Thread by @BowTiedElephant

10 Working-Life Truths You DON'T Learn From Business School

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The importance of being political within an office environment

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1. PERFORMANCE IS FIRST

Most companies will have a handful of political elites, people hired solely because of their connections, but the cast majority get jobs by having the right credentials

If you want to have a long career, you cannot simply do an average job

You need to do work ahead of time that you believe will be handed to you during the next turn

In short as an entry level hire your job is to save the team time

2. 80/20 POLITICS

Once you’ve established yourself as one of the high performers, now you can position yourself amongst those that matter

Your goal is to consistently be teamed up with the correct groups

3) RESPONSIBILITY OVER PRESTIGE

Another major issue that comes up is the balance between responsibility and prestige

ALWAYS choose responsibility

Your responsibility level and actual tasks at work will determine the speed at which you get promoted and the speed at which your bank account will grow

4. GENERATE REVENUE. NO ONE CARES ABOUT EDUCATION

Another major trick is that as soon as you start making the firm money, no one cares about your background anymore

Every business in the world has the same ask:
Find a way to make me money

If you have a MBA from Harvard or a BA from Williams College, at the end of the day if the person with a BA from Williams College brings in more deals, trading volume or has a better P&L...

The person with the BA will always be paid more

To reiterate, as soon as you begin making the firm money, no one cares about your credentials

5. ATTITUDE MATTERS ONLY FOR ENTRY LEVEL

It is terrible to type out, but it is the truth, as soon as you begin bringing in revenue no one cares if you are a tyrant to work with

Naturally this causes an intense environment as entry level employees are expected to be happy regardless of the workload/mundane task and the revenue generators do not care about the happiness of their underlings

Knowing this dynamic the best move to make for an entry level employee is to turn in perfect work for the first year and position yourself away from the tyrants

Secondly, when you begin generating revenue, attempt to de-load the quality entry level workers so you will have the best resources when you need them

6. PERSONAL EMAIL IS ONLY PERSONAL

Another goal you should have is to never use your personal email for work purposes ever again

In an ideal situation all job applications should be sent in from an alternative email address, a connection to the opportunity

Putting yourself in the hiring managers shoes, you will always choose a resume in front of you that has been recommended to you from a close contact than an obscure but strong resume that was handed to you by HR

Always

With this in mind, do everything in your power to avoid

> online resume submissions
> Linked-in applications
> cold networking and
> headhunters

7. HEADHUNTERS DON'T CARE

Headhunters do not care one bit about you. Repeat that once or twice if you need to, headhunters do not care one bit about you.

Instead they are simply there to generate revenue as they get a commission when you sign the dotted line. Tread carefully.

If you decide to use a headhunter you need to treat each interaction intensely:

> pre-sell them on your experience
> push them for guidelines on all in compensation and
> up sell your current position

Lastly, one dirty trick they attempt to play is the “prestige jumping role” where they simply try to slot you into a more prestigious company for the same or worse pay

Don’t take the bait

8. CAREERS ARE ABOUT MOMENTUM

Another thing you don’t learn in school is the importance of momentum.

Many times you see analysts or associates on the fast track to a promotion and they decide to jump ship to a new segment of the field

Unfortunately, this may cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars

Before you jump ship from any platform, assuming you are liked, sit down and ask if you can obtain more responsibility at your firm

If the answer is yes 9 times out of 10 you should stay

Why?

If your group is interested in keeping you for the next jump, regardless of what that jump is they are interested in keeping you around for a longer period of time

You have built forward momentum at your firm

9. FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE IMPROVES YOUR WORK

You would think it would be the reverse and you would be wrong

As you accumulate assets and eventually pass the point where you can live off of your savings forever, you have LESS stress in your life

With less stress in your life you can actually perform better on the job as a large weight has been lifted off of your shoulders

You no longer enter a state of mind fog, looking into every intricate detail and begin operating smoothly

10. NEVER BURN A BRIDGE

Finally, the last thing you want to do is burn a contact at your old firm

More likely than not you will work with people that will dislike you and you’ll have a few people looking to put a knife in your back at a moment’s notice, but do not purposely burn a bridge

That wraps it up

FIN!!

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