I Hate Your Job

Establishing Yourself As A Professional Professional

I originally published this article at Employee Evolution as a guest post a little while back. I’m sure it’ll be new to most of you though, and I think much of the advice applies to readers of all ages.

Are you interested in being seen for your contributions rather than your birth year?

These 6 tips will help you to get noticed more quickly, earn you greater influence and responsibility, and get you closer to a level playing field.

1. Be a student of everyone: Asking questions and taking advice isn’t a sign of weakness, and it won’t emphasize your youth either. You’ll get better faster, impress more people, and actually seem older.

   Why it works: Seeking ways to improve is a sign of maturity and is the easiest way to gain the skills and knowledge that make you more effective. Plus, demonstrating a willingness to learn from your elders takes away a lot of the stereotypes and targets you will be marked with as a Millennial.

2. Learn to write well: Develop your ability of written communication to the highest level, both in your daily emails and in deliverables for which you are responsible. This includes correct grammar, capitalization, and punctuation–even in email.

   Why it works: If you can quickly fire off sharp emails, you will come across as highly capable and intelligent (provided your content isn’t inappropriate). Not everyone types well, and certainly not everyone writes well.

   Today, many first impressions are made through email. If you present well there, you will be developing your personal brand, and when people are surprised at how young you are compared to what they expected, you will know that you’ve already broken some of their preconceptions about your generation.

3. Demonstrate leadership: Help other employees to be more effective. For example, since you are a regular blog-reader, you probably are ahead of the curve when it comes to getting things done with computers. Be generous to help others format documents, create spreadsheets, or find information on the web. As for fellow younger workers, you’ll probably be able to answer many of their questions related to your industry and your company since you’re a student of everyone now.

   Concerning the boss, give appropriate amounts of ground-level feedback on how things can be improved if he/she is interested. Don’t suck-up, but do provide the kind of info they want to know.

   Why it works: Nothing says maturity like leadership. If you have workers of every age looking to you to be more effective, you’ll have their respect by default.

4. Work smarter: Create templates for common tasks and send them out to others who could use them. Write scripts or stock emails for common customer interactions. If you are in sales, design a killer territory plan and use tools like Jigsaw to get better conversion rates. Employ solid time-management to get more done in less time, and so on.

   Why it works: When push comes to shove, intelligent managers will determine how to treat you based on performance alone. If you are the top producer in the department, you will usually be respected and rewarded. There aren’t many companies that don’t appreciate bottom-line results.

5. Show up: Take advantage of opportunities to interact with upper-management. If it’s a small company, say yes when you are invited out to drinks or dinner. If it’s a larger organization, reach as high as is practical. Participate in forums, Q&As, and special project groups, and don’t be shy about introducing yourself at the proper moment. Your CEO might enjoy hearing the perspective of his tip-top inside sales representative, for example.

   Why it works: In many cases, your boss’s boss’s boss is a very cool person. We’re probably not talking about someone who got their job on the strength of tenure alone, so there’s a good chance they aren’t as limited by notions of age as some career middle managers might be. This is just an instance of going to find the people who are most likely to respect the substance of who you are.

6. Avoid being an idiot: Subtle advice, no? Anyone who’s spent any amount of time in an office has seen talented people who can’t stop shooting themselves in the foot with stupid habits. Improper attire, showing up late, inappropriate jokes, failure to stop talking about oneself… The list goes on and on. Exercise good judgment and at least be aware of the norms in your workplace. Like with great writing, you need to prove you can follow the rules before you can get away with breaking them.

   Why it works: It’s hard to get respect when you’re fired.

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