of autonomy from day one. I got to experiment across many areas of the business and through this experimentation, I not only learned a lot about how to run a small business, but I also discovered myself and my strengths and interests as a byproduct.
In hindsight, my decision to follow a non-traditional route in contrast to my fellow B-School grads was the best decision I could have made.
At the investment firm, I would have been the lowest member on the totem pole, operating in a single job function every day, mostly attending meetings, working in spreadsheets, and “pushing paper.” I would have learned a ton there as well, and likely built a bigger network out of the gate. But I wasn’t too excited about finance, and building a network in finance may have locked me into an industry I had no desire to grown in, so what would that network even be worth?
I also would have paid off debt faster and had more to show in my savings account after a couple of years on the job. But would the experience have mattered as much in the long run?
While I made less money in retail, I learned so much about different disciplines of business and also started to figure out m. I realized I was excited about things I had minimal-to-no exposure to in college, like entrepreneurship, operations, organizational behavior, and sales, among other things. I also learned a lot from getting to work day-to-day with a successful businesswoman whose approach to life and work inspired me in ways I will never forget.
Though I sacrificed some salary in my early twenties, I would argue I ultimately made up for it. Though I will never know for sure, I suspect I would not be as fulfilled at this point in my life had I started in the corporate position. At a minimum, my decision to choose experience over my paycheck helped me figure out my passions, and that alone was worth it.
Even if you decide to go the corporate route, don’t let the financial package alone sway your decision when better experiences are on the line. Focus your energy on capitalizing on experiences and exposure, not just dollars, and you will make up for it later.
#3 Say “yes” when others say “no”
You will come across many productivity articles about the power of saying no. Saying no is a great skill to learn in your career and certainly one that can make or break your productivity habits in the long-term.
But when you’re new to full-time work, aim to say yes as much as possible to avoid missing out on growth opportunities that can make you a better professional and further your career. For example:
- Say yes to showing up early and leaving late.
- Say yes to the smallest of tasks.
- Say yes to reading and learning.
- Say yes to networking events and meeting new people.
Regardless of how modern your workplace may be, the age-old advice of showing up early and leaving late still resonates today.
This is not about arriving early or leaving late for the optics. This is about being a better professional. For example, showing up early allows you to prepare yourself better. Plan your day, address low-hanging fruit, take a moment to read, reflect, and breathe. Similarly, leaving a little later allows you to properly wrap-up the day.
These extra efforts will allow you to maximize your actual “on-the-clock” time because you’re getting a head start in contrast to your colleagues. Showing up early and leaving late gives you more focus on working when you are at work.
But while punching the clock alone will not get you ahead, neither will working a ton of hours for the sake of it. Like anything else in life, how you truly get ahead in your career comes down to the quality of your output, not the quantity.
Therefore, it’s also important to say “yes” to your personal life. A healthy balance between work and personal will help you to be a better professional. Workaholism is unsustainable and robs professionals of the many benefits that having a proper focus on family, friends, and health can bring back to the job.
At the heart of “saying yes” is the concept of going above and beyond and giving 110% to everything you do. It’s about taking pride in your work, no matter how small the task.
In a recent episode of his podcast, The MFCEO Project, Andy Frisella talks about how truly successful people take pride in what they do, even the small and seemingly meaningless tasks. To paraphrase some of this episode, Andy says:
“I don’t know anybody who has been successful who doesn’t take extreme pride and ownership in what they do. What does taking pride even mean? It means having a sense of value that you hold yourself to. It means taking intiative. It means outworking every single person you know in life. It means paying attention to the little details. It means demanding quality in every single thing that you do…”
“What you do tells the world what you are. What you do and the results you produce tells the world everything that it needs to know about you.”
Master every task assigned to you, however so small. Take on more work proactively and then master that. Continually learn and find ways to improve in your current role. Once you have achieved mastery in your work, teach others.
If anyone asks for volunteers, raise your hand. If there are free training events, attend. If there are happy hours, make an effort to connect with your colleagues outside of work. Look at each conversation and project as an experience that you can learn from, and you will indeed experience growth and reward.
#4 Be humble but helpful
“There is no elevator to success; you have to take the stairs.” — Zig Ziglar
When starting in most fields, you won’t be paid for your expertise. Instead, you’ll be paid for what you do. While you may have great ideas coming out of school, remember that first and foremost, you’re being paid to learn and subsequently perform a job.
