3 Life Lessons I Wish I Knew Before Working 15 Years In Finance.

Do not stay in 1 role for too long.

I made this mistake.

I stayed on in an analytical job for over 8 years and it stalled my growth in many ways. Most companies will have a salary band for the job that you are in. When you get maxed out, you will know.

My company has a history of either making the work environment so difficult that you want to leave or they start hinting that you should look for other roles within the company.

Take that advice. In fact, you shouldn’t wait for your employer to tell you this.

I was naïve to the point of idiocy.

A fact I realized a bit too late. I say its late because it did stall my earning potential. But I moved roles, so better late than never.

Your work does not always speak for itself.

Biggest…. misconception….. ever.

If you think you can stay silent and expect that your amazing work will talk for you, you are wrong.

You have to be your biggest advocate. With experience, you will learn when to pick up the drums and do so in a tasteful way, but truth be told I’ve seen all kinds of styles come through on this one.

Some people are aggressive in marketing their achievements.

The only instances I’ve seen this work well is when their passion for their project shone brighter than the work they were putting in it.

This is however rarer to see because your enthusiasm has to look and feel genuine. People will know when it is not.

Do not think of networking as networking.

With this one you have to unlearn all the stuff you learnt in school.

The primary reason why I’ve seen so many people struggle with this, is because when you’re an adult you have to do the exact thing you were taught not to do in school.

In school, working with someone else (unless directed) was cheating. At work, its collaboration.

While there is definitely a strong line to be drawn between taking credit for someone’s work and understanding teamwork at the workplace, the true spirit of teamwork was never taught, emphasized or understood when I was at school.

To a large extent, I’ve had to unlearn many ideas I subconsciously picked up as a child.

Also, I hated the word networking. Do not think of it as networking, because that is not what it is.

If you try interacting with people for the sake of interacting with them, you will come across as superficial and inauthentic at some point. No one will end up liking you.

Think of this as building deeper connections because you actually want to get to know that person.

Sure, you may approach some people strategically in one or two instances, but I approach all my connections because I like them. I invite them for lunch because I actually enjoy their company and I like to learn something from them.

They are genuinely decent people and I value this. While I don’t like to think of myself as “networking” I do like to think of myself as building a network. To me, those are different concepts.

What do you wish you’d done differently?