Career Tips for Young Workers
Going from full-time education to the world of work can be a huge adjustment for young people to deal with. Back in school, you feel like you’re being guided along a very specific path, but in adulthood, you quickly realize you have to be independent and make your own way.
Having the right advice can make a big difference and help you achieve your career goals. Here are five essential career tips for young people entering the workforce.
1) Plan for the future
Even though you feel like you have all the time in the world when you’re young, it’s still important to make solid plans for the future and not just think about the present. Indeed, as a young worker, retirement is a long way away, but not preparing in advance could mean that you don’t have enough money to retire comfortably when you hit retirement age.
Private pensions are a great way to gradually save money to allow yourself to retire comfortably, or even retire early. Even if your employer already offers a workplace pension scheme, a private pension can supplement this money and allow you to enjoy a better retirement. It’s never too early to start saving!
2) Always look for opportunities to learn
At the start of your career, there will be many things you don’t know, and that’s perfectly fine. The difference between an average employee and someone who’s destined to go far is their approach to learning – an ambitious worker is always looking for opportunities to learn more about their industry or develop new skills to advance in their career. Therefore, you should aim to learn as much as you can in the early stages of your career and always listen to feedback from your boss.
3) Ask for help
Since you’re still learning, it’s very likely that you’ll feel lost and confused sometimes. The worst thing to do in this situation is to ignore this feeling and try to continue on your own, as you’re likely to make mistakes or miss an opportunity to learn. Instead, you should always ask for help if you need it. This can help you turn negative situations into positive learning experiences.
4) Make your own decisions
However, don’t fall into the trap of relying on everyone else to clean up your mistakes and guide your decisions. Listening to feedback and advice is obviously beneficial, but at the end of the day, you need to be independent and decide what to do with your career and your life. Our lives are only short, so you have to do what makes you happy and stop focusing so much on other people’s expectations.
5) Don’t be afraid to change plans
Following on from the last point, you need to make your own decisions regarding your life plans and career goals. Again, advice is very helpful, but you have to consider your own feelings. You may have decided to follow a certain path in the past, but if you discover that this choice no longer feels right for you, it’s OK to change your mind. The start of your career is the best time to change jobs, change directions, or completely retrain, so don’t be afraid to make necessary changes for your happiness.
With more than 20 years of progressive experience as Program Manager and Project Manager had led complex IT projects/programs in a wide variety of industries in America, Latin America & Italia.
Mario Bisson Andini is an advanced Program Manager who is the founder of Bisson Training.
