If you have a good relationship with your boss, sometimes it can be difficult to know when and where to draw the line. RELATED: Need some advice for the office? Watch these tutorials! Here are 10 things you should never ask your boss:
Who do you want to be? Not what, but who? Related: 5 Steps To Finding Your Work Passion From the moment we entered grade school, we’ve been trained to think of ourselves as a ‘what.’ In Kindergarten, our teachers asked us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” We’d respond with, “A firefighter, a policeman, a princess.” Society got it wrong. Instead of training people to think about ‘what’ they want to be, we should have been teaching people to figure out ‘who’ they want to be. There’s a stark contrast between a ‘what’ and a ‘who.’ A ‘what’ is characterized by a title which never changes. A ‘who’ is an archetype, a symbol, something elemental. A ‘who’ leaves behind a legacy, charts new paths and braves new territories. When you figure out who you want to be, you unlock your potential and your purpose for life, and you discover your passion. Discovering your passion is necessary, because the world has rapidly evolved. The world we live in today no longer rewards mediocrity. Back in the day it was acceptable to go to work, do your job and leave. Not anymore. These days, employers expect more. The world we live in today rewards those with personality, pizzazz, and passion. As a result of this culture shift, it has now become absolutely necessary to discover your passion, because the days of sitting in your cubicle and pretending to enjoy your job will no longer fly. You will be discovered for the fraud that you are and removed from your position. So, instead of waiting for the clock to run out of time, you might as well discover your passion and pursue it relentlessly. Here is how you discover your passion: Dig deep and focus on your aptitude. What have you always been naturally-gifted at? What is it that has always come easy for you? Before you jump to the assertion that not everybody is gifted with passion, talent, or skills, take a step back and just focus. There’s more things which define talent beyond being a gifted athlete, musician, actor, or entrepreneur. That’s all you see in the media, but that’s not representative of reality. Your talent could simply be making people laugh. If that’s the case, showcase your talent on Vine or YouTube. Thousands of people are earning six-figures/year doing this. Maybe your talent is playing video games. There are also thousands of people making a living doing this as well. Maybe your talent is writing. Why not self-publish a book or start a blog? Maybe you don’t really have a skill but you just like to make people smile? You could create a viral video walking around town making people smile. Then you could expand upon your brand by developing a blog and a book which emphasizes the health benefits of smiling. Then you could create branded products. Maybe stuffed animals or characters with big goofy smiles. The sky is the limit! No matter what your passion or talent is, there’s a way to make it worth your while to pursue. The key to success is to establish yourself as an expert in whatever it is you’re passionate about. If you love making people smile. Become the ‘smile expert.’ If you love enjoy collecting vintage toys, become the ‘vintage toy collector expert.’ The important thing to understand about passion, its purpose and why it is necessary is because passion is your only escape mechanism from a job or a career you’re currently in that you do not enjoy. It’s your only ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card.’ It’s your only opportunity and your only chance to change your life. One thing that should not be mistaken or overstated is the financial reward that comes along with pursuing your passion. You could spend every spare moment you have for weeks, months or years and never earn a dime. However, if pursuing your passion adds positivity, enjoyment, and a sense of purpose in your life, the time spent is well worth it. Not to be understated, it’s also worth mentioning that earning a living pursuing your passion is now more possible than ever before. Thanks to the Internet and social media platforms, anybody can turn any hobby or interest into a profitable enterprise. It just takes hard work, time, and a product/content that provides value to other people’s lives. This post was originally published at an earlier date.
