This is my last week at my current job before I head off to Rerun to work on their data platform. This week I’m meeting with a lot of people across the company and many people are asking if I have any advice before I go.

For many of them, I’m able to give specific suggestions. I also try to elicit feedback for what I could do different or better and what worked really well.

There are a few pieces of generic advice that I’m giving to nearly anyone who solicits it.

About twice a month, I’ll get someone coming to me to ask for career advice. I’m starting to collect the more common questions and my thoughts on them. I’m putting these together as a series of blog posts under the tag CareerPlusPlus.

Know Your Why

One concern that comes up repeatedly through many people’s careers is what to do at decision points. Should I take this job? Should I seek a promotion? Should I transfer into another group?

My suggestion is to try to identify what is most important to you. This is advice I was given when I left graduate school by someone from my thesis committee and it’s been solid advice for my entire career.

If you had to rank these, which would be at the top of your list of importance?

• Working hours
• Salary
• Type of work you’re doing
• Who you’re working with
• Company goals
• Benefits
• Something else?

If you had to number those, who gets the #1 spot?

Once you’ve done that, my advice is: Follow that. Don’t compromise.

The rest are important, but don’t give up what you have identified as most important to you. If that means leave, then leave. If that means accepting lower pay or working with people you don’t want to so you can keep #1 rock solid, do it.

If you know your Why and you follow it, I bet you can sleep with a clear conscious. It’s the main reason I’m going to my new position.

Follow Instructions

If I had to write a click bait title it would be “This one simple trick will 10x your career!“

I’m not kidding. This one thing I do has brought me more career success than any other. My wife has had the same experience. Our older child just started their first job last month and we gave them the same advice. They’ve already gotten feedback that they’re the most valuable employee right now.

Here’s the trick:

• Do what your manager asks you to do.
• Do it when they ask you to do it.

I’ve experienced this on both sides. In reality, it is what got me the job I currently have, which has been an incredible experience. At my last job my supervisor came in to check on something. When we finished talking about it, he said, “Next I need you to start working on feature X.” I replied, “It’s done. You told me to do it last week. I was going to share the results at the team meeting.”

That is the moment he took notice of me. It was the turning point of my time at that job. From then on I started getting more and more of the choice assignments because I simply did them as instructed.

Now as a manager, I’ve come to realize how infrequent it is to get an employee who simply follows instructions.

Soliciting Feedback

This isn’t advice on upping your career, but how to get feedback when you do depart. I’ve set up final 1:1s with all of my direct reports and a handful of other people throughout the company.

I told them in advance what I plan on asking during this meeting. Similar to what I discuss in my template for effective 1:1s, my goal here is to create an environment conducive to open sharing. This means reducing the uncertainty. It also gives them time to think about it rather than dropping it on their lap. Not everything thinks fast on the spot.

• During our time working together, what is one thing you wish had gone differently?
• During our time working together, what is one highlight?
• What general advice or feedback do you have for me?

It’s pretty common that people have something they want to say to you. This gives them a framework that creates the opportunity for negative, positive, and neutral feedback.

Closing Thoughts

For me, leaving a job is a time of reflection and excitement. As I close the door on one stage of my career I like to think about the impact I’ve made and what I leave behind.

The two pieces of advice I give above are a direct outcome of my experience. I hope you give them a try and that you find them helpful.