Common Career Mistakes

            Everyone makes mistakes, some make them early in life while others are too late. Some mistakes wreck your reputation and do lasting damage. 

            I have been conducting candid conversations with Salesforce Geeks, listening to their stories, and asking for their esteem advice. Listening and adhering to the principles for learning and growing is paramount. "Advice is good if we can learn from them but making them a habit is difficult."

           Here are frequently made career blunders, paired with lessons to keep you from repeating them in the future.

Mistake #1. Outshine Your Master

Salesforce technology has been on a good trajectory, those who got inducted as early as 2002-2003 made an excellent career progression. IT companies felt the disruption in technology with digital transformation and to accommodate the gap in the skillset, they have been pursuing various skill-up programs. While filling the gap, based on high demands the experience curve got a major hit. 

The number of certifications has become the norm to define the experience. As per the Oxford dictionary the term "certification" means "the action or process of providing someone or something with an official document attesting to a status or level of achievement." But, in the real world, it's just a badge. 

Accomplishing a task is not a science but an art and the art of accomplishing has major throughput with domain knowledge than a skillset acquired by learning a tool or technology. Domain knowledge in Salesforce is still in a nascent stage, and it has been evolving in different verticals. 

Domain expertise comes with specialization and experience, not mere certification. When you are implementing use cases leveraging out-of-box features provided by the tool, you are simply following a set of best practices and delivering it, remember you are not an expert. 

As the demand grows, more and more resources would be added. Everyone would acquire all the certifications that you have acquired, and you might be replaced by someone new. Always make those above you feel comfortable. Do not go too far in displaying your talents and certifications, just because you're loved, doesn't mean you can do what you want.

Mistake #2. Not Courting Attention

A lot of people hate networking; some people despite feeling physically dirty and want to take a shower. After getting a full-time job, the majority stop networking.

Everything is judged by its appearance; what are unseen counts for nothing.

You are living in the age of impressions and tracking. Many claims to master the art of algorithms. People who are active in social space discuss algorithms, and define the best time to post and interact. If you stop courting attention, even your most important and relevant content will be unseen and trash in a bin. 

When we are discussing social space, it's not limited to LinkedIn and Twitter but it encompasses your office team groups and communities. In Salesforce parlance, you have trailblazer groups, communities, slack, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and also MS-Teams. 

You might be delivering wonderful tasks, doing excellent work, and even helping your colleagues on a one-to-one basis but you will not be recognized until you make cheers to the crowd of your work. Though for you, it might look like a minuscule task and keep quiet, you may be envious of your colleagues who get applauded for a similar task you have already delivered. Even worst, when a friend gets recognition, especially for a task that he has delivered with your help and there is no mention of you. 

Your friend might thank you in private but seldom would he appreciate you in public. They feel marginalized if they appreciate you in public, as the attention would shift to them from you. Whenever you help anyone, make it official, don't keep it private. Let your leadership know, it was because of you, your friends and your colleague have excelled.

Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, and more mysterious than the bland and timid masses.

Mistake #3. Not Creating your own opportunity for growth

Your hiring managers want to know that you are committed to developing your skill. Attending webinars, clearing certifications, and participating in team activities. If you are not doing any of these, leadership would be thinking you are gathering dust. 

Participate in events, listen to experts, cheer, and motivate them. Remember, open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with experts, that will benefit them, and emphasize it out of all proportion. They will respond enthusiastically when they see something to be gained for themselves.