Time heals all wounds, and will hopefully helps everyone forget about the mistakes you made in your first job. You learn more from failure than you do from success, and here at Career Girl Daily, we want to suggest a few mistakes you should make sooner in your career rather than later…
Work with a friend, and realize it’s a terrible idea.
We’ve all had that moment: sitting with a friend, mutually complaining about your jobs, and realizing that the perfect solution would be to go into business together. It’s brilliant! It’s sensational! It’s…probably not a great idea. Unless you already know your friend’s work ethic, or you’ve collaborated before, going into business together is tough work. Just because you’re with a friend doesn’t mean that the days will be more enjoyable (on the contrary—they might be more stressful because your friendship adds a personal element to interactions). But go on! Dive head first into a business plan and realize within days what a mistake you’ve made; it’ll teach you a lesson about what you really want in a business partner.
Pull an all-nighter and come in the next morning.
There is an art to coming in to work with a fresh face despite the fact that you’re dying inside (quite frankly it’s one I;ve never been able to achieve—it takes a very special woman who can take even longer to put on makeup when every time she closes her eyes she wants to fall asleep). Coming into work hungover or exhausted is par for the course in your 20’s, but it’s far less acceptable when you’re angling for a management position. By the time you’re 30, you should know your limits and stick within them!
Decide that you and your manager are going to be besties.
She liked report you gave, she’s stood up for your ideas in a meeting, and she’s kinda like your mentor, so obvi you and your manager are going to be forever-friends, right? Uh…no. It’s one thing not to be on good terms with your manager, and quite another to be friends. Your manager can’t be your close friend the same way a lieutenant can’t be close friends with soldiers; we all have a job to do, and sometimes feelings complicate that. Just because she’s asked if you want to go for an after-work drink does not mean that you’re allowed to get drunk and start complaining to her….but who knows that when they’re 21 and in their first job? (Not me…ahem!). Learn this lesson before you become a manager yourself and you’ll make life a lot easier!
Involve your office in lots of details of your personal life.
You know when you meet a guy, and it’s just such an amazing story that you can’t wait to tell everyone? Or that fight you had with your parents that you just can’t get off your mind? When you’re 22 and figuring yourself out, it makes sense that you share those details with your coworkers; the kind of people who are also 22, and get you. But after a few years in an industry you’ll start building a reputation for yourself…and that reputation will be built in part around your professional demeanour. You don’t want to be fodder for gossip when you’re 30, so please—run wild until then! Tell all your friends about your weird roommate escapades or getting lost on the subway; those stories are great coming from an intern! (But can you imagine if they were told by a boss?)
Featured Photo: Stockholm Streetstyle