Ask the Career Experts: What is the Best Piece of Career Advice You Ever Received

As you’re trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, it’s not uncommon to feel dazed and confused when you come up short. To give you some direction, we have polled our Career Experts and asked them to share the best piece of career advice they’d ever received so we could pass it onto you.

Focus on your strengths rather than trying to overcome your weaknesses. While being reflective and a continuous learner are important traits, spending too much time “fixing yourself” will usually result in missing opportunities for you to shine based on your true talents.
- Tracy Brisson, Opportunities Project

“Go!” I’ll never forget when my boss encouraged me to take a promotion that I was scared to take. He said “Jump out of the nest, little bird. Go!” He was literally flapping his arms like a bird and was smiling at me. I took that leap of faith because he believed in me… That was over 15 years ago. Now whenever I’m faced with a new and challenging experience, I don’t focus on my fear. Rather I jump out of the nest and flap my wings like crazy… somehow I always make it. “Go!”
- Jennifer Armitstead, JA Career Coaching

Write a clear objective statement on my resume. Just 2-3 sentences, tailored to the job I was currently applying for, really seemed to make a difference in how the interviews started off. It showed the employer I could be concise and that I actually wanted the position at hand, as opposed to the candidate who just prints off the same resume for everyone.
- Greg Narayan, Honest College

Nobody loves their job 100% of the time. This advice came from my sister and helped me adjust to my first job out of college.
- Jenni Cutler

Something my dad told me every day before I left for school has always stuck with me. He always said “make it a great day.” I now say that to my husband when we are really tired in the morning and don’t want to leave the house I think it is really important to have a positive attitude when you start your day off and that is what my dad taught me.
- Anna Runyan, Classy Career Girl

The best piece of career advice I have ever received came from PR and social media pro Sarah Evans: “Work like you’re not afraid to be fired.” It was a nugget of wisdom passed on to her from a colleague, and I think it’s so true in today’s competitive landscape. It’s easy to sit back and execute your job functions at their most basic level, but by not being afraid and going the extra mile, you allow yourself to jump into your ideas head-first and commit to them 110%. Be creative, take calculated risks, and you’ll reap many more benefits and be a stand-out among your peers.
- Erica Moss from Masters of Nursing program at Georgetown University

Find what you love and then figure out how to make money from it. Why waste your whole life in a boring job when you can go to work everyday thinking, “I love my job.” (example: Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t trying to make money, he was working on something he loved and it happened to EXPLODE). Secondly, network, network, NETWORK. Networking alone will be the biggest source of opportunities for you in the business world.
- Parker Boyack

In my twenties, as I left the first real organization I had ever worked for, I requested a 1 on 1 exit discussion with the CEO. His parting comment, I will remember until the day I die. “The grass is brown on both sides of the fence.” As long as you need to earn money, even if you are doing what you love, there are outside influences you must deal with. When on the outside looking in, you only can observe the good - meaning the grass looks green. However, when you live the life you must deal with the office politics, the workplace bully, the changing performance measurements, prickly personalities, modified benefits packages, revenue, hiring, firing, etc. Every company, big or small, has ‘not so fun’ activities - meaning the grass just might be brown. You must take the good with the bad.
- Diahann Boock, Women’s Ally

You can’t be everything to everyone. Find your identity and own it. This advice has helped me define who I am as a young professional and what I want my brand to be. Rather than spreading my self thin, I’ve learned to focus on certain ventures that are able define not only my career, but myself as a person.
- Harrison Kratz, MBA@UNC

The best piece of career advice I ever received was a nugget gleaned during several years of concentrated study followed by several more years as a working professional: It is most important for artists to hone in on their own unique voice. I would often get bogged down by lofty goals that involved technical mastery as a means to more inspiring performances; but over time, I came to realize that what people most responded to was an authentic artistic statement that cannot be replicated because it is as unique as our DNA as human beings. This profoundly impacted the focus of my vision and the various goals attached to it, and restored some much needed levity and joy to the “serious business” of art.
- Laila Biali, composer, arranger singer, pianist

What really stands out is to be professional even in the most outrageous situations. Regardless of the industry you’re in, there are always those who want to push buttons, gossip, get information out of you and then turn it against you. Holding your head high and maintaining integrity always speaks volumes. Your colleagues will respect you more and you’ll gain a sense of satisfaction for not feeding into the nonsense that people want you to feed into. Set the example that you are not quick to judge or react. It’s easy to let our emotions take over, especially in a hostile situation, but sooner or later, everything comes around.
- Alexandra Straub, The Car Girl’s Garage

When I was trying to decide on a major, one of my teachers told me to find something I’m passionate about and then just go for it. I think that can apply to careers too — choose your career path based on what you love to do. I’ve also been told that you shouldn’t confine yourself to what you think you can do (what your degree is in, what you have experience in, etc.). You are more capable than you think you are and chances are the skills you have in one area can apply to learning skills in another.

- Rachel Cool

What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?