10 Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me Before I Started Working
Posted on | March 5, 2007 | No Comments
I’ve worked in human resources for 10 really long years. I’ve had a great career in terms of progression and variety and earnings. I’ve had some really meaningful work experiences and met lots of people that I count among my friends. But, there are things that I’ve learned along the way that I wish I would have known before I started down this path, things that might have spared me from this one recurring thought, “Did I make a mistake?”.
This isn’t one of those regret letters. I’m not going to waste our time going on about what I coulda, woulda, shoulda done. The truth is that I don’t really think I made a mistake. I just wish I would have made some different choices here and there. I might have ended up in the same place, but I think I might have been more fulfilled and sure about the choices I’d made.
So, I thought I’d share a few of the things I wish someone would have told me before I started working.
1. You can make money with your art
2. Passion and profit are not mutually exclusive
3. The stuff you hate in one workplace is probably freely available at (almost) all of the others
4. Doing what you love for a living is not just a cheesy platitude
5. Negotiate HARD for what you want
6. If you settle, put a time limit on it
7. Always know why you’re there (this way you can make sure you get what you came for)
8. “Team” is a four-letter word when your boss hates you (I’ll explain this at a later date)
9. Take time off before you have to
10. You can have EVERYTHING you want (the issue is just how much of it you get and how well you manage it)
There’s plenty more where that came from, but I promised there’d only be 10.
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