How To Reveal And Leverage Your Very Real Potential When You Are At The Start Of Our Career
Do you want to get off to a flying start after your studies?
Have you landed your first job but still have no clue how the business world works?
Or maybe you just want to know what you might have missed during yourself?
As newbies, we want to prove to ourselves that we can make it. We want to show our full potential. But it can also be overwhelming and frustrating. As my last years were shaped by student jobs, internships, and my first job after graduation, I have seen most of the ups and downs myself. And I noticed that I learned the most from the same advice over again.
Some tips are easy to adapt. Others are not. But as a young professional, they will help you go your own way and find your place in the business world. However, the most important thing is: You mostly learn from experience. So, find out for yourself which piece of advice brings the most added value for you.
What Professional Skill Are You Currently Working On
Live communication skills. Working in an edited medium, where I get as many takes as I want, plus the unlimited reign in post-production, really does not support you in honing your live dialogue skills. I’m working very dedicatedly on it by putting myself in all sorts of situations where I learn to communicate with clarity, logic, and succinctness on the first take.
We need to keep improving and learning. Currently, I am investigating how to improve social communication and in particular corporate communication. Also, I am very active in everything that has to do with Growth Hacking, a concept that I found fascinating and that is helping Europe Language Jobs to keep expanding.
What Does It Mean To Be A Young Professional
We are first and foremost professionals. We earn our pay in exchange for labor and have an official title, though it may be a small one. The modifier young means corporate is letting us into their world for the moment but keeping their eye on us.
Typically, young professionals:
- have less than 5 years of full-time work experience
- begin working at an entry-level job
- work at the base of a corporations workforce
Sometimes young professionals are also referred to as college hires or degree hires if they recently obtained an Associates or Bachelors degree. Depending on the industry, those who hold Masters degrees may be considered young professionals, too.
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Always Be Ready To Accept Criticisms Whether It Be About Your Work Ethic Or Your Personality
Being successful in a career does not always mean you will be able to be yourself. Sometimes being what people want you to be will go a lot farther than fighting that status quo. It pleasing to those who are looking for successors and supervisors enjoy not having to waste time and energy on another person fighting the system.
Remember though while not sticking out like a sore thumb doesnt mean you cannot be an insightful team member, speak up and have your voice heard about opinions and ideas. Being the one in the back doesnt get you much but being the wavemaker doesnt either. Finding that perfect balance is key.
Choose The Right A Levels And Degree
At 13 or 14 you are still a little too young to be thinking about careers advice. Just enjoy your time at school and figure out your strongest areas of interest and what you are good at. But at 15 you have to start thinking about A level choices with a view to what degree to do after that and what career is right for you in the future. We use in-depth psychometric tests to help you align your A-Levels, degree and career path, so that every education decision you make, leads you to discover the right career for you.
After you complete your psychometric tests online, your personal careers advisor will talk you through which career suits you and which academic choices will help you get there.
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Search For The Value In Feedback Or Criticism
Each piece of feedback you receive can be used to help you grow and further develop in your career. Try not to focus on the method of delivery or the person providing you with the feedback. Instead, you should do your best to avoid getting upset and take the value out of the message you are receiving and move on.
Develop An Interesting And Relevant Skill That Isnt A Prerequisite
Everybody who is worthy of being called your competition has the necessary skills and experience for the job you want. Just like driving through a city at rush hour, if you try to beat everyone else on what is normally the proper, most efficient route to work, you will arrive later than if you took the slightly inconvenient back roads with less traffic. The same goes for the skills market: you need to be good at the prerequisite skills, but if you only put your energy into those, you might find the traffic on that route overwhelming when you try to stand out. Develop a niche skill that is desirable but not something the competition has to have. It will make you more interesting and more useful.
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Hermione Way: Start Your Own Business
“There has never been an easier time to start a business,” Hermione Way, founder of WayMedia and star of Bravo’s “Start-Ups: Silicon Valley,” told personal finance website NerdWallet.
“There are so many free online tools. Just start, and if you fail you can always go and get a normal job, but you will learn so much along the way it will be a great experience.”
Ask For Help When Needed
As young professionals, we’re always trying to prove ourselves and are shy to ask for help. But remember, asking for help doesn’t make you weak, and it’s a sign of self-awareness and not a weakness.
