Spend an hour on the ‘career blogosphere’ and you’ll run into article after article promising ‘Generation Y’ the career of their dreams. While a lot of advice is very valuable, many of today’s top career blogs ignore one key element of success: it’s often earned through smart behaviour, not ‘won’ through career tricks.
In a recent series of interviews with key online influencers, business social network LinkedIn learned about their biggest career mistakes. Across more than 50 different interviews with important CEOs, investors, and innovators, three points showed up time and time again.
Not leaping onto opportunities when they were available
Rajat Taneja, the chief technical officer of Electronic Arts, wasted an opportunity to pitch an executive in an elevator. The executive in question was a high-ranked head at Microsoft, and Taneja, in his youth, was too scared to act on the opportunity.
Now an executive himself at one of the world’s premier gaming companies, Taneja taught himself to interact with people that he wouldn’t normally reach out to as an excellent way to capitalise on unseen opportunities.
Building a business that could be wiped out by a bigger fish
French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur founded Seesmic in 2008 as a third-party tool for Twitter users. At the time, Twitter was little more than a simple application with no tools of its own for users.
When Twitter caught wind of the attention that third-party tools were getting, the company’s strategy changed. Some competitors were acquired. Others, such as the Seesmic app that Le Meur had developed, had to find their own path.
Taking too long to accept an offer for funding
Michael Fertik had an excellent opportunity to expand Reputation.com – an offer from one of the venture capital world’s hottest firms. Instead of snapping it up as soon as it was offered, however, he gave the company two week’s notice to shop around for a better offer.
What seemed like a great deal wasn’t one, and the company that initially offered the capital decided to withdraw its funding offer. While Reputation.com survived – and, to this day, has thrived – Fertik claims that the gentlemen’s agreement was a major mistake.
