Shane Rodgers wrote this great article on LinkedIn offering himself the career advice he wished he’d had at 25. I like the idea of thinking at 50 what kind of advice you’d have given yourself at 25. Turns out that Shane’s advice is really good career advice. Here’s his list of 16 pieces of advice:
1. A career is a marathon, not a sprint
2. Most success comes from repetition, not new things
3. If work was really so great all the rich people would have the jobs
4. Deprioritise your career when your kids are young
5. In the workforce, always act like you are 35
6. Management is about people, not things
7. Genuinely listen to others
9. Recognise that staff are people with finite emotional capacity
10. Don’t just network with people your own age
11. Celebrate cultural differences in the workplace
12. Take the time to understand what your business does
13. Don’t put off working overseas
14. Work in an office where you have friends
15. Never sacrifice personal ethics for a work reason
16. Recognise that failure is learning
Shane dives into more detail on each topic in the post if you want to read what he means by each point. The one that stuck out most to me was #2: Most success comes from repetition, not new things. That’s a powerful observation. Far too often people think they can’t become experts at something. I agree with Shane that experts are usually created through repetition as opposed to some smart person coming up with some creative new idea. That’s great advice for the healthcare IT professional.