Asking for help may make you anxious, but learning when to ask for help may help you advance in your career. So, when in doubt, be open to asking for assistance and save yourself and others time rather than pushing it through it on your own.
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Pieces Of Practical Career Advice From Uniquely Successful Women
Etre girls visit Morgan Stanley
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The Epic Mentor Guide: Insider Advice for Girls Eyeing the Workforce from 180 Boss Women Who Know is the advice almanac that ambitious young women never had but desperately needed. From Abbey Wilcoxs advice on Prepping Your Sport for the Olympics to Veronica Niele Beards tips on What to Wear to Work and Why the guide offers practical, no-nonsense sage advice from 180 phenomenal women representing nearly every walk of professional life.
And they all have one simple trait in commonexcellence.
In the guide some of the most successful women share those tiny little secrets that helped define their careers and propel their success.
· Priti Dalal shares tips on advancing you career on TikTok.
· Samantha Thorstensen discusses interviewing with the International Space Station.
· Marie Benedict reveals insight on writing your first The New York Times bestseller.
· Sara Sidner shares advice on being vulnerable at work.
· Tyra Banks explains the importance of over-preparing for every single meeting.
Illana Raia
Stewart Butterfield: Have An Experimental Attitude
Stewart Butterfield, the cofounder of Flickr and chief executive of Slack, one of the fastest-growing business apps of all time, recently shared his best advice for young people with Adam Bryant of The New York Times:
Some people will know exactly what they want to do at a very young age, but the odds are low, he said. I feel like people in their early- to mid-20s are very earnest. Theyre very serious, and they want to feel like theyve accomplished a lot at a very young age rather than just trying to figure stuff out. So I try to push them toward a more experimental attitude.
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Planning A Career Move: Tips For Young Professionals
A career change can happen at any age, but its common to think of a career changer as older. Usually, people think of someone in the middle of their career radically shifting gears, or someone nearing retirement who doesnt want to work full-time in the same job but also isnt ready to give up working.
Most people dont think of younger people as career changers. But if youre a young professional thinking about a career change, youre not alone. A Cornerstone survey of millennials found that 76% of them expect to change careers in their lifetime, with 42% thinking they will have more than three careers.
So how can young professionals successfully change careers? Check out these seven tips.
Pivot As Fast As You Can
“The beginning of the year offers you a clean slate to make changes to things that did not work the previous year. If you’ve just started a new job, this is a chance to learn from your previous mistakes. It might seem like your age is still being used as an excuse when it comes to certain responsibilities, so align yourself with a mentor ASAP, and make yourself indispensable to the company.”
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Use Social To Your Advantage
Most 22-year-olds think of social media as a way to connect with friends, but its a powerful lever in getting future employers to notice you.
First and foremost, delete or make private any photos or comments about how great your years of partying in college were. Second, set a calendar reminder every quarter to with recent results so your online resume is always current and fresh. Finally, share content from companies and people you admire: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, social sharing is a close second — it can go a long way to getting you noticed.
Get Yourself Out There
“You have a unique advantage in that you have the time, energy and enthusiasm to get in front of as many people as possible — whether that’s through internships, networking events, alumni gatherings or industry conferences/events. Shaking hands, remembering names and delivering 110 percent when tasked with a job or project is what has worked for generations, and it still holds true now.”
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Maya Angelou: Make Your Own Path
In her bookThe Best Advice I Ever Got, Katie Couric quotes author, poet, dancer, actress, and singer Maya Angelou:
My paternal grandmother, Mrs. Annie Henderson, gave me advice that I have used for 65 years. She said, If the world puts you on a road you do not like, if you look ahead and do not want that destination which is being offered and you look behind and you do not want to return to you place of departure, step off the road. Build yourself a new path.’
Brian Chesky: Don’t Listen To Your Parents
Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, said in an interview with The New York Times’ Adam Bryant that recent grads shouldn’t listen to their parents.
“They’re the most important relationships in your life, but you should never take your parents’ career advice, and I’m using parents as a proxy for all the pressures in the world,” he told Bryant. “I also say that whatever career you’re in, assume it’s going to be a massive failure. That way, you’re not making decisions based on success, money and career. You’re only making it based on doing what you love.”
