The way we work has changed,
and so should the career advice we follow.
Yet every day, I find myself rolling my eyes and
face palming over the proliferation of outdated career advice.
It's everywhere; in books, on career TikTok,
especially over on Instagram.
The problem is this outdated career advice comes with real risks.
And if you unknowingly follow this outdated career advice,
you might find yourself underpaid with
limited career investment opportunities and
stuck in a job you hate - or even in a toxic work environment.
So today, I want to talk to you about the
antiquated career advice that you need to unlearn
and start ignoring today. If that sounds good,
tap the like button, and let's jump straight in.
The first piece of outdated career advice is
that job hopping is bad.
Maybe 40 or 50 years ago, job hopping would have
made you look like a risky hire. But that is not the case today.
And if you are someone who does change job every few years,
and you have an interviewer asked you,
"Why can't you hold a job?"
That's a big red flag that you should stay away from that company.
While back in the olden days,
you used to get a job and just work at that company forever.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, nowadays,
the average tenure of an employee is about 4.1 years.
And if you work in a fast growing industry like tech,
the average tenure is even lower,
even at the big firms.
I'm also interested as we see data come in from the great reshuffle
how these numbers are actually looking today,
because my guess is that they're going to be even shorter.
I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
The thing is, is that why would you as an employee be loyal to
a company who isn't going to be loyal to you?
Compounding all of this is actually a very good reason for
you to consider switching jobs,
job hopping is going to grow your bank account.
While the average annual cost of living increase is about 2%,
even in times when we're seeing inflation of 7%,
and the typical promotion increase being about 3%.
Though this can be higher depending on your industry,
your company and all of those variables of course.
On average, getting a new job is going to
increase your income by 10 to 20%. And if you're
currently underpaid or switching jobs in a competitive industry,
such as tech, that number can be much, much higher.
The opportunity cost of staying in a job that isn't
promoting you, isn't giving you pay increases, or
is a toxic work environment can be massive.
I've worked through these numbers with some of my clients
in one of my programs. And for one of them,
it was a $500,000 difference - just in a 10 year time period.
And that isn't even taking into consideration things like
investments that she would do with that extra income.
Now, especially when it comes to stepping up for a job promotion
or trying to get a new job, we need to talk about the second piece of
outdated career advice that you need to ignore immediately.
And that is fake it 'till you make it...
and this one is sadly prolific.
The premise of this advice is basically to pretend that
you know things that you don't really know or pretend to be
capable or confident when you're really not,
thinking that if you prove it to yourself,
you're going to start to believe it.
Especially because most of my clients sit right about
here on the Dunning Kruger curve and are much more
competent than they are confident when we begin working together.
But the vibe of faking it is deeply flawed. Here's why.
If you are faking it until you make it you're telling
your subconscious that you're a fraud,
that you weren't smart enough or good enough or capable enough,
the subtle story here: you're pretending.
So the actual vibe that you're feeling is a little kid
putting on their mom's business clothes pretending to go to work
where nothing really feels real.
And even when you do succeed, it feels fake.
This then leaves you with a raging case of imposter syndrome.
Now saying fake it till you make it is flawed career advice
that you need to ignore doesn't mean that you shouldn't
muster up the courage to do the thing that is freaking you the eff out
but instead of faking it until you make it,
what I want you to do is this:
Build your self awareness and your confidence so that
you know exactly how smart, capable and awesome you are.
That self belief isn't just going to relieve you from
feeling like an impostor later on.
It's also going to be a career success catalyst.
Confidence at work is the key that unlocks opportunities
gets you dramatic pay increases and
makes everyone turn to you for your ideas and
your input instead of fighting to be heard.
This is so important that I'm launching something new for
my career besties and it's on a super secret presale this week.
And since we're career besties I'll leave the link
in the description if you're curious.
This leads me to the third piece of outdated career advice
that you really need to unlearn
and that is that you need to pay your dues.
