Early Career Advice

Early career years are painful. You feel like an idiot 98% of the time - lost, confused and insecure. I wish I had a cheat sheet of principles for my first job. So I put one together. Here are 20 things about building a career I wish I knew sooner:

Make sure your job has clear price signals for success and failure. Be suspicious of roles that compensate you with status or non-financial rewards.

When you select a profession, you are choosing the scenes that will compose your life. You should think pretty hard about those scenes. If you start a plumbing company with more than one employee, you will be telling plumbers what to do. You’d better enjoy hanging out with plumbers, and telling them what to do. And when you ask yourself whether you... See more

It’s important to have a strong learning signal — a fast feedback loop between effort expended and success. This way, you’ll know quickly what it takes to succeed, and whether you can be happy doing so. Look for environments where competitors see themselves as playing a game, rather than fighting for survival — this prevents rankings within the hie... See more