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David Melancon: Ask 3 Important Questions At The End Of Every Interview
When a hiring manager turns the tables at the end of an interview and asks, “do you have any questions for me?” David Melancon, CEO of btr., a corporate-rankings platform that focuses on holistic performance, says there are three questions far more important for you to ask than what the salary is or what the job requirements are.
The questions are:
1. What qualities will a person in this role need to be successful in your company culture as an individual and as a worker?
2. What’s the company’s position on education and development, including student-loan reimbursement and tuition assistance?
3. How does the company keep employees excited, innovative, and motivated?
Cynthia Tidwell: Be Patient Enough To Learn But Impatient Enough To Take Risks
Cynthia Tidwell, CEO of insurance company Royal Neighbors of America, told Business Insider her favorite piece of advice for young people is be patient enough to learn, but impatient enough to take risks. “I encourage taking risks,” she said. “What is the worst thing that can happen? You can go back and do what you were doing before.”
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Be Ready To Push Forward
After all that hard work and becoming one of the staff and making interpersonal connections, sometimes you wont get what you want. Sometimes you need to be ready to take the bullet and be ready to be disappointed. This is the hardest part, to find passion in something while you feel unappreciated. No one will ever tell you that being let down is easy, but its all something we have to deal with, having thick skin, being able to move on and be ready for the next time something comes around and not letting the setbacks bother you.
Listen To Your Older Colleagues
Entering the Corporate world can be overwhelming, especially if it is your very first job. You will discover a brand new world and will need to adapt your behaviors to be professional.
You will also have to learn new skills to excel at your job. The truth is that it wont be easy. You will feel like everything you have learned at University or college is useless, but you must trust the process.
The best thing you can do when you enter a company is to listen to your senior colleagues. You have valuable knowledge and can bring a lot to the company, but you need to learn from others first.
Experts surround me, some of them went to Harvard and other prestigious Universities, and I see this as an incredible opportunity to learn.
Never be afraid to ask for advice. You will learn more during your first year at work than during your whole university curriculum if you do so.
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Be Nice But Learn To Say No
Learning how to say ‘No’ is as important as saying ‘Yes’ to new and exciting things. Set boundaries and know your limitations to keep progressing in your career.
As someone just starting a career, we think that being pleasant and cooperative is what gets you praise. But, the trick is to drop the guilt and avoid setting unrealistic standards. Work hard and learn to say ‘No’ when required for your mental well-being.
Gain Experience Outside Of Your Area Of Work
Typically, a 30-something professional has a much wider range of experience than a 20-something. While there have been instances where individuals have continued their first jobs for decades at a time, you should gather as much experience as you can, in areas beyond your line of work. This will only strengthen your credibility.
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Gaby Wasensteiner On Creating Profiles That Stand Out On Linkedin
Question: What makes brand-new LinkedIn profiles stand out, and how can those entering the work world for the first time leverage all that LinkedIn has to offer?
LinkedIn Brand marketing manager Gaby Wasensteiner highlights the importance of authenticity. Your profile is your story, and that will set you apart from others, she insists. Make your unique personality come to life through your photo, background image and summary. Equipped with a personalized profile, Wasensteiner encourage novices to be bold in reaching out to expand their connections by sending connection requests with short personal notes to those who currently work for a company or in a position of interest to them.
Talk To Your Colleagues
To adapt to the organizational culture, know that communication is one of the most important things you must acquire. Talk to your team or simply dont hesitate to ask questions. Asking questions doesnt define weakness or incapability to do tasks. You are in the learning phase so take your time. If you are currently struggling, talk to your manager, ask your seatmate or raise necessary questions to your team leader.
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What Has Helped Motivate You To Reach Where You Are Today
I realized that working for a larger cause – one that goes beyond my personal professional wellbeing – is an eternal source of energy and motivation that no well-paying or prestigious job is able to match for me. Once I knew where and how I could contribute to my community, it became so much easier to focus my efforts and keep going, even when things didn’t always work out.
Believe that what you are doing makes sense and is helping you grow. Also, having a passion for what you do. As Ken Robinson says, we need to find our element – that is something that you like doing and that you are good at.
Build Skills Not A Resume
“Too often, young professionals focus on making career decisions based on how their resume will look. Rather than pursuing opportunities solely based on the “brand name” you’d be working for or compensation package, consider what skills you’ll acquire within the position. Companies and cash come and go, but skills stick with you for your whole career.”
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