5 Important Career Advice For Young People

Instructions

• 1

  Understand Work , Life Balance
  
  Young people place great value on leisure time, sometimes to the detriment of their professional lives. Now, you do not want to live in the office but be open to going the extra mile once in a while to get a work task completed. Remember to work smart. Staying extra hours at work just to get noticed is a waste of time and a bad habit that could affect your personal life. Whether you want to work from home or come in for a few hours during a weekend, developing a strong work ethic early in your career sets a good rhythm for you.
• 2

  Control Your Emotions
  
  A key aspect of professionalism is maintaining control over your emotions in the workplace. Young people can be very emotional. While this can be an asset when used positively to passionately drive and achieve goals.
  
  It can however, be very irritating especially in stressful or difficult scenarios. When young people respond to constructive criticism with rude and insulting behavior, they are effectively harming their careers. If your work place environment is unhealthy, it would be best if you resigned rather than become infected by a poisonous corporate culture.
• 3

  Develop Short Term Career goals
  
  Early in your career, you get the feeling that you have time to achieve those pipe dreams you reflect on every now and then. This is a mistake common to young people. Developing a set of short term career goals will provide you with a focus to nurture a healthy career.
  
  For example if you intend to open up your own enterprise within two years, you could ensure that you do not get overburdened with job descriptions that would not provide you with the expertise, knowledge or contacts to set up your own operation. Writing down these goals down will provide a constant reminder of your career focus and stop you from feeling lost in the corporate jungle.
• 4

  Guard Your Reputation
  
  Your reputation is not an irrelevant part of your professional life. Perception matters in how far you will go in your career. Irresponsible, deceitful or generally questionable behavior will not bode well for you as a young professional. Whether it is your online presence via social media activity for example or in real life, be careful of your behavior.
• 5

  Acknowledge Your Supervisors
  
  Whether you are a young executive or junior supervisor, do not forget to acknowledge senior colleagues. This respect also extends to how you carry out your work duties. When the older guard is intolerant or insists on a rigid work structure, young people tend to lose their motivation for work and may even devolve into angry, resentful behavior.
  
  As a young employee, you do not want to be labeled childish due to the negative connotations that phrase implies. Privately speak to a few senior staff to help champion your idea. If the lack of innovation poses a huge risk to your job for example health or financial loss, you should consider employment elsewhere.