Career Tips for Twentysomethings to Build a Lasting Career For Years

Career Tips for Twentysomethings to Build a Lasting Career For YearsYou may feel young and immortal, but you wont be by the time youre in your 30s and feeling over the hill. Taking a few important, but relatively easy steps now can really make a difference in setting you up for future success. Pay yourself forward. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) Here are 15 career tips that will help pay serious dividends in a yearor twoor 20.1. Master basic life skillsNow that youre out of school and on your own, its the time to practice all those adulting skills no one ever really told you that you would need. Things like living within your means, putting money away for the future, dealing with rejection, staying patient and positive, eating your vegetables, and paying your bills. A little work now can do a lot of good later.2. Ask yourself a daily question (or questions)So many of the greats motivate themselves by asking inspirational questions on a daily basis. Things like what good thing can I do today? or what would you do if you thought you couldnt fail? In the words of Einstein, Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is bedrngnis to stop questioning. A little self-reflection is always as good thingand will stand you in good stead if it becomes a habit when you really need it.3. Stay healthyDevelop and stick to a fitness regimen while youre still young and healthy. Dont wait until you start to feel the aging process settle in. If you make it a habit and not an onerous project (slash gargantuan task), then youll never neglect yourself or issue into decrepitude and bad health. And youll save yourself a lot of time and struggle later.4. Learn to cushionWhen youre heading to work, or to an interview, or even to meet friends for dinner, its very important to leave yourself a bit of wiggle room on your way. If you think it will take you 22 minuets to get somewhere, practice rounding up and gi ving yourself a half an hour just to be on the safe side. One day (or several) this will save your bacon. If nothing else, youll never have to arrive sweating or out of breath again.5. Go outside your comfort zoneParticularly when in social situations. Pushing your own limits just a little here and there will make you much more relaxed and socially adaptable later when your worst hermit habits kick in as you age.6. Pick up a hobbyBetter start now and pick one while you have the energy and wherewithal to pick a cool one. It will stand you in good stead in a decade or two when hobbies come in handy for helping to expand your social circle.7. Take your timeLearning to spend quality time with yourself is an incredibly valuable skill. Take yourself to a movie. Go out to dinner alone and dont spend the whole time noodling on your phone. The earlier you can develop ease with solitude, the better off youll be. Start smalleven just a half an hour a day.8. Get involvedGetting involved in mean ingful causes is a great way to gain some perspective and keep your priorities straight. Youll never be this young or strong again and youll never have more free time. So get out there and help someone other than yourself. Youll be very glad you did.9. Save upYouth is great, but old age is just around the corner. Money you put away for savings now will only grow. Even just $5 a month into a retirement account can make a world of difference when the fated day arrives. Try living frugally while youre still young and vital so you can live comfortably and with security when you need those two things most.10. Be informedTo be interesting you should also be interested. Keep track of current events and sporting milestones. Keep abreast of the most meaty and meaningful issues of your day. Youll not only be a better conversationalist, you might just find a passion you didnt realize you had.11. Fail betterSuccess is a great goal, but failure is a very important stepping stone on the way there . Let yourself fall flat on your face a few timesthis is how we learn. Then get up, dust off, and try again. The more you recover and overcome now, the more resilient you will know yourself to be when you start to feel more daunted by worldly circumstances.12. Weekly reviewStart the excellent habit of running through your week. Ask yourself what went well, what could have gone better, and what adjustments you should try to make in the coming week to keep improving. Little bits of work like this will make a big difference over the course of adulthood.13. Read everythingThis is the best life skill there is. For the cost of a library card, you can improve your vocabulary, learn about the world, become more fluent in a wide variety of subjects, and be able to better empathize with people who are entirely different than you. Reading exercises your mind and your heartand both things make you a better person.14. landsee the worldDont just try and make a pile of money to enjoy in your dotag e. Travel while you have the energy and health and time without constraints. See the world. Develop a taste for new things. Youll be a much more interesting old personand youll experience a much more diverse world.15. Shake it upRoutines are great, but every once in a while its good to shake things up a little. Just to prove to yourself youre still in the drivers seat. Make every day of your life memorable and meaningful and youll have very few regrets indeed.

When To Negotiate Your Pay... And Why It Isnt Always The Right Thing

When To Negotiate Your Pay... And Why It Isnt Always The Right Thing If navigating the workplace wasnt complex enough, it turns out that even the straightforward advice to always negotiate your pay may be something to take with a grain of salt.The prevailing wisdom for anyone reading the news (especially during a month where we commemorated Equal Pay Day) is that if youre a woman, you should definitely negotiate your salary. In fact, approximately 70% of people responding to a Google Consumer Survey last July reported agreed with the statement that women should negotiate their pay mora often.Unfortunately, it seems that your avoidance of negotiation may leid necessarily be just a failing in confidence, or fear getting in your way. It may simply be your wohl telling you its the right thing to do.In a Harvard Business School research paper published a few weeks ago, three professors kicked the tires on the common advice that women should ask for more (which they described as leaning in). This well-meaning advice is typically a reaction and response to a substantial body of social science research showing that women are less likely to negotiate than men, which is a potential source of the gender pay gap. In fact, the authors of this paper found that in their own study, women were about 11% less likely to negotiate compared to men.What the professors did was run a social experiment whereby they forced women to negotiate 100% of the time in a simulation. They then compared the outcomes to a parallel experiment where women were allowed to choose whether to negotiate.The results argue against any one size fits all solution when it comes to women negotiating for more pay. Both groups of women (those forced to negotiate and those able to choose), tended to benefit from negotiating. The negotiations ultimately led to a higher wage 49% of the time. However, when negotiations broke down (as they can do in real-life), women who were forced to negotiate saw their final wag es cut below what was initially on offer 33% of the time. compared to just 9% of the time when they had a choice to negotiate.Why did this happen? The researchers conclude that women know whether the offers they receive are less than what they bring to the table and choose to negotiate in the vast majority (88%) of of the time when they think they are getting less than they deserve. On the other hand, when the offer meets or even exceeds what a woman knows is fair, less than half (44%) of those with a choice, negotiated. In other words, most women who knew their offers were fair decided not to negotiate and this was the right decision if they didnt want to get a lower offer, on average.In the real world, its often hard to know whether we are being paid our worth. Rarely do people find themselves comparing multiple job offers for identical roles at the same time. So the advice to negotiate may simply be based on the belief that theres no harm in asking. As well-intentioned as this ad vice may be, it simply might be going to far to recommend that everyone always ask for me. Sometimes, an offer is not only fair, but it can be better than fair.And nuances like how, when, and who you are asking are things that cannot be controlled in a social science experiment. In the Harvard experiment, negotiations were online and anonymous. In real life, we tend to have a lot more information about the person who we are negotiating with, and we may even have a pre-existing relationship with them. Also, we know things about a firms culture and the financial health of an employer when we negotiate. All of these things certainly matter and may be part of any sane woman (or mans) objections to negotiate.This article was originally published on Laura Vanderkams website here.Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women.Join us by reviewing your employer