Steer clear of the slippery turf

Careers are fragile and small mistakes made repeatedly can chip any edge that you might have built painstakingly. Building a career is like running a marathon, where you need to be in the race for the longer haul and each step counts. Here are some of the career blunders which can take your career downhill: 

Inappropriate social media presence
The last decade saw the intermingling of social media and personal lives, hitherto personal information and comments are now freely shared on the web. If your social media profile is laced with binge parties, suggestive pictures or comments which are best kept between friends, your career options can get severely impacted. Most of the recruiters and HR professional do look up the profile of candidates before getting them on board. 

Dressing up your resume
Fifty years back you could have escaped these adventures as the information was not freely accessible and chances of tracking your overcooking were bleak. With the advent of social media, all the information is freely available on the web. In case you have dressed up your resume, overstated your role, fudged the dates or lied about your tenure, chances are very high that you would be sacked from your job for integrity issues. Be what you are and don’t even think of lying on your resume.

You always find problems and not solutions
Unless you are a professional auditor, having a fault finding attitude want take you far. Everyone loves suggestion on improvement and how things can be better, however with the same passion everyone hates a colleague who only points out faults without helping out with a solution. In case you find a problem, make sure you have a better way to do it and solve the issue. 

You believe you know it all
The day you stop learning because you believe you know it all, your career graph would start a downhill race. As a result, you will unconsciously sabotage your career growth. While you may be the doyen of your field, outsiders can offer a novel perspective on your ideas. Successful people tend to listen to others so as to avoid being blindfolded. 

You always over promise and under deliver
In case you belong to the league of individuals who believe in picking up all the tasks available and thereafter fail to deliver because the system did not support you, chances are high that you are on a career downhill. Don’t bite more than you can chew at a time, capability to deliver is build over a period of time and  remember your reputation precedes your presence. Additionally, if you end up doing many chores chances are that you may not be working on the Achilles’ heel, which can catapult you to success if solved well.

In order to build a successful career, you have to  care for it actively. Left unattended, it will be wildly off the course and extremely difficult to restore.

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