What to Do When You’re Ready for More but Don’t Know What “More” Means There is a strange stage of a career where nothing is exactly wrong, but something doesn’t feel finished. Your job is fine. You’re capable of doing it. People trust you. You may even be doing reasonably well. And yet, there’s a […]
Why Your Most Valuable Experience May Come From Work You Didn’t Expect to Do Most people think about career experience in fairly simple terms. You were hired for a particular job. You were given a list of responsibilities. You performed those responsibilities. Then, when it’s time to apply for your next position, you look at […]
The Career Value of Knowing When a Problem Needs More Information and When It Needs a Decision There is a particular kind of problem that can quietly waste an entire workday. Everyone is discussing it. Someone wants more data. Someone else wants another meeting. Another person suggests checking what happened last time. Someone asks for […]
How to Build a Career Reputation That Follows You Beyond Your Current Company There is a point in your career when your job title stops telling the whole story. You might officially be an analyst, but people know you as the person who can make complicated information understandable. You might be a project coordinator, but […]
Why Learning to Say “I Don’t Know Yet” Can Make You Better at Work There is a moment at work that many people try very hard to avoid. Someone asks you a question. Your manager wants an answer. A customer is waiting. Your colleague assumes you know what to do. And you don’t. So you […]
The Career Advantage of Understanding What Your Customers Actually Need It’s easy to think of customer service as a simple exchange. A customer asks for something. You provide it. The problem is solved. But the strongest professionals eventually learn that customers don’t always ask for what they actually need. Someone may ask for a refund […]
What to Do When You’ve Become Too Comfortable With the Way You Work There is a kind of comfort at work that feels like success at first. You know what you’re doing. You know how long things will take. You know which problems are likely to appear. You know who to ask when something goes […]
Why Taking Ownership Can Change the Kind of Work You’re Given There is a subtle difference between being responsible for a task and taking ownership of the outcome. You can be given a checklist and complete every item correctly. You can meet the deadline. You can follow the process. You can do exactly what your […]
The Career Value of Learning to Work Without Constant Feedback Early in your career, frequent feedback can be incredibly useful. You finish something and ask your manager: “Does this look right?” You make a decision and check: “Should I handle it this way?” You complete an assignment and wait to hear: “Good job. Here’s what […]
How to Tell If You’re Becoming More Valuable or Just More Experienced Years at work can make you more experienced. They don’t automatically make you more valuable. That’s an uncomfortable distinction, especially when you’ve been working hard for several years. You know the systems better. You understand the company. You know who to contact when […]