19 Steps To Screwing Up Your Career
1. Get caught up in your own world and busy life
2. Don’t bother keeping in touch with your network of friends, ex-colleagues, ex-clients and contacts
3. Lose your job / find your job may be under threat / or get stuck in a rut with your career
4. Get back in contact with your network because you’ve heard the mantra: “network is best way to find a new job”
5. Jump on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to broadcast your “hi, I’m looking for a job – please help!” message
6. Suddenly get over every social media site connecting, friending and poking
7. Request LinkedIn recommendations from people you’ve lost touch with (without making any effort to re-establish the relationship first)
8. Run around telling everyone “oh, I love networking it’s so great to reconnect!”
9. Keep asking for leads, help and advice from your network
10. Don’t bother taking a genuine interest in their needs or goals. Instead focus only on what you want
11. Eventually find a new job and tell everyone how clever and important you are
12. Don’t bother thanking all the people who have attempted to help or informally advise you through your career transition or job search
13. Tell everyone “….oh we must catch up once I’m settled into the new role. I’ll call you”
14. Get busy with the new job and forget to contact them
15. Just disappear off the radar and forget about your contacts and network once again
16. Keep going for a few years whilst things are going well
17. Then eventually get caught up in a rut again or lose your job
18. Get back in touch with your network, return to the top of this list and follow the same cycle once again
19. Start moaning and whining about how unhelpful and ‘cold’ your contacts and network have become
In an age where job security no longer exists, your network and relationships play a huge part on your career success. So follow these 19 steps and you’re guaranteed to damage your network and screw up your career.
Article by, Sital Ruparelia and courtesy of CareerHub.com. The Career Hub blog connects job seekers with experts in career counseling, resume writing, personal branding and recruiting.
