Three Golden Rules for Your Career
Last Monday I drove down to Intuit’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA to meet a few different people and talk to them about their jobs, career paths, etc. This was all thanks to Karin who works there now and was a Cal CS grad of ‘84. She was nice enough to host me, and I was chosen for this through some program at the Career Center.
Anyway, I enjoyed my time there and I learned quite a bit as well. One of the things I picked up was Karin’s three rules to follow in your career…
- Never work a job that requires you carry a pager or cell phone home with you. Essentially this rule says, don’t take jobs that require you to be on-call when you’re not at the office, are home, out, sleeping, whatever. I agree with this. I don’t think the compensation is usually worth the peace of mind you give up with this change.
- Always only work for somebody that you respect. If you don’t respect your supervisor or boss, it’s going to cause a number of problems for the both of you sooner or later. You’re not going to learn anything from that person and doing your job is going to get harder by the day.
- Make friends with the administrative assistants. They are the most connected people in the office. They will be the ones to help you get an office with a window, a day off, or even just your office supplies. Be good to them and they will hook you up.
They sound like some pretty solid rules. They’re also based on her twenty years of work experience. I intend to keep them in mind, wherever my career takes me.
Have you got some golden rules you live by? What are they?