5 Important Career Lessons I’ve Learned in My 20's
Mentorship and communication skills are extremely important.
Reaching the age of 30 definitely feels like an important milestone. I hit 30 a couple of months ago and it has created an opportunity for me to reflect and reminisce about all the small and big successes and also cringe (just a little) at my mistakes and failures.
I am thankful to say that I am relatively happy to be where I am in life right now, and I think a big part of that is because I am satisfied with how my career turned out and am confident that it will only get better from here.
There have been lows and highs in my ~8 years of working. I’ve picked up a few valuable lessons along the way and wanted to share some of which I wish I knew earlier on in my twenties.
Please note that these are just my personal opinions and learnings so feel free to take away whatever works for you (or none if none of them apply — I won’t be offended).
1. Choose a mentor over a company.
You have probably heard this multiple times before. Having a great mentor is extremely important in your career. Great mentors not only let you tab into their experience and knowledge but also their connections.
They can become your cheerleader and provide encouragement, guidance, and advice for your professional development and promote you to others. They can become your soundboard and also a reliable source for constructive criticism and feedback.
I would emphasize that having a mentor who is not only able but willing to develop you is very important, especially in the early stages of your career.
If you find yourself in a situation where you have more than one job offer and have to choose, I would advise weighing highly on who your manager is going to be.
Of course, a mentor does not always have to be your direct line manager. However, your manager would be the one with the most power and motivation to groom you in your new role in the early stages of your career.
It may be challenging to figure out whether your manager to be is a great mentor material. You may be able to pick up a few hints from the interview, but if not, here are some general questions and tips that may help you make a judgment:
Is he/she a seasoned manager with a history of developing talents?
Even though this is not always true, oftentimes, I find that young and inexperienced managers are fun and friendly, but not as awesome when it comes down to career advice, training, and talent development.
The biggest reason for this is probably because they are largely inexperienced. Effective people management is a skill that is developed and groomed over time.
One other reason may be due to the fact that young managers are at a stage where they are still too busy figuring out their careers. They are spending a lot of time and energy developing their own, that they are not that interested in hearing out your long term career plan.
Lastly, one less apparent reason that many people won’t talk about is that young managers with only a few years of experience may feel threatened by another young, smart, and enthusiastic report like you. I had this experience personally who will purposefully exclude me from high visibility projects and downplay my role in front of his superiors. Based on my conversation with others around me, I heard that this is quite common; it is just a matter of how obvious the manager shows this.
One way to get a feel for your future manager’s management styles is to have a chat with a person in the team. I’ve done this before both through HR and LinkedIn. Though you will need to filter some of the things he or she will say (they would want to highlight the best parts about their managers to a potential future colleague), you may be able to get some ideas.
Is he or she a micro/macro manager?
This depends on your personal preference and learning style. I personally find that a little bit of micromanaging was helpful earlier on in the career. As I gained more experience, I found myself learning and developing skill sets better when I had more freedom to explore, recommend, and make business decisions, with guidance from the manager when necessary.
Is the team too big, i.e. Do many people report to this manager and does this mean that he or she may not have enough time for you?
This may be still okay. Even if your direct manager may not have a lot of time for you, your more experienced team members may be willing to invest time and groom you and you may end up being able to tap into multiple people rather than just one. You can also still find mentors outside of your direct team. It may be helpful to ask specific questions on the training/ development plan for your role during the interview process.
2. Be strategic in your career moves.
You do not need to know exactly where you want to be after 10- 20 years in your career. Part of the fun is exploring and figuring it out on the way, taking advantage of the new opportunities and development as they come up. I would advise exploring different types of work in your twenties to find where your best interest and fit lie.
Once you have a general idea of what you want to pursue, be strategic about the career moves you take to get there.
Develop a long term career plan.
It can be pretty general at an early stage; the important thing here is to have a general direction. This will allow you to set up some guidelines that will help you make decisions fast when faced with opportunities to reach your goal more efficiently.
The important thing here is to have a general direction.
For example, let’s say right now, you are an associate in a market research function who wants to eventually move into marketing.
You have no background in marketing. Based on job descriptions, you feel you may stand a low chance of landing a marketing role. After talking to a few people in the marketing team, you learn that having a year or two sales experience can help open doors for marketing jobs. You also find that an internal departmental switch is more feasible than an external move.
So you plan it out.
You strategically build relationships with the marketing and sales team, do extra projects with them to increase visibility, and express interest so that you are at the top of their minds when a new role opens up.
