If you have or are in the process of job hunting, it’s more than likely you have received some outdated career advice. While some of the professional guidance you were given some years ago might still hold value and are useful, many are antiquated. They won’t work in today’s modern workforce, especially since the modern workplace has evolved.
Read on to learn more about outdated career advice.
Common Outdated Career Advice
Do not talk about your personal life
You have to keep your personal life private from others. Go right ahead and make small talk with your boss, but you should be cautious not to disclose any intimate details of your own life.
It’s unnecessary to enter everything you did over the weekend or even the holiday you are planning.
These may seem like great career advice, but it’s unrealistic to keep your personal life separate from your work life. People spend a lot of time at work and form friendships, so it’s only natural to share personal things with co-workers.
Don’t ask for help
Asking for help shows that you do not know what you are doing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, so don’t be afraid to seek help if you need it. If you do not understand how to do something at work, then go for help instead of wasting more time trying to figure it out.
- Place your picture in your resume
- Use a one-page resume
- Don’t apply for work during the summer
- Don’t disclose your weaknesses (reveal small weaknesses and how you overcame them)
- Your cover page should not be dramatic
- Never go into an interview casually dress
- Multitask
- Never challenge authority
- Do not add people who are working with you on your social media accounts
- Do not interact with your colleagues after office hours.
These are some outdated career advice that we usually hear from our elders. These recommendations are not as useful now since this is a fast era, and companies and management teams want to interact with their employees after working hours for various reasons.
Closing Thoughts
Keep a Balance in work and personal life
As you might know, the working hours typically end at 6 p.m. and start again at 9 a.m. the next morning. As such, you spend a lot of time with co-workers in the run of a day and even more if you include the weekends. This makes it natural that your personal and professional life are going to overlap at some point.
Rigidly drawing a line between life and work, even though they are clearly connected, is more likely to make matters difficult.
As is valid for a great deal of well-intentioned information passed during the years, it is vital to think about some old-school career guidance with a cynical eye.
You still might find some of this nevertheless applies to you personally, though other pieces, you will gleefully throw aside in favor of it not being outdated career advice.
