career starting

[Rosa A. Soles]

What's one thing you wish you had known when you began your career?

[melisabernts]

Knowing what is important is communicating less with colleagues at work. At the very first place of work, I told a colleague about problems in my family. Unfortunately, a few days later the whole team knew about it. Now, in general, I try to communicate less with everyone at work. 

[Rosa A. Soles]

On 12/22/2021 at 8:12 PM, melisabernts said:

Knowing what is important is communicating less with colleagues at work. At the very first place of work, I told a colleague about problems in my family. Unfortunately, a few days later the whole team knew about it. Now, in general, I try to communicate less with everyone at work. 

never give you secrets to anyone because if you can't keep it to your self don't expect others to 

[Calista]

I wish I could learn more. When I was an intern, I often completed more tasks to show my abilities and skills. I hope that my boss can recognize my effort. So, I try my best to work hard and finish all missions. 

[FDRx7]

Give yourself time to learn the job before deciding if it truly isn't for you. I fell into the passion trap early in my career, thinking I needed to have a pre-existing love for something to choose it as a profession. It made me much less open to good careers simply because I thought, "I don't have a passion for that, why would I even consider doing it?" You can't have a passion for something you've never done before... seems obvious in hindsight but it's a message often taught to us from an early age, especially in the U.S.A. Passion is good, but give yourself the chance to try something for a while.

Most people who are passionate about their jobs may think that it was because they've always wanted that career, but if you dig down, it's often because they got good at it and then became passionate because of that. We tend to like things we are good at. Chances are when you think about the things you love and are passionate about, you've probably developed some level of skill at them and have overtime just felt you've always loved those things (there are things in life we aren't the greatest at that bring us happiness, but I digress). It's a story we start to tell ourselves. It's also okay to leave some of your hobbies as hobbies. There are times when making a hobby a career is a quick way to kill it. Other times it works out. I have plenty of things now I like to do outside of work that I would not want to be a career because their current state brings me joy. To try to monetize them would ruin them for me. 

I'm not saying to not pursue something you might think you like - that's also a very important consideration. What I am saying is, don't think you need to have this all-consuming driving force for one thing in life. It will stymie your efforts to find a career and leads to greater dissatisfaction because you'll always be thinking the "right" one is out there somewhere. Trust me, I have gone through this, so I speak from experience.