There’s a big mistake that 99% of employees are making and they don’t even know it. RELATED: Need some career advice? Watch these tutorials! This mistake is being made primarily by people who are new in their career, but it’s also being made by veterans who see the writing on the wall but are ignoring the signs and symptoms. The big mistake is the false sense of security employees are establishing in their careers. It’s not their fault, though. As kids we’re asked in Kindergarten, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” This question is no longer applicable nor should it be allowed to be asked, especially in the context of white collar jobs. As we go through life, graduate from high school, and head off to college, this antiquated and false sense of security is pushed even further, as colleges and universities try to narrow the lane students fit in. In the real world, things don’t work like that. In the real world in 2014 and beyond, you can no longer establish a career based on a single field. Your employer doesn’t need 100 people who are experts in one particular field. They need 100 people who are Jacks-Of-All-Trades. They need people who understand and can speak the lingo across teams and across departments. It’s very important that this issue be stressed because millions of 18 and 23 year olds are graduating from high school and college looking to jump into the fast-paced world of business, thinking they’re going to build long-term careers in fields like marketing, public relations, advertising, social media, and so on, and what they don’t realize is that those fields are constantly disrupted. They constantly evolve and change. The problem with this change is that it leaves the employee vulnerable to losing their job as their chosen field may eventually become obsolete. So, here’s the formula for success:
You deserve to be happy. Our constitution declares it. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” - Thomas Jefferson So, what do you do when you're unhappy at work? RELATED: Need some career advice? Watch these tutorials! You should sit down and conduct a self-assessment. Emphasis on the word ‘self.’ Don’t conduct this assessment with friends, family, or a significant other. They will cloud your judgement and get you more upset than you already are. When conducting your self-assessment ask yourself these three key questions:
Interviews are uncomfortable, weird, and awkward. Related: PROVEN: 5 Ways To Land An Interview With Limited Experience You put on a smile and a happy face pretending like you’re having a conversation with your best friend, all the while participating in a process that could determine rather or not you get to eat, buy clothes, and keep a roof over your head. It’s a mystery to me why someone thought that it would be a good idea to put two total strangers into a room and have one interrogate the other. Who in their right mind thought of this? How about a date before heading to second base? Nonetheless, it is what it is. The one interview question most people say they have the hardest time answering is: “Tell me about yourself.” This is typically the first question that’s always asked in an interview. This question is asked because it sets the tone of ‘Brand You.’ It lets the interviewer know who you are, what you’re about, and what motivates you. This question is important because the interviewer will use it as a control mechanism to determine your truthfulness and consistency in the way you answer the upcoming questions. Here is an example of how you would answer this question:
College isn’t for everyone, and it’s about time we come to terms with this fact. Related: 3 Reasons No Experience Will Land You That Dream Job Despite having made the Dean’s List, I dropped out of college after my freshmen year. I didn’t feel comfortable with the debt I was incurring, and I didn’t feel confident that college was adequately preparing me for my future. After dropping out of college, I made a series of unconventional choices that allowed me to flourish in my career with job opportunities at top firms, including a Fortune 10 telecom. My story goes against conventional wisdom that states that you must have a college degree in order to earn a reasonable wage. The ability to obtain a high paying job without a college degree is more possible now than ever before. The reason for this is simple. Being ‘smart’ has been de-valued in exchange for being skilled. Back in the day skilled laborers were paid very well. One man’s income could support an entire family of five. This was Employment 1.0. Then, the Baby Boomers came along and they flooded college classrooms. White collar careers began booming. This was Employment 2.0. Today, we have a generation of Gen Xer’s and Millennials who are caught in a unique moment in history in which knowledge obtained in college has become less valuable. Employers today need employees with technical skills. Enter Employment 3.0. A college education provides students with knowledge, but it rarely provides students with skills. This has led to the largest skills gap in human history, which provides a great segway into how to get a high paying job without a college degree:
Job interviews have never worried me. It’s actually something I’m really good at. In fact, I’ve never been turned down for a job I interviewed for and I’ve always walked out with a compensation package better than what I hoped for. Related: Here’s What You Say When An Interviewer Says, ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ I guess that means I’m doing something right.
The average raise an employee can expect to earn is between 1 - 10% with an average annual increase of 2.5 - 3%. Related: 3 Ways To Get Noticed, Get A Promotion, And Get A RAISE! This is pretty lousy, and doesn’t take into account an employee’s experience, years of service, or market factors such as the average compensation for an employee based on salaries from other companies in the area. Many people bust their butt hoping to earn a raise or a promotion from their existing job only to be told that “there isn’t money available in the budget, but that HR has has kept the request on file.” This is code language for, “We value your work, but we’re not willing to put our money where our mouth is because we foolishly think you’re replaceable, and we’re going to end on a positive note in hopes that you don’t quit and force us to have to hire someone else and pay them more.” The unfortunate reality of raises is that, in most cases, the only way to get a raise is to find a new job. Employers that are looking to hire are motivated to exceed the existing salary of a prospect when they are deficient in a certain sector of their business. In a fit of desperation, they are likely to pay more to secure talent, especially if it means their competitor will be one man down. One of the big problems that people make when switching companies is accepting compensation that’s equal to or lesser than what they previously earned. You should never take a new job and accept the same or less compensation than what you previously earned. This is especially true if you’ve worked at your previous company for 3-5 years and are in a career field that’s in high demand. Just based on the amount of years you worked alone; inflation, demand and other market factors would have guaranteed you deserve an increase in pay. One way you can avoid the guessing game of what you should request at your next job is to do a salary analysis at salary.com, payscale.com and/or glassdoor.com. All of these services offer a free salary analysis and it can make the world of difference in determining your true earning potential. These service are also great, because they take into account your years of experience, title, roles and responsibilities and they also take into account the average reported salaries of others in your field and in your area. Performing a salary analysis can become a powerful weapon when negotiating your salary for a raise at your existing job or a new job because it validates your requested salary based on several factors. The shocking thing that most employees don’t know is that employers conduct these same analysis before even putting up a position for hire. Thanks to the Internet, the employee is now empowered with the same information as the employer. Power to the people! This post was originally published at an earlier date.
