8 Biggest Career Development Mistakes You Need to Avoid

Career development mistakes to avoid

We all make errors irrespective of our intellect, experience, and age but they are called mistakes when repeating those errors more than once. The article shall be beneficial for:

• Student of any professional course, i.e. Business Management, Engineering, Mass Communication, Journalism, Fashion Designing etc
• Professionals in their early years of career
• Counsellors
• Professors and Lecturers of Professional Courses
• Parents & Guardians

We all born with some innate tendencies, interests, and capabilities but certainly not the experiences of life when we start breathing out and in outside the mother's womb. Discover How to Prepare for a Job Interview and Win Your Dream Job Quickly. For most of us, the initial phase of our lives is highly dependent on our parents and immediate environment whereas the majority of it then is governed by the choices and decisions we make during our education period and professional life. No one on this planet can say that one can always make the right decisions. The following article is written to understand common mistakes we make in our career and how they become mistakes and sometimes turn out to be a blunder.

The First Career Development Mistake

Career development mistakes start right from choosing an internship. Opting the right internship during any professional course remains a big challenge for most of us. We either go to the organizations chosen by our institute per their SOP or we end up taking it up where we get it easily or any of our classmates goes for. Let's understand the Internship first to decode the importance of it and know how critical it is to undergo with utmost sincerity. An Internship is just not a formality to get a certificate to be presented to the institution for passing your course rather is the only chance before embarking a professional journey to get exposed to different aspects of the corporate world. You may also read Top 8 Job Interview Tips. If we fail to do our internship in the right spirit and judiciously, we might have to take any role that is offered to us without knowing the broader implications of it in our career. Once this starts with us, the ongoing vicious cycle begins in the form of taking up whatever is coming our way and then our career development governs mostly by external factors.

This mistake can kill your career development plan

Once we get our degrees in hand, the majority of us remain anxious to get a job. This seems relevant also in view of big education loans, social pressure and fast-paced life wherein everyone is trying to prove their worth, the capability to get hired, and earning potential. This anxiousness, as explained earlier sometimes make us compelled to take whatever is coming on our way without understanding and viewing comprehensively. However few of us chose to show courage to better understand the role in the overall function and sincerely discuss its leveraging capacity with all possible resources. Knowing the distinctions between different roles and evaluating them in tune with your interests, strengths, likings and elementary inclinations paves the way for a rewarding and satisfying career. Discussing the same during any stage of an interview is one way of doing it but having an in-depth informal discussion with someone from your specialized function will be more beneficial because by doing so we can decide better on the offer/proposal. Here is one of the bestselling books on Amazon if you are confused about your career choice:

Sometimes changing a job during early association is a better idea

There is a myth and misconception that changing a job soon is not liked by employers. However, in a few assignments if we leave a job during the early period of association with considerable and satisfying reasons, indicates our decision-making capabilities and tells the employer indirectly about our clear vision and what we really want in our life.

In the absence of this, we may be considered as a candidate without any set direction, perseverance and sticking to our own decision which is perceived as a negative trait by the employer because it might hamper their overall organisational progress.  I never rejected any candidate in my career purely on the basis of his early leaving any organization. In one instance I met a very young candidate having only 3 years of experience who left a very lucrative assignment with a prestigious fortune 500 company because he was offered a promotion in the hierarchy and a good salary hike but no expansion of role. Here are 15 Career Development Mistakes You Should Avoid

Patience and Perseverance is a key

Jumping onto the conclusion soon sometimes proves to be jeopardizing and self-sabotaging. Let me quote a reference of a natural calamity like an earthquake. What happens when it takes place and ruins many lives and present a disaster in front of people in many parts of the world and our country?  Despite losing their dear ones and assets they have given their lives to, they start again from scratch, they eat, they talk, they also laugh after some time and take their life back on the track. How does this happen? This happens because they believe it to an act of GOD and term it as a natural calamity wherein they don't have any control.  Similarly, if we change our style of looking at any situation wherein we have done a lot of careful analysis and due diligence before taking any decision but it did not go the way we want it to be, it may also be considered as an act over which you had no control. These calamities happen with all of us, and we are then required to maintain our emotional balance and show attributes of patience. Before making big decisions including leaving an assignment or job in a rush of emotional turbulence or cursing yourself for taking up it, you should consider your personal and professional responsibilities at hand. What best you can do in the given situation and how you can execute the plan to the best of your capabilities and remain contended with a feeling of fulfilling your part judiciously.  This is the only thing that is in your hand in any such phase of your career and life. If you want to make the best use of your time, I recommend reading the following books: Your previous experience with your Senior or colleague Let me take you through another major career development mistakes. Most people have the tendency to follow the footprint of the crowds.  I would not say that it is not yielding but what? This is a million-dollar question. Yielding from such decisions may be of many types including everything from a new job to better salary & perks and designation but sometimes proves to be our biggest error which later turned into a continuous cycle of mistakes.

During our professional journey, we all make some good relation and relish the warmth rest of our life. Sometimes these relations come up with some recommendations and proposal for an opportunity in their current organization. Here we might tend to do errors if we purely go on the basis of your previous experiences with the relationship or some emotional reasons. I am not saying that the man who has approached you is calling you for a wrong assignment but it important here is to note that he is in a different and new flora and fauna. He can recommend or offer you a position based on his former experience with you, but every setup is unique. Each setup brings different challenges, and your colleague may not be so much assisting or comfortable for you in this altogether new assignment and ecological unit. Hence your decision should primarily be based on your career aspirations, detailed analysis of the organization's vision, financial strength, expansion plans, feedback from current employees, work culture and your overall fitment in that.

Avoiding corridor gossip is a good idea

Always remember that even walls absorb what you speak. The air sucks what you even think. Corridor gossip is a common phenomenon in any social settings.

No organization to date is spared from this phenomena. Being a social animal, it is our fundamental requirement to interact with people, but you should have an intelligent eye to understand when the discussion slips into gossip especially related to the organization. How to avoid corridor gossip has no perfect solution instead it requires your emotional intelligence to judge a situation and accordingly comment or take it in a different direction. To assist you, I would recommend working on your listening abilities more. Besides, a smiling face and sincere body language can take you long in your career development. The most important mantra is to have loads of work and a busy schedule.

This is one of the major career development mistakes

We should always keep in mind that we are not purely alone in this world.  Many things and people are related to us when we sail turbulence or any difficult situation, the cascading effect reaches all related to us for sure. Despite putting all intelligent efforts and plan well, you may end up reaching no man's land. However, you can attribute your failure as a calamity beyond your control. By doing so, you get the natural courage to face the situation with better balance. Many people consider leaving their job when they encounter some tough situations. Leaving your recurring earning merely on the basis of an idea or some casual promises made by someone without having a sincere dialogue might open up a channel for overall deteriorating life performance.

Start loving your own wife

An old saying is that the other side of the mountain always looks greener. Sometimes we all admire the working environment and culture of the organization where our acquaintance is working. I always suggest people understand their role, challenges and way outs in their current setup. This is the only way, otherwise,  you may develop the tendency to give up whenever things in hand get tricky to crack.  For any job-related hick-up which is purely based upon functional competence to deal with, you need to develop the required skills and prove your calibre. So, start loving your own job rather than admiring others. This strategy will help you get a high-paying job.

Career development mistakes - conclusion

This is not a comprehensive list of career development mistakes. I have shared a couple of glaring mistakes based on my experience with corporate.  I want you to read this article twice to have a deeper understanding of my perspective and avoid these mistakes.