My Favorite Career Hacks

There are no shortcuts to building a successful career, but there are hacks you can deploy to help grease-the-skids along the way. Here are a few of my favorite career-hacks. As is the case with any type of hack, proceed with caution. These are some that have worked for me, but your mileage may vary.  So In no particular order:

• Little things matter a lot. Maybe not right away, but they add up over time. Make sure you’re practicing good professional hygiene. That means showing up on time, responding to emails promptly, following through on your commitments (even the little ones) and being polite. You will be surprised how much ahead of the curve you’ll be simply by nailing the fundamentals, since many people don’t. 
• Find ways to be useful to your boss. Obviously the ante here is consistently doing your job well, but that’s not usually a differentiator in high-performance cultures. Find ways to help with things she cares about but aren’t getting done well. Look for ways to make his life easier. For example, maybe she hates writing decks, so you offer to take on more of that responsibility. Maybe he can’t attend a big meeting, so you offer to cover and provide a summary. Whatever. Just be useful.
• Own a metric or concrete deliverable. Business is a team sport, but it's important you have some specific things you can point to that you directly impacted. It will also help you focus on how to tenaciously get things done and create some tangible proof-points you can reference. Plus it is gratifying to ‘watch a number move’ and know it was because of your actions. 
• Help colleagues, even when there is no upside for you in doing so. Lots of stuff in life is transactional, including at work. That’s not a bad thing, as it generally results in optimized and efficient outcomes -- the invisible hand and all. But what comes around goes around. Perhaps its karma. Or perhaps people just remember folks that have been helpful to them, and find ways to return the favor down the road. 
• You are always being evaluated. Sorry, I don’t mean to stress you out. But the reality is that your reputation is a synthesis of lots of things. Every interaction, meeting or email contributes to it. Every presentation. Every question you ask. For better or for worse. You’re always being (consciously or subconsciously) evaluated by your manager, your peers and your team. So be cognizant and thoughtful about the reputation you want to build. Which brings me to...
• ...Manage your brand. Have a strategy and plan for what you want people at work to think about you. Start by writing a few bullet points about what you want your personal brand to stand for. Make them compelling, and at least somewhat unique. Have a 'personal brand management and marketing plan'. Double down on the aspects of that you really want people to remember.
• Skate to where the puck is going, not where it is. Figure out what the ‘next big thing’ is going to be, and find a way to get involved with it. That doesn’t mean changing your job every time a new company priority emerges, but at least think about how you might shift your focus a bit. That’s where the opportunities are going to be for impact and advancement, and you want to at least be in the mix. You don’t need to be Nostradamus to figure it out, you usually just need to be paying attention.
• Don’t let your qualifications get in the way of applying for a role you think you can crush. Job descriptions articulate what a perfect candidate would look like. But perfect candidates are rare. Don’t worry if you can’t check every box, just make sure you have a vision and passion for how you’d succeed in the role if you’re selected. 
• Be great at The How. Yeah, you of course have to actually deliver on The What, but that’s not enough. If people like working with you, they’ll find ways to help you succeed. If people like working for you, they’ll deliver for you. And the reverse is even more true. Make sure that you act in a way that makes people want to root for you, and you’ll be surprised how much wind that puts at your back career-wise. 
• You can survive most things. But not all things. You’re going to have some bad days at work. You might have a big presentation to a senior leader that bombs. Perhaps a bug in your model that you somehow missed. Most execs sit through presentation and presentation every day, and we aren’t going to dwell on that error in your slide. You shouldn’t either. Learn from it, but get it over it. The errors that are typically fatal are those involving ethics, judgement or mistreating other people. You’ll probably survive everything else.
• Putting in the hours matters. I know that’s not always a popular sentiment nowadays. And I’m not suggesting that work-life balance isn’t important. But I am saying that there’s a direct correlation between effort and output. All else equal, the person that works the hardest gets ahead the fastest. If you asked any Uber exec, they’d tell you that there were times in their career (especially early on) in which they really had to grind. Life is complicated, and you shouldn't optimize for one narrow aspect of it. But don’t be naive about the fact that effort level matters in regard to your career trajectory.
• Avoid the three kisses of death. The biggest derailers I’ve seen befall promising colleagues over the course of my career are entitlement, unreliability and deceit. These are the factors that can undo even the most talented people. Nobody wants to work with a person that regularly demonstrates any of these traits. Be the opposite.
• Be good at meetings. Meetings are to business what games are to sports. So it's important that you be prepared, sharp and have a clear gameplan (especially for the Big Ones). Three tips: 1) Plan a few insightful points you want to work in at some point during the discussion. 2) Make sure you know why each attendee is there, and that you’ve thought through their individual objectives and motivations. 3) If your boss is in the meeting, make sure you come in aligned and well synched.  
• Invest in relationships, especially when you don’t have to. Never miss a chance to be helpful to someone in your network. Whether it’s making a referral, writing a recommendation or giving some advice. It's typically a small investment of time, and you usually won’t benefit from it. But sometimes you will, often when you least expect it. The main reason I got this cool job at Uber is because I’d helped a former colleague get a cool job at Uber the year before (and then she sent my resume to RG when this job opened up). The world is smaller than you think. Create some goodwill for yourself. 

Those are some of my favorite career hacks. I’d suggest you also ask your friends and colleagues for some more ideas, as most people develop pretty good lists of their own over time. And make sure you share some of your hidden gems and sneaky trick hacks in return of course!