When I graduated college and was ready to foray into Corporate America, I had no direction and no clue what I was doing. My original plan to work in non-profits or politics didn’t pan out, and I didn’t know what else I could use my International Relations degree for.
Desperate for a job, I accepted a role as a temporary worker for my current company, a big bank on Wall Street.
I wasn’t anywhere close to the glitz/glamor/richness/questionable behaviors of actual Wall Street where bankers and traders used dollar bills as toilet paper. I actually worked in Salt Lake City, Utah in an Operations role. In the banking hierarchy, it doesn’t get any lower than being a temp (or a contingent in industry terms) at a “high-value location” (aka not New York) working in Operations (the back office as they liked to call it).
And yet, I actually am proud of where I am now.
I haven’t made it to the top in Corporate America, and I’m not sure I even want to. However, what I am proud of is my journey to get to where I am because it’s taught me so much about life, about myself, and about what I want to do with my life. With that said, I know that many people do actually want to make it all the way to the top. And who am I to get in the way of that dream? So here are six lessons for each year in my professional career about what I have learned in my journey towards success in Corporate America.
Lesson 1: You’re never too good for anything.
I feel obligated to start with this lesson because I have learned the hard way that self-righteousness and cockiness don’t get you anywhere. You absolutely need to be respected (more on that in a bit), but 9 times out of 10, you are not too good for anything. That meeting your boss wants you to schedule? Do it because then you’ll learn how to prioritize when everyone has a busy schedule. That lame backburner item nobody on the team wants to do? Do it because what else are you going to do?
What sucks about starting a new position, whether you’re seasoned or not, is that you have to earn the trust of your team. That means nothing is beneath you until you prove that you can do the work… which leads me to lesson two.
Lesson 2: Sometimes, you need to put your head down and just work.
The most successful people, no matter whether they are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or just started their own business, had to put their head down and just work. They grinded; that grind in Corporate America gets a lot of flak, but the truth is that we do need to do the work and hustle sometimes. Self-care, personal time, and a work-life balance is important. But thinking that you don’t have to work hard to succeed or thinking that you don’t have to sacrifice something to get to where you want is privilege talking. You can’t be lying on a beach on a Monday and still think that you’ll get to the top unless you come from a boatload of privilege (in which case, this post probably isn’t for you).
Lesson 3: Figure out what value you add to the organization.
Sometimes, after you’ve put in the work and done everything you were asked to do, you still don’t get the recognition you deserve. The first reason for this is because you may not have yet realized what value you are providing. Are you going above and beyond what you are asked to do and being proactive about taking on more work? Are you applying the feedback given to you, learning from your mistakes, and getting better each day?
I have definitely made the mistake before of getting comfortable with where I am; that isn’t to say that it is entirely your responsibility to figure out what your role is on your team and in your company. But sometimes, you have to take that initiative. Taking that initiative proves you’re ready to get to the next level, and that’s the type of leadership that managers look for when it comes time for promotion and bonus season.
Lesson 4: You deserve to work somewhere that respects you.
The second reason that you may not be advancing or getting recognized the way you want to is simply that you work somewhere that doesn’t respect or value you, even though you deserve it.
I can tell you firsthand that being disrespected may not seem as obvious as it might. There will always be the people who make such blatantly racist, ignorant, or sexist comments, but most of the time, it will be so subtle you won’t even realize it’s there. If your voice is not being heard, if you have valid concerns that are not being addressed, that is disrespect, and it has no place in Corporate America. Part of why Corporate America gets such a bad rap is because there are too many out there who won’t speak up when they see something wrong or some people like us who are being disrespected and are scared to leave.
Let me be the first one to tell you that if you are being disrespected, you should leave. I get that it may be difficult, but you deserve better.
Lesson 5: When you wake up wishing it was the weekend, this job isn’t for you.
By this point, I have had many different roles on various teams. My checkered employment history has actually taught me one very important thing. The moment you start planning your next vacation on your first day back to the office after a vacation is the moment you need to find a new job. There is nothing worse than living your life simply to get to the weekend. And here’s the thing: too many people complain that Corporate America is all just waiting for Friday. But too few people actually do something about it.
That’s why I have such mad respect for anyone who said no to accepting their lot in life. No, you probably won’t turn Instagram famous overnight and live off of ad money and quit your job. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t take concrete steps and create a game plan to actually find something that you’re passionate about.
Take it from someone who floundered around, got lost so many times, and got knocked back by the world a million and one times. You do not have to settle.
Lesson 6: Don’t settle for a mediocre life. Settle for the best life.
And here’s the thing about not settling. Don’t settle for simply being okay with “kinda” liking what it is you’ll do. Of course, even if you do what you love, it will still get tiring. But the benefits and satisfaction that you will feel are unparalleled. Doing a couple of hours of content creation for Reinventing Sustainability gives me so much more satisfaction than delivering on a massive, multi-year project at work. And that’s because I want to live my best life.
This final lesson borrows from a saying that I actually said to my friend, Rachel Grim, while we were in the car driving back from an event outside of NYC. My exact words were, “I don’t want to live a mediocre life. I don’t even want to live a great life. I want to live an EXCELLENT life. THE BEST LIFE.” I honestly surprised myself with how good this saying is because Rachel literally made me type it out on text to her because she loved it that much.
In the end, that’s what you deserve.
You don’t deserve to settle. If you’ve put in all the hard work, you’re growing and improving each day, and you’re not happy with your life, then change it. At the end of the day, success in Corporate America isn’t about who is the smartest. You have to have the skills for it, you have to do it smartly, and you have to love it.
I have learned so much from my journey in Corporate America, and it isn’t ending just yet. I have zero clue what the future holds for me, but what I do know is that I’m excited about the possibilities. My experience working in this type of professional environment has taught me what I need to know to succeed. And now you do too. Leave a comment down below if you found this helpful, and if you have any other tips that you’ve learned along the way that has really helped you!
