CAREER TIPS: Everyone should avoid making these career mistakes in 2019

If you want to improve your work performance or to find that dream job that you are searching for, just read on and find out what are the most important career mistakes that you should avoid this year. Now it’s a great time to plan the next steps that you should take in your career.

Should you make a new career move, are you excited about your job or are you working towards reaching your goals? Have you thought how you would like your career to look like this year? Sometimes, the best way to start doing something right in order to achieve all your goals is by avoiding to do something wrong.

Here are 7 career mistakes to avoid in 2019 that you should consider:

Not keeping up with the latest trends: Not keeping up with the latest trends and news in the industry you work in is one of the biggest career mistakes that you can make. You will appear uninformed during job interviews and this will also diminish your chances of landing that dream job. Just make some time to stay up to date with the latest industry trends so you will be able to impress potential employers in your next interview.

Quitting your job search once employed: Don’t quit your job search just because you got employed! Even though a steady paycheck can be quite comforting, you should still keep your resume up to date and you should stay tuned into job opportunities and employment trends in your field.

Complaining too much: There are a lot of reasons that can make you feel miserable at work: a small salary, annoying co-workers, a difficult boss or too many tasks that you need to take care of on a daily basis. Just try to be self-aware and realize how quickly healthy venting can turn into incessant complaining. No one likes to be around someone who always complains, who only focuses on the negative side of things and who is never satisfied with anything. If you feel miserable at your job, then do something to change that.

Being passive about your worth: You won’t seem ungrateful, disagreeable or annoying if you are trying to negotiate a higher salary once you receive a job offer. You should know how much you’re worth and you should do everything you can to make sure that you are paid reasonably. Also, if you are currently employed and you are doing a stellar work, go and ask for a raise.

Failing to continue learning: If you want to be a good professional, you should never stop learning. Try to stay up to date with the latest industry trends and try to acquire new skills or work on improving your old ones. There are a lot of free courses for professionals that you can take online, so start learning and you will manage to achieve all your work objectives in no time.

Being the office pariah: Even if you don’t really like your co-workers, try not to isolate yourself and under any circumstance, don’t become the office pariah. You should know that it’s a bad idea to always skip those out-of-the office lunches or those happy hours. Those events are the perfect opportunity to network and to get to know your co-workers better; you might even realize that they are not so bad after all.

Expecting your manager to manage your career: Just take initiative from time to time and show your boss why you deserve that raise. Just do some research and find out how you can help the company increase their profit and their productivity. You could also enroll in courses to learn new skills. Just keep in mind that most companies care about making a profit and not about your career.

You limit your networking to inside the company: Some employees cannot be bothered to start networking outside their company. They may be pretty friendly and helpful inside the company, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Just think what would happen if you were not in the loop when a new acquisition was proposed. You are the production manager and because you neglected networking, you were just not on the ball. You failed to exploit your contacts outside the company to gain valuable feedback, support and knowledge of market trends and innovation. That is the value of networking, yet many managers underestimate its importance. A lot of this needs to be done offline because it is the real social contact and human interaction that counts. It will give you a chance to seize an opportunity because you have your ear to the ground.

Larry Page failed to spot the opportunity of developing a Google social network in time. When they did eventually launch Google Buzz (later Google +), they failed to take off because of Facebook’s dominance.

You place too much importance on salary and benefits: How does a temporary salary cut appeal to you? If you are considering a move, think of the experience rather than the money. In the long term, this will pay handsome dividends as the new job will be a challenge for you to achieve new goals. Aim to widen your skills set, broaden your responsibilities and manage teams. Think of the job satisfaction that it will give you and also how impressive it will be on your resume. Nobody will notice your salary increases.

You are afraid of failure: If you are afraid of failure, it is doubtful whether you will be able to learn from mistakes. The successful manager has to factor failure in for every project. One good piece of advice is to look at a project before it becomes operational and ask your team to list what could go wrong. This is a great way of identifying possible problems and obstacles and it can help you make adjustments if necessary.