By Julius Choudhury
Career advancement should be a permanent goal for pretty much everyone. It’s good to want to improve your career. Why should you stick with the same job for your whole life? You need to develop your skills and seek out new career opportunities that make you more successful.
Consequently, there are lots of ways you can advance your career. We’re not going to talk about them. Nope. Instead, let’s think about things you should absolutely never do to try and get ahead in your career.
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Throw colleagues under the bus
You could be in situations where you and a colleague are competing for a promotion. In a move to try and impress your boss, you dig up dirt on your fellow employee and use it against them. Or, you expose a secret that they told you. Neither of these things is smart or clever. For one, your boss won’t be impressed with you. Secondly, you lose a valuable relationship with that colleague, and probably all your others as well. It’s rare that you get a promotion out of this situation. If anything, you’ll probably end up quitting your job.
Take bribes
This might sound ridiculous, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that someone tries to bribe you. The most common instance is where you discover wrongdoings at work. Maybe you’ve noticed the company avoids tax, or perhaps you see they set up a fake charity and are taking all the money. Whatever, I’ll leave the scenarios to the drama experts. Anyway, you could go to a superior with this information and receive a bribe. Your bosses may say you’ll get a nice promotion and a raise if you keep your mouth shut. Now, you’re weighing up career progression with doing the right thing. Here’s a hint - do the right thing! Don’t accept bribes as you’ll end up damaging your career instead of improving it.
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Provide favors
Some employers may demand specific favors from you if you want to get a job or a raise. These can vary from somewhat illegal favors to sexual ones. Again, it sounds like something from a TV show, but these things happen. Sexual favors are frighteningly common, particularly amongst women trying to advance their careers. If you ever get asked to perform any favors for anyone, then find the nearest exit and flee. There are plenty of sexual assault and sexual harassment resources online that can tell you what to do next. You’re all reading this thinking that it’s stupid as everyone knows not to do this. However, you never know how you will act until you’re in the situation. It can be very easy to talk yourself into it as your reason it’s one quick favor for something that helps your career. Don’t give in. Nobody should ask anything of you other than hard work and dedication!
It’s easy to become obsessed with the idea of career progression and do stupid things. Avoid doing any of these three things as they will not help you at all. It might seem like they will, but they never do.
