You will spend a great chunk of your waking moments at work.
It’s one of those facts that either instils the feeling of dread – if you absolutely detest your current job – or excitement, if you love what you do or are fulfilling a lifelong passion or purpose.
In essence, most of us need to work. Whether we work for corporations, for our businesses or for noble causes, we are ‘sacrificing’ the gift of time for various goals. And that is fine. It is a good thing to become financially independent; it is a gift to be able to work to support ourselves and families or to be able to toil for a greater calling.
And because successes or failures in our careers impact our personal lives so deeply, it is no wonder that there is an abundance of discussions about work/life balance, employee engagement and other work-related issues in the employment relationship.
Nonetheless, a unifying thread among all professionals is the desire to succeed. This statement holds true even though the definition of ‘success’ varies across geographical locations and among different cultures.
Since we often need help to achieve our career goals, either as experienced professionals or as ‘newbies’, we may have given valuable advice to others or may have received insightful suggestions that quite frankly, changed lives.
And that is what we want to discuss.
Before you jump into the discussion, kindly note the guidelines below.
Guidelines for discussion forums
1) Only comments related to the topic would be approved.
2) Please edit your comments for clarity before posting.
3) About the language: it should kindly be kept professional and ‘clean’ as inappropriate contributions will not be approved. Comments written as personal attacks will also be rejected.
4) Comments submitted after the deadline will not be published.
And now over to you…
Discussion Forum #3 – What Is The Best Career Advice You Ever Gave Or Received?
(29 June 2014 – 28 July 2015 at 23.59 West African Time).
Someone may have helped you out and that act was a defining moment in your professional life.
Or you may have seen some signs of impending ‘careercide’ based on your experiences and may have given some advice which saved someone’s career.
Whatever the case may be, sound direction given at the right time, by a trustworthy person, has made someone excel and we want to know all about it. So kindly start sharing and let’s all learn from each other.
Cheers!
Recommended reading
Discussion Forum #2 – What Would Make You Happy At Work?
Regretfully, this forum is closed and no further comments will be approved/published.
Watch out for the next discussion forum but kindly remember that they are time-bound and that each discussion forum is only open for one month.
Thank you to all who participated in this year's discussion forum. Your comments were really interesting.
If you, with all the best of intentions, were unable to do so, don't fret. You could join in the next one.
A new post will be published this week so watch this space.
Cheers!
Some good advice in the work place and in business generally is to network, network, network. People work with people and it's important to be able to build relationships. It's not enough to simply be good at what you do, you also need be able to relate with people and come across well.
A new hire in my organization wanted to quit recently, citing long hours, unreliable technology in our firm and constant customer aggravation as her reasons. I advised her to change her attitude and become more positive and to develop a 'can do' spirit. It turned out to be the best career advise I had ever given as just yesterday she received a commendation letter from our management. With a positive attitude I believe professionals can achieve everything
As a business developer, what I always make reference to……… is working smart: Whatever you lay our hand on there has to be a guideline- Specific,measurable,Attainable,Relevant,Timebound.
The first line is so apt in my case, a good part of my life is spent at work. While what I do might seem herculean to most, I actually enjoy it because for me, the practice of medicine is part vocation-part occupation. It just emphasizes loving what you do means you don't really 'work'. But there are hard days, very hard days. In all I've learnt patience- working up the seemingly endless ladder, and an on-going tutelage of team work and managing people. Still so much to learn….
To me 'time' has offered me the best advice of em all.time has thought be to be patient,to emphatise and to be knowleadgabele(irritatingLy so).i. Got into my banking occupation 9 yrs to d day with lofty dreams of getting promoted every two years but the reality is sadly different as I found out dat my promo'd come 5 yrs apart.that was the reality o n ground.so I quickly learnt patience,i grew to empathise with my customers and furthermore I enrolled with a sound business school in canada where I garnered sufficient knowledge bout my financial environment to be very relevant in my job and in my personal life.so for me, time has indeed been the best teacher
The best i recieved ……..
Attahkuba……As you go fully into the hustle, always remember this;
Success/Change is slow and gradual. It requires smart work, a bit of luck, a fair amount of self-sacrifice and a lot of patience.
Good Luck.
My first newsroom editor said "all you need to remember is. . . . eat when you can and pee when you can!" and he was right. Years of filming outside crown and magistrates courts waiting for a 5 second shot of the accused going into court under a blanket made me realise that those words of wisdom were all that I needed to keep in mind whenever a story came in.