It's strange to me that when we're in an environment where
we are becoming more aware of toxic work environments,
and the damage that they cause...
is that this pay your dues mentality is something that
still exists and is preached upon to young professionals.
I've seen leaders give unpaid interns demeaning and
demoralizing tasks, because they're paying their dues.
Junior team members who are being given an excessive
amount of run work, in order to prove themselves.
And the awful advice that young professionals should
say yes to everything at work in order to get opportunities.
Corporate hazing is not okay.
And when we normalize this whole mentality of paying your dues,
what we're really doing is normalizing very toxic behavior at work.
So let's get this straight. Right now, you don't owe
an individual or a company anything for hiring you,
other than to do the job that you said you would do.
They hired you because they thought you were the best candidate
and that you would be most successful. This of course,
doesn't mean that you're entitled to
the highest pay range on the most exclusive projects
right on day one. But the dues that you pay should be
limited to getting experience and knowledge to do the actual job.
Not picking up your boss's dry cleaning, or
scrubbing the floors at some overfunded tech startup.
And this leads me right into the next extremely
outdated piece of career advice. And honestly,
I think this is like one of the worst ones because
it becomes a very deeply embedded story for
so many professionals that I speak with,
you should be thankful to have a job.
Having a job that doesn't allow you to have any
we can be grateful ideologically to have a job and
a paycheck coming in to help us pay our bills and support our lives.
But we can do that without undermining
our own terrible experience at work or
developing corporate Stockholm Syndrome, is what I'm saying.
As I record this, the unemployment rate is at 3.6%.
And in certain industries, recruiters that I speak to are
constantly saying how it's impossible to find someone to
fill the vacancies that they have.
So the message of being grateful for and
settling in a job that isn't treating you well,
work life boundaries, limits your professional growth and
is underpaying you or isn't giving you the
career advancement opportunities that you want...
opportunities, or is a toxic work environment is not a job that
really doesn't hit the mark for me.
And I'll even say the same thing if the economy shifts
the way that some people are saying that it might shift
you need to be thankful for. Or stay in (obviously).
not that I have a crystal ball that I'm looking in.
And not to say that that is necessarily going to
change where we're at now - just a disclaimer there.
Again, you can be thankful to have a job that is stable
and to have a reliable paycheck coming in the door.
Most people need those things.
My issue with this outdated occurred by is that it
feels like it's encouraging people to settle for jobs that
they've outgrown or underpaying them or are mistreating them.
If you're in a toxic work environment,
you do not need to settle for it.
If you are working at a company that will not promote you
even though you want to get promoted,
you do not need to give up your career ambitions.
If you're bored or annoyed or you just hate your job,
you don't have to stay in the name of being thankful for having a job.
Because I really feel like the subtext of this
outdated career advice is that you should just settle
and be thankful to have a paycheck.
And I think if you want more from your job than just a paycheck,
like not feeling miserable at the end of the day, every day,
you're entitled to that.
And of course, one of the ways that we ended up so frustrated
I'm feeling so exploited at work is because of the fifth piece
of outdated career advice that we really need to take down.
And that is that you need to work hard to get ahead.
There are so many different flavors of how this advice is given.
Be the first one in the office,
and the last one to leave.
Never go home before your boss.
Keep your head down and do your work.
Working hard not only makes you less productive,
it can be the exact reason why your career advancement is stalling.
There is such a thing as being too good to
promote last when we talk about working hard,
what we're really typically talking about is just working
a lot of hours and having zero work life boundaries,
which of course is an express ticket to career burnout.
In fact, we really need to talk about this
antiquated career tip in more detail. So what I want you to do is
go and watch this video right now
we're really going to dig into it...
But before you go, if this video helped you,
give it a thumbs up! Really helps my channel,
makes you my favorite career bestie, win win situation.
As always my friend thank you so much for watching.
I will see you in the next video.
Bye for now!