The Best Career Advice You Never Hear

Businessman sitting at desk drinking from water cooler bottle
Getty ImagesFirst of all, don't do this.

By Emmie Martin


But a recent Quora thread, "What are a few pieces of unique career advice that nobody ever mentions?", provides something different: valuable career advice that we haven't heard a million times before.

Here are 13 of the best responses:
1. "In a new job, accept those first few invitations to lunch or happy hour. If you decline them, for whatever reason, they will stop, and you may find yourself an inadvertent outsider." -Laura Cooke

2. "Don't look too busy. I've seen smart and dedicated employees fail to get promoted, because they have taken on too much, working too hard, and appeared too frazzled. If you appear stressed, people will think you aren't prepared to take on more, and you'll miss opportunities for new and innovative projects." -Mira Zaslove

3. "Never, ever cook fish in the office microwave." -Ryan Harvey


5. "Understand when people see you check your phone at every call, then don't answer when they call, they then know you put them on a low priority." -Mike Leary


7. "The network of people you know who leave your current company are often times more valuable to you than those with your company." -James Schek

8. "The weaknesses that you're unaware of will hurt you the most. This is your blind spot. You must determine your hidden weaknesses and work to overcome them, and you're going to need the help from others to do this." -David Osborne


10. "Ask your boss what his biggest problem is, and make it go away." -Victoria Backaitis

11. "Don't just look up - look laterally as well, because people with diverse experience usually progress faster than people with more experience." -Vikrant Vaidya

12. "Entitlement is a career killer. Focus on staying grateful and working hard rather than feeling that things are owed to you." -Scott Miker

13. "Try to make the next person's job down the line easier. For example, if you are working on a project that goes through different hands, see what kinds of things you can do on your end that will make the process flow easier for the next person who performs the next step." -Richard Gary Butler
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