25 Tips to Help You Hack Your Career

25 Tips to Help You Hack Your Career25 Tips to Help You Hack Your Career Oh, Reddit. We can always count on you to provide us with crowdsourced wisdom. Whether its instructions on how to fix a leaky sink, get six-pack abs or even solve a Rubiks cube, theres no shortage of valuable nuggets of information from people who have been there and done that. And naturally, that includes career advice too. But with such a deluge of knowledge available, who has the time to sort through whats useful and whats not?Luckily for you, weve done the legwork this time. Below are a collection of some of the best career pointers from Reddits r/lifeprotips as they relate to the job search, navigating a new job, workplace communication and more. Read on, and prepare to hack your way to greatness.Of course, youll want to mucksmuschenstill engage in all the regular job seeking activities - filling out applications , scheduling informational interviews, etc. - but volunteering can be a great way to expand and tap your network for new opportunities. As the original poster of this tip says, I joined my local Firehouse two years ago and have met hundreds of people through the firehouse itself, trainings, social events and they all want to look out for one another and help. I have a job, but Ive seen many many people get an in for jobs that they may not have had otherwiseAt this early of a stage in the application process, you need to be careful about what you share around salary expectations. You certainly dont want to price yourself out of a job opportunity, but you dont want to sell yourself short either . Putting negotiable right in the application lets a recruiter know that youll be willing to work with them to find a salary that works for both of you.This may seem like a minuscule change, but according to this tips original poster, this simple trick will help employers already start picturing you as an employee while they are reading it it prompts your potenti al employer to picture you as a member of the company instead of thinking about what you might be able to do. Everyone wants to make a good impression when they start out at a new company . What better way to do that than going off of the criteria youll be eventually judged against anyway? Bonus after some time has passed, and youve acquired new job responsibilities, you can show your teamberater your job description and then provide a list of your additional tasks in order to negotiate a raise, says the original poster.The new job jitters can hit hard, but dont automatically assumethat leaving your old company welches a mistake, or that youll never be happy at your new one. Give it at least a few months before you decide how you feel about a newer position.Even if youre in love with your new job, you never know when a great new opportunity will come up, so hold onto those job descriptions . You wont want to copy it verbatim - besides being poor form, itll likely fail to cover th e full scope of your accomplishments - but an original job description can serve as a great reference to make sure that youre highlighting all the key responsibilities of your position to potential employers.It can be tempting to throw everything youve got at the wall to see what sticks, but this is actually a counterproductive move. Keep this in mind whether youre trying to make the case for a particular business decision, asking for a promotion or any other instance in which you have to convince a colleague to see things your way.Theres no way around it - everyone messes up at work at some point. But if you have an effective damage control strategy, you dont need to sweat it too much. Just keep this apology format on pfote to help things return to normal as soon as possible if and when you eventually need it.Telling your boss you are overloaded can bring with it negative connotations such as you are bad at prioritizing, bad at time management, or just slow, says the origina l poster of this piece of advice. A more tactful way is to create a list of all your major tasks and prioritize them. Then go to your manager and ask them to verify the priorities as you have outlined This lets them see on paper that you have a lot on your plate. This also lets them know you are thinking ahead and that you are practicing prioritization skills.Sorry is a word that we tend to rely on entirely too often. Flipping the script like this helps stop the epidemic of over-apologizing and serves as a nice compliment to whomever youre talking to - now thats a win-win.Its easy to fire off a one-sentence email without thinking much about spelling, grammar, tone or even content, but while it may be a timesaver, it can come back to haunt you. Taking a couple of minutes to review what youve said and how youve said it can not only prevent an email snafu - it can also improve your standing in the eyes of your colleagues.Telling your supervisor you assumed something typically res ults in a reprimand, says this tips original poster. On the other hand, saying My understanding was will instead be attributed to a miscommunicationor a lack of clarity in their original instructions.How-tos can be a bit overwhelming. With so much information to distill in such a short amount of time, the person youre teaching often feels pressured to memorize everything youre saying. But much more important than rote memorization is processing and understanding the task as a whole - and when you provide a why, you allow this to happen much more naturally than if you were to just recite the process step by step.Want a sure-fire way to guarantee that email mishaps are a thing of the past? Wait to fill out who youll be sending the email to until youre certain that the body of the email is in tip-top shape.Ever afraid that you ask too many questions? This is the perfect solution for you - it allows you to gut-check your response with your manager while still coming off as the thought ful, proactive rockstar that you are.At a certain level of bad day, youre unlikely to feel much worse, says the original poster of this comment. After you complete your tasks, youll feel better, or youll at least keep those things from ruining another day.Dont let the terms thesis and scientific paper throw you off - this piece of advice isnt just for college students . If youre working on a deck, plan or even substantive email that you cant finish all in one sitting, writing a little bit extra beyond a clean break can help you organize your thoughts and jump right back into it whenever youre ready.Few feelings are worse than heading home from the office and realizing you forgot to complete a bunch of small, easytasks. Get these quick but urgent to-dos out of the way as soon as you possibly can to avoid having them pile up, or worse, be forgotten. As a perk, crossing these off your list can give you just the feeling of accomplishment that you need to ride a wave of productivity . The confidence that comes with looking your best gives you a serious advantage towards whatever youre trying to accomplish - so when faced with an important task, do as Barney from How I Met Your Mother so often says, and Suit upComing back from a long break is a big transition - make it easier on yourself by starting with a shorter workweek. Jumping into the middle of the week also means that you likely wont be expected to complete as many end-of-week deadlines, which can help you gradually ramp up to your normal workload.Dont make a habit of it, but honestly who can be mad at the guy or gal that brings in donuts?It may be tempting to go after that referral naturalrabatt , but, asthe original poster of this tip points out, Someone who is a good friend doesnt necessarily translate to someone who has a strong work ethic. Recommending them only for them to mess up reflects badly on you and could ruin the friendship and your relationship with the employer.Get on ITs good side by s olving your problems for yourself whenever possible. That way, when you really do need them, they wont think youre just crying wolf.After four and a half years of management I have 14 people on my team, and its astonishing how often someone goes on medical leave or has a baby, says the original poster. Stockpiling cards at the office like this is a great way to ensure that you dont forget to buy them at the last minute when theyre truly needed. Trust us - your team will appreciate your thoughtfulness.Work is a big part of your life, but its not the only part of your life. To truly be fulfilled, you need to make the best of the two-thirds of the time you dont spend at the office. Vegging out on the couch and binge-watching Netflix has its time and place, but dont forget to balance that with meaningful and enriching activities .