The Best Career Advice You Ever Got

• April 12, 2017
• MPatton
• no comments

The best career advice I ever received, I got from my best friend. I was just starting out freelancing and I thought I must be crazy for leaving a steady-paying but difficult job. Am I supposed to convince people to pay me to just write stuff all day? Apparently, yes.

“Just pretend you’re good at it. Eventually, you will be.” She made it so simple.  I’m not confident in my coding skills, but I can say with confidence that I’m willing to learn and have the equipment to do so. My first job rolled in and soon, I was surprised at how fast pretending to be good at my job meant I eventually became good at it.

Pretending you’re good at your job doesn’t mean lie on your resume – far from it. For me, it meant embracing the things I could learn from as much as it meant selling the skills I had. For example, an interviewer asks you this question:

What experience do you have with collaborative software?

Right, Answer: I have experience with Slack, but I’m interested in learning other platforms.

Wrong Answer: I only know of Slack but I don’t use it much.

See the difference?

Great advice for any situation.

But so what, right? Now you’re confident but you’re still not an expert on collaborative software. You don’t need to be. Take time and back up your confidence. Look up tutorials for other software programs and platforms. Familiarize yourself with the basic who, what, how, why and you’ll have confidence going forward. I’ve noticed the more I go on, the less I’m pretending. It was really helpful advice.

United EVENTures CEO and President, Will Leggett’s best career advice is simple and straightforward: Figure out what you love to do in life and then figure out a way to get paid to do it. You will never work a day in your life that way.

Our Director of Program Development, Brian Rendine shares his best career advice: Do something that you love and you will never work a day in your life. I had an Irish Christian Brother in high school teach me Spanish for three straight years, Br. Sheridan, and he not only passed that good advice to me, but also was a living example of how when you love what you do, it’s not work.

Our redditors have also shared heir answers with us:

• Document your wins and tell your boss about it OFTEN, not just during your annual performance review.
• My best advice was work your butt off for something you’re passionate to achieve. Having done this I’ve accelerated quite quickly in my chosen career which is surprising for my age. I’ve only realized this was good advice 3 years later when it paid off.
• Listen, don’t just hear. It is amazing what you will learn when your mouth is closed and ears are attentive.

So tell us in the comments, what’s the best career advice you ever got?