Since it will take years to build subject-matter expertise in your field, focus your early years on absorbing and learning, keeping your ego in check. There are many ways you can demonstrate humility as you are building your career:
- Listen before you speak.
- When you fail, take extreme ownership.
- When you succeed, deflect praise.
- Continually challenge your assumptions and snap-judgments.
Remember, however, that being humble doesn’t mean staying on the sidelines. There are many ways you can be helpful to your organization while maintaining humility.
To do this, focus on rising above being the squeaky wheel at work and instead, be someone who identifies squeaking wheels (broken processes, communication breakdowns, issues with work policies). Then, constructively address them. Below is a framework for doing so:
- Identify the issue.
- Seek to understand what is going on.
- Think through potential solutions.
- Reach out to the person or people within your organization who have the most power to solve the issue.
- Talk about the issue and offer solutions.
- Follow-up and keep communication lines open.
- Lastly, be patient as meaningful change takes time.
This approach will help make sure your ideas are heard. Doing so in this manner will also earn you respect from your managers and peers and help you get to the next level faster.
#5 Be authentic, genuine, and honest
After graduating from college, you have a clean slate. But you build a reputation quickly in your twenties, and reputation is everything. One of the biggest threats to your reputation is inauthenticity.
“Be authentic” is equally sound life advice and career advice. But what does being authentic mean?
- Speaking our truths and the truth.
- Aligning our actions with our words.
- Being open-minded and treating others with kindness and respect.
- Following through on our commitments.
- Accepting our imperfections and being vulnerable.
In our careers, it can be as simple as:
- If it feels right, do it. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.
- If it should be said, say it. If it’s not helpful, don’t say it.
There are many times in our twenties that our success lies in the proverbial “fake it ’til you make it” but don’t let this confidence builder interfere with your authenticity.
Faking confidence to get through a challenging period is not about overinflating ourselves or lying about our capabilities, accomplishments, or desires. Faking it should not mean sacrificing who we are and our truths.
As you take on different jobs throughout your twenties, avoid misrepresenting your experiences and work. I have witnessed many people throughout my career lie to get ahead, when, in reality, it’s setting them back in the long-run. A few simple rules:
- Be true to your accomplishments. Don’t overinflate your accomplishments. Don’t take credit for work that was indeed owned by your manger or accomplished as the result of a team-based effort.
- Be true to your experiences. Don’t stretch your years of experience. If you were at a job for nine months, don’t round it up to a year. If you have short tenures or gaps in your resume, be prepared when networking or interviewing to explain these rationally.
- Be honest about the jobs you have held. If you’re a Marketing Coordinator, don’t reflect your title as Marketing Manager on your resume. Smart employers will see through these tactics.
#6 Build bridges, don’t burn them
The key to life is relationships. The key to your career is the same.
Building a great career is all about building great relationships. Similarly, the root of many successful businesses comes down to culture, and at the heart of culture is how people are treated. In your twenties, you should learn to treat people well, regardless of how they may treat you.
Even if you dislike your colleague or boss, choose to take the high road and avoid fighting fire with fire. Instead:
- Rise above and avoid aligning yourself to the “lowest common denominators.”
- Thank the people who challenge you.
- Be empathetic, and always respond with kindness. Remember, it’s easy to be kind when you’re working with easy people. It’s much harder when you’re working with difficult people, and this is when kindness matters the most.
- Be appreciative of the hardest bosses. You’ll look back in five or ten years and realize you learned the most from them, especially on what not to do.
However so hard, find the silver linings in all people. It is true; you will encounter many poor examples of human beings in the work world: the entitled, the self-serving, the egomaniacs, people who are disrespectful, judgmental, hypocritical, and unethical, those who lack compassion and empathy. But you will learn a lot from these types of people. And the way you choose to respond to their behavior will define you as a professional.
#7 Don’t forget to invest in the success of others
Real achievement happens not when you help yourself, but when you help others.
Whether you end up in an early management position or not, strive to always behave like a leader.
It’s like dressing for success. Dress for the position you want, not the position you have. Similarly, lead others like you want to be lead. Manage up, down, and all-around regardless of your job. If you can help others around you to be successful, you will experience success as well.
It has been said that “first you get paid for what you do, then you get paid for what you know, then you get paid for who you grow.” As you gain experience and knowledge, ask yourself, who are you growing beyond yourself?
While we may never know where our career decisions may lead us, focusing positive energy on our networks, our experiences, and our reputations will create the foundation for a healthy and fruitful career.
How will you make the most out of your early career years?
