Comments on: 15 More Things You Can Do Right Now To Help Your Career

By: Karthik

Karthik — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:50:00 +0000

Thank you for practical tips. Email is a time waster. There is a good podcast on Managing Emails at http://www.manager-tools.com. It helped me a lot to focus on the day to day job and move away from answering email as the prime job.

Karthik
Bangalore.India.

By: ck_dex

ck_dex — Thu, 17 May 2007 04:38:19 +0000

Hmmm, the birthday card idea could be risky in a work climate where older workers may be sensitive to their “seniority”. There is nearly always some tension between different generations of workers.

I’d prefer to send a quick note to a colleague who had done something notable in the context of work, or just call up someone you want to keep in touch with and jaw for a while. I have former colleagues who do this all the time, but never related to a personal event like a birthday.

By: MD

MD — Thu, 17 May 2007 01:31:52 +0000

Thank you for mentioning the value of being civil to administrative assistants. Most of the admins I know, inlcuding myself, are more apt to be accomodating toward those who treat us like vaulable members of the organization all of the time, rather than only when they need something from us or our bosses.

By: Trent

Trent — Wed, 16 May 2007 22:01:11 +0000

Grant, as I wrote above, these tips don’t apply to everyone. They can’t – if you write tips so generic that they are useful for all, then they cease to be useful.

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 16 May 2007 21:55:11 +0000

I don’t think “Cut checking your email to at most twice a day” applies to everyone. I work in IT and get requests throughout the day for various items that may take anywhere from 1 to 20 minutes to complete or reply. Obviously, I don’t purposely interrupt myself if I’m in the middle of cranking out a bunch of work on a larger task, but I check my email quite often. People really appreciate when you can respond to them quickly rather than wait until the end of the day if it’s something that’s only going to take a minute to do. And it’s enthusiastic feedback from the appreciative people you work for (or with) that can really help your career.

By: ongrowthtrack

ongrowthtrack — Wed, 16 May 2007 21:01:54 +0000

Networking surely helps bringing new ideas to the person as well as inside the company. Focussing on contribution while getting along smoothly is the catch.

By: Trent

Trent — Wed, 16 May 2007 20:57:03 +0000

Andamom: that’s correct. There are things on there that work better for large organizations and others that work well for small organizations.

By: UncleOxidant

UncleOxidant — Wed, 16 May 2007 20:50:42 +0000

How about:
* Take a 20 minute nap in the early afternoon as an energy/productivity booster.
* network with people in the same field but outside of your current company (it’s nice to know what’s going on in your profession outside of your company – some people become too isolated within their own company)

By: Andamom

Andamom — Wed, 16 May 2007 20:40:48 +0000

Trent,

I work for a huge organization — and have to work within the bureaucracy of this place. So, some things on your list would not be applicable to me.

Here are some things that are on place:
1) Get a mentor
2) Take part in firm-wide initiatives — like walk-a-thons, volunteerships, planning, etc.
3) Volunteer for extra projects that benefit the group/team to increase visibility to senior people.
4) Take any online training offered by the firm.
5) Network with others in the organization in other forums both internal and external to the organization.