Regrets, I’ve had a few

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Hey folks, it's your content friend Eric here.

To give you a small window into my creative process, nearly every edition of this newsletter starts with a generic writing prompt of “what career advice would you give your younger self?”

Typically, I drill down into something specific, but paternity leave, combined with a cross-Canada trip, has given me ample time to think broadly about my career journey, so for this week’s edition, I’m going to answer that writing prompt in the broadest possible sense.

Here are five things I wish I had done for my career sooner:

1. Job hop more: Even companies with the best intentions struggle to reward loyalty. In junior roles, fast learners outgrow their job descriptions faster than the company hierarchy and budget can keep up, plus you’re normally forced to wait for someone more senior to get promoted or leave.

It’s way easier to make big jumps in responsibility and salary at a new organization with a clean-slate perception of your abilities. I say this without any pessimism. I’ve had several managers who believed in me and wanted to give me more—the budget just wasn’t there like it would be for a new role.

I job hopped quite a bit prior to my current job at Dock—five roles in eight years—but I still regret not moving on quicker from a few roles. Of course, you don’t want to be perceived as a serial job-hopper, but I think the risk is worth the reward earlier on in your career.

2. Learn to delegate: This is still my biggest career limiter. “If you want something done right, do it yourself,” is my usual thinking. I blame the school system. (Note that I’m happy to place the blame elsewhere.)

That do-it-yourself mindset will advance your career very quickly in the beginning, but will limit you later on. One person can only do so much.

If you can learn to multiply your impact through other people—whether that’s through managing a team, agencies, or contractors—that’s where you’ll see stepwise career growth.

3. Think in outcomes, not tactics: Content marketers love making content. Obsessing over the details is a blessing and a curse. Most of my self-induced career challenges have stemmed from being too narrowly focused on the work rather than the outcomes.

This is true of the work itself and how you talk about the work. When presenting to leadership, I get excited to tell people about all the cool stuff I’m making, and they genuinely enjoy hearing about it, but what they need to hear is the impact it’s having or that I expect it to have. I now have an “OUTCOMES” sticky note on my monitor to remind myself of this.

4. Get comfortable with feedback: Another thing I blame the school system for: I’m not amazing at receiving constructive feedback. I default to defensiveness. But everyone needs feedback to grow. My biggest career turning points have all come after receiving difficult feedback (accurate or not).

If I were going back, I would tell myself to ask for feedback more directly and more often—specific questions like “Where am I getting in my own way?” Asking for feedback instead of waiting for it signals that you can handle the response, which makes people more willing to be honest with you.

I’d also tell myself to pause when the feedback stings. Say thanks and sleep on it. Feedback is a gift, they say. The defensive reaction usually fades within a day.

5. Build a network before you need one: I’m a very social person. I love meeting new people. But on the theme of lone-wolfing it more than I should in my career, I didn’t really understand the career value of having a solid network of industry peers until much later than I should have.

I viewed networking as a cringey, hand-shakey, corporate thing. But once I joined Superpath, I realized that good networking feels a lot more like making friends. People who like the same things I like, and want to talk about those things? Sign me up!

A strong network has a million benefits: a straight answer when you’re stuck on something, an inside track on new roles before they’re posted, and generally less dread about all the uncertainty.

But a network is a lot like a garden: you can’t harvest before you plant. If I were going back, I would start tending to my network much earlier.

If you’re looking for a place to grow your network, we have some awesome Superpath community spaces to do that. Keep reading below!

- Eric

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