You may get into an entry marketing role and advance from there, or get a sales job, then go into marketing after a couple of years. Or you advance within your current function and lead cross-functional projects that have many marketing aspects, and leverage those to get a marketing role elsewhere.
All I am saying here is that once you have a goal and plan in mind, you can strategically move and get there.
I want to stress this as I’ve seen many people who seem to be working very hard, but just without any directions.
Despite their efforts, these people often find themselves frustrated at the slower or lack of progression in their careers. Though having a direction and a plan is not everything, I see over and over that it is one important factor that does make a huge difference in people’s careers.
3. Network meaningfully.
Develop deep and authentic relationship with a few that know you well and care for you, who will provide glowing recommendation and vouch for you when the time comes.
As an introvert, networking has been always a challenge for me. Everyone emphasizes the importance of networking. I generally agree with this even though I believe that the value of it can also depend on your role and what kind of business you are in or want to be in.
For example, if you are in stakeholder engagement or consulting roles, it is highly valuable to know more people to leverage connections and develop business and clients.
Therefore, it makes sense to invest a great deal of time and resources in building these relationships. Nevertheless, for some corporate roles, there may be less ROI (Return on investment) for spending lots of effort on expanding networks, relatively speaking.
Networking is not unimportant- however, even in the last example. So here are some ways to do it differently than going to networking events and giving out tens and hundreds of business cards if you find that experience as uncomfortable as I do.
Develop deep and authentic relationships with a few that know you well and care for you, who will provide glowing recommendations and vouch for you when the time comes.
For example, I have moved companies a few times in my 8 years of my career, and in every company, I made truly deep connections with two or three colleagues. Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean I got to know just two or three people; I made sure I got to know everyone and build trust and connections to ensure I work well.
These specific connections I am referring to are the ones I value the most as they are based on mutual and genuine respect and like nurtured through years of collaborative work we’ve done together.
In my experience, these few people have been more valuable to me than 300 people I’ve connected with on LinkedIn. These are the ones who would write me great recommendations for new roles, discuss and advise on my career dilemma and choices without self-interest, and open up their professional and personal network to help me get to where I want to go. These people are the jewels in your network you should nurture.
When in conferences or external events, be strategic in networking.
Target only a few people and strive to have some meaningful conversations rather than a short and superficial one. My rule of thumb would be at the end of the event, you shouldn’t feel awkward asking about their contact information and or business cards as you’ve already developed some rapport and relationship throughout the day.
4. Invest in your technical skills.
Build a solid foundation.
This depends on what you do, but I would strongly advise investing time and money to develop and solidify your technical skills.
These can include any proficiency in programming, modeling, different apps, and tools used in your industry. In the early career stage, these can be a huge competitive advantage you can put forward in your resume, which can open up doors for you.
I also believe fresh out of school, you have an opportunity to be more agile and flexible with the latest technology than people already working in the field.
You may not love the technical grunt work that you are often asked to do in your entry roles in the twenties but it would build a solid foundation for you to gain a deeper understanding of the work.
Developing these skillsets early on will also allow you to efficiently manage team and vendors on projects at a high level, as you would not only be qualified to guide and direct them but also have more constructive discussions.
5. Work on your communication.
Over 90% of the personnel officials at 500 US businesses stated that increased communication skills are needed for success in the 21st century. (Source)
When I first started applying for jobs after graduation and saw the emphasis on the communication skill in all job postings, I thought ‘What’s the big deal? This is an easy skill to have. I can communicate. Everyone can.’
How wrong I was.
Effective communication is a big barrier to productivity and revenue generation in lots of organizations today.
There are all sorts of frustrations and misunderstandings stemming from inadequate communication at every level, which can create conflicts, loss of clients and business, and derailment of projects to name a few.
Effective and efficient communication involves clear and concise written and oral communication to ensure everyone’s alignment.
It involves various means to present information and data and facilitating discussions.
It also involves adapting the communication based on the interest and relevance to the audience, differences in perception and backgrounds, tones, and dynamics in the meeting room.
It involves not just expressing ideas, but also active listening, as well as body language.
High emotional intelligence and knowledge around cultural sensitivity can also contribute to effective communication.
Communication skill is something you can work on and improve over time. Invest in this skill earlier on. Find a person or two who are great communicators and mirror them. Take workshops and read relevant books. Get feedback from your mentors and colleagues. You will find that this is an important skill everyone will value in you.
Summary
There are five key lessons in this article:
- Choose a Mentor Over a Company
- Be Strategic in Your Career Moves
- Network Meaningfully
- Invest in Your Technical Skills
- Work on Your Communication
