Career mistakes you should stay away from this year

Starting the new year doesn’t just provide you with new plans, but new goals that you may want to achieve after reflecting on the previous year. In the process, you have probably thought about what you should do to succeed in your career. However, have you ever thought about what you should not do in your career?

Mistakes in the workplace are made all the time, but repeatedly making mistakes can decrease your happiness and quality of life. It is always nice to strive for better, so below are some career mistakes you should stay away from this year!

• Not continuing to learn

Whilst being at work, it is easy for you to coast when things are going smoothly, especially if you have been in that position for a long time. You may feel comfortable with the work load you have been given, and if your boss is happy with you, then why change the way you do things?

However, if you don’t push yourself to carry on learning and growing professionally, then you are likely to stunt your career growth and miss out on opportunities that may get you promoted. In the tech industry, there are always new programmes which are used and therefore there will be new skills that you will need to learn. Figuring out which areas you’re lacking knowledge and understanding in, should be your focus so you can take steps to bridge those gaps. This may mean that you will have to sign up for courses, attending seminars or investing some time into having a mentor to help you learn.

• Avoiding risks

Some people do not like stepping outside their comfort zone and facing failure. However, stepping outside your comfort zone can provide you with great opportunities, and in the end will be worth taking the risk. Instead of ignoring new ideas you may have, why not propose them to your boss to see where it can lead you. In the tech industry, proposing new ideas and taking risks that may succeed, can help increase businesses performance. Even if it doesn’t work out, your boss will still appreciate your ideas and creativity.

• Getting easily flustered

Some people let the pressure get to them when deadlines approach, especially if you are a programmer or developer. There are risks of systems crashing and projects being dumped on you at the last minute, however, if you don’t figure out a way to deal with stress, then you will always be faced the same problems every month and you will be less likely to move forward in your role and within the business. By practicing different stress relief techniques, you can identify which ones are more effective for you and you can put them into practice when you are next approached with projects and deadlines.

• Neglecting business relationships

As you progress your career development, the people you meet are just as important. Therefore, neglecting business relationships can jeopardise the things you earn and how quickly you learn them. Even if making time to build relationships is challenging, you cannot afford to neglect your contacts. It is common for individuals who work in the tech industry to go from working for an organisation, to becoming a contractor. For that reason, it is essential to build business relationships as some of them may have perfect opportunities for you in the future.

• Working all the time

Several people think that working all the time is impressive and that taking time off is a sign of weakness. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth, as if you work too much, you will get burned out easily. The work you produce will not be effective and you will not have a work life balance which is needed. It’s essential to take time off if you’re working in the tech industry as sometimes you may feel that you don’t have time for yourself or your family due to your high workload.

For the best results it has been found that having a routine can help you maintain a work life balance, especially for women. Regardless of your gender you need to allow your body a chance to recalibrate and rest so you can maximise your efforts when you return to work.

• Being unhappy at work

If you are one of those people that are unfortunately unhappy at work, then you should let this factor encourage you to look for a new job. If you have tried to take steps towards making your job better and nothing seems to be working, then don’t dedicate your life to another 12 months of sadness. Instead, you should update you CV and reach out to contacts so you can seek employment elsewhere. Although you may be comfortable within your current job role, do not let that be the only reason as to why you feel you should stay. If you are truly unhappy then your performance is likely to suffer along with your skills and reputation.

• Not asking for better benefits in your work package

A lot of people shy away from negotiating their salaries with their managers at work because they don’t want to come off as greedy or unreasonable. But not asking for enough money could bring negativity to the workplace as you may start resenting going to work, due to your lack of salary.

However, if you approach the conversation in the correct way, you are more likely to succeed and not damage your relationship with your manager. Before approaching your manager, you should do some research on your job title and other salary data so you can enter the discussion prepared and present a reasonable number to your manager. You shouldn’t avoid the discussion with your manager just because it makes you feel uncomfortable, as if you do, you could potentially lose out on money.