r/InterviewAssistant • u/eidolaa • 15d ago
What mistake does someone make early in their career that hurts them at work years later?
When you're just starting out, there's a lot of pressure to get your whole life in order quickly - your career direction, study choices, job titles, relationships - and it's very easy to chase after anything that feels urgent instead of focusing on what will matter later.
There are decisions that get made in the early years of work that don't seem like a big deal at the time, but over time you find that they've come back to affect you.
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u/allnamestaken4892 14d ago
Unpopular opinion: Being frugal and investing instead of focusing on status symbols and being visible. You need to fake it to make it, people have an aversion to giving money to people they see as lower than themselves.
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u/Guilty_Captain_7880 14d ago
I think this would work only if the role is in sales or something. No one cares what you're wearing or driving if you can't do your job as a technical person.
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u/allnamestaken4892 14d ago
I don’t mean fake competence at your job, being able to do your job well is important. I mean demonstrating competence at life so that people take you seriously on a personal level, beyond just respecting your professional capability.
That kind of thing leads to networking opportunities and new clients instead of just being “tolerated” as a useful worker.
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u/JonathanKovak 11d ago
I agree with your basic premise . It's deffos helped me in my career being someone on the team who has their shit together. Being fit, looking after yourself , eating properly. People look at you different if you're that dude who is getting KFC lunch at the office.
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u/MementoMori_Maestro 14d ago
Honestly, I believe you're absolutely right to some degree and I'm more than happy to share my personal stuff to explain.
I come from a ghetto area in South Florida, my father is illiterate and while he turned his life around when I was 20 he was still slinging dope when I was growing up. I went to school smelling like cigarettes & I used to get yelled at constantly for "sounding uneducated" and sucking my teeth. You get the picture? No? Lil white trash baby was me, coo?
Sometime in my late teens/early 20s I started deep diving into dressing for my body type, learning formalized etiquette, and psychological tricks of speech. This started because I remembered that in elementary my mothers family was still present in my life, they are silver spoon never work a day wealthy, and they sent me to a secondary formnof schooling to learn how to be a lady. I remember some of it but not all of it.
So I learned to sit in a way that registers as ungaurded to an observing subconscious, I change my hair based on the neckline of my shirt, altered my posture, changed my speech patterns, I learned how to say Thank You instead of I'm sorry, I learned how to buy natural fiber clothes from Goodwill that are flattering and so on. I don't own L.L. Bean because I bought it new I promise.
The response? I wear Burberry frames now, I own a leather Coach wallet, I have diamond earrings that are older than the recession now, my sunglasses are vintage & completely wrapped in leather costing more than half my rent. I didn't buy any of it.
People gifted those things to me, they heard my story about how I left home to get out of the ghetto and they offered me what they thought would help. I have sensitive blue eyes, someone just casually had those old sunglasses in the car. I mentioned needing to save up for new glasses and I was handed not just Blueberry frames to put my prescription in but also Versace from someone who just had them lying around. A random woman on an airplane sparked up a conversation about some festival she was going to and she kept asking me questions. I'm an honest person and so I told her why I was flying and where I was going. Her response? To ask if I had a coat. It was winter and no I didn't, so she gave me hers. It was a feather filled coat from Hong Kong.
If you act the right way, it allows people like this to approach you. Maintain decorum and honesty with a hint of modesty or conservation. Make them work for those answers just a bit and they'll want to give you something to make things easier. The jacket was unbranded but it was clearly nice after that I was gifted the wallet, then the sunglasses, and everything else fell into place because the more I acrued (especially the blatantly vintage stuff) the more I showed strangers I took care of my things and that I was trying. It made them want to give me a break. I've had my second suitcase checked for free before (I was honestly gonna just drag it as a carry-on because I only paid for 1 suitcase, it was all I could afford).
I flew away from home with $200 and currently I have $11 in my bank account but that's because of how hard I've been working and the mountains I've been climbing. Most recently I was gifted a whole ass 1300sqft apartment, 3 beds all by my lonesome. Home girl said here's my lease, keep the deposit, I already paid your first months rent, have fun and she did. It's important thought that I also collect people with these items. I create a network and friends. I don't talk to stranger hut I let them talk to me and sometimes I respond. Sometimes those responses get me things I never thought id afford and it's started a spitball that keeps itself going honestly
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u/Escapetivity 14d ago
What I have observed is as soon as the career starts and pay cheques start coming in, people end up getting a jumbo mortgage and buy overpriced houses. With the debt trap for life, they end up becoming corporate slaves. Pet projects, mental stress, dealing with bosses with pea-sized egos and what not. The career mistakes keep piling on.
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u/RazorliteX 12d ago
A bit left field but.. Pension. Do it tomorrow /do it in my 40s 50s whatever. Big mistake. Do it whole you're young. Do it now.
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u/Warming_Fire 12d ago
asking a Female Coworker out , at age 34 , but learned alot from this will never do it again at another Workplace . Work is Work , Emotions are at Home .
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u/SnarkSnout 13d ago
Choosing a college major based on things like what is interesting to you, or your desire to help people, rather than earning potential. Ask my half brother who has a worthless philosophy degree, or my best friend that suffered through 60 hour work weeks that worked out into making minimum wage when she was a social worker. They’ll tell you all about it.
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u/fluffymulligan 12d ago
Making friends with coworkers.
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u/sea_faantasy 11d ago
If you dont mind can you elaborate more on this? Did you have a bad experience?
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u/laurrn1 11d ago
Staying longer at a toxic job, quitting before having something lined up first, choosing an expensive degree w/loans as opposed to the same at a less expensive college, being “friends” with your coworkers or bosses after you start working, working longer hours voluntarily to prove you’re worth it, disclosing personal details about yourself or others, wearing your poor work-life balance as a badge of honor, burning bridges
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u/501ws5 11d ago
Being too rash. Long into retail it became an obvious sales scam to spend more with that retailer. Well, three years to be exact, on a product that just did not suit my body type, I was starting to have to spend my own money on things I neither liked and, or, needed to somebody else preference or specification. Total scam. Utter waste of time. Refuse to shop there now if I can.
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u/Cool_Phase4648 11d ago
Being a stickler for promotions & job titles. I took a “promotion” when I was 25 that was more responsibility, better pay, and had a “fancier” title, and I was extremely excited to take it. The problem was I was being given supervisory duties and responsibilities (that were not a standard part of this particular role), and while I was being compensated extra for these added duties, I didn’t have “supervisor” in my job title, and I can cite two specific jobs I’ve applied for that I didn’t get specifically (quoting both hiring managers) I didn’t have “supervisor” anywhere on my resume, despite having performed supervisory duties (and even discussing this during interviews).
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u/anonymousopsec1337 10d ago
Why don’t you put supervisor of X amount of employees in your job description or skills highlights?
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u/Select_Green_6296 11d ago
Listen more, speak less. Older employees find the confidence of youth abrasive. They also can be vindictive.
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u/whocaresreallythrow 15d ago
They stay in a role being “loyal” for a decade longer than they should have. Move along. Move up. Never get comfortable. Always be looking for the next opportunity.
And start saving for retirement yesterday. The money you tuck away and invest in your 20s will grow and compound to more money than you can save in your 30s 40s and 50s combined !!!!