Top 3 Career Advice I’ve Read in 2013

Sheryl Sandberg:

So I sat down with Eric Schmidt, who had just become the CEO … and I said, this job meets none of my criteria … he looked at me and said, Don’t be an idiot. Excellent career advice. And then he said, Get on a rocket ship. When companies are growing quickly and they are having a lot of impact, careers take care of themselves. And when companies aren’t growing quickly or their missions don’t matter as much, that’s when stagnation and politics come in. If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.

If you find a rocket ship, get on it.

PaperG Cofounder, Victor Wong:

Managers are largely stretched thin managing their reports so they can’t always think of everything to be done that will benefit the firm.

No one will tell you what you need to do. Noting that every company (and every industry) has a central asset that they’re constantly trying to accumulate, like: deal flow in financial firms, new clients in law firms, product and partnership ideas in multinational corporations
The key for the progressive careerist, then, is to find out what’s most valuable to the organization as a whole and make sure to keep providing that.

Michael O. Church:

Prioritize long-term growth over short-term objectives delivered by managers. You have to keep bosses minimally happy in order to stay employed, but never lose sight of your real goals.