<story><title>What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?</title><url>https://80000hours.org/2019/10/anonymous-advice-careers/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mdorazio</author><text>Article comments and comments in this thread seem to miss the point of the title entirely.  Here&amp;#x27;s some actual advice I don&amp;#x27;t want my name on, but seems pretty effective based on working at a lot of different Big Cos:&lt;p&gt;- Always go for prestige over purpose.  Have a choice between a shiny project with very little actual impact to the company and a behind the scenes project that will actually make lives better for employees and customers?  Go for the shiny project.  It will look better on your resume and to executive teams, and will get you promoted faster.&lt;p&gt;- Learn the art of looking busy and practice it often.  If you &lt;i&gt;look&lt;/i&gt; busy all the time, people will assume you&amp;#x27;re productive and also not give you a bunch of extra work for no extra compensation.&lt;p&gt;- Play politics.  A lot.  Especially throwing other people under the bus.  The key is to align your politics with the right power players in your org.  You&amp;#x27;ll get promoted faster, get more bonuses, and be able to get away with more things in general.&lt;p&gt;- Get the scoop on what&amp;#x27;s actually going on at executive levels by making friends with the office managers&amp;#x2F;personal assistants.  You&amp;#x27;ll get an early notification of problems coming up, people to avoid, opportunities to take advantage of, etc.&lt;p&gt;- Loyalty is for chumps.  Play the game for yourself.  If you get a better offer somewhere else, take it.  If your boss is an asshole or putting a glass ceiling over you, leave.  If you need time off, take it.  If your team isn&amp;#x27;t being effective, throw them under the bus and move on.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Balgair</author><text>&amp;gt; Especially throwing other people under the bus.&lt;p&gt;Hard disagree with this one.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve seen better success with &amp;#x27;compliment everyone behind their backs, giving a good reason&amp;#x27;.&lt;p&gt;Throwing everyone under the bus can be very very effective, but it&amp;#x27;s got to be for a very short run at the goal, typically. If you end up working with those people again, you&amp;#x27;re cooked.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d say, if you don&amp;#x27;t see yourself working with that person &lt;i&gt;ever again&lt;/i&gt; in the next 6mo. to 1 year, you can throw others under the bus, provided you can get ahead of them on the org charts and the cocktail talk. If you are going to be working with those people again and they are in your radius of org chart or cocktail talk, compliment them all behind their backs &lt;i&gt;relentlessly&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;#x27;t be a doormat, of course, but sing other&amp;#x27;s praises. You&amp;#x27;ll get a reputation for being a great person to work with, and everyone wants to work with a great person to work with.&lt;p&gt;Everything else on this list is &lt;i&gt;spot on&lt;/i&gt;, great write up!</text></comment>
<story><title>What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?</title><url>https://80000hours.org/2019/10/anonymous-advice-careers/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mdorazio</author><text>Article comments and comments in this thread seem to miss the point of the title entirely.  Here&amp;#x27;s some actual advice I don&amp;#x27;t want my name on, but seems pretty effective based on working at a lot of different Big Cos:&lt;p&gt;- Always go for prestige over purpose.  Have a choice between a shiny project with very little actual impact to the company and a behind the scenes project that will actually make lives better for employees and customers?  Go for the shiny project.  It will look better on your resume and to executive teams, and will get you promoted faster.&lt;p&gt;- Learn the art of looking busy and practice it often.  If you &lt;i&gt;look&lt;/i&gt; busy all the time, people will assume you&amp;#x27;re productive and also not give you a bunch of extra work for no extra compensation.&lt;p&gt;- Play politics.  A lot.  Especially throwing other people under the bus.  The key is to align your politics with the right power players in your org.  You&amp;#x27;ll get promoted faster, get more bonuses, and be able to get away with more things in general.&lt;p&gt;- Get the scoop on what&amp;#x27;s actually going on at executive levels by making friends with the office managers&amp;#x2F;personal assistants.  You&amp;#x27;ll get an early notification of problems coming up, people to avoid, opportunities to take advantage of, etc.&lt;p&gt;- Loyalty is for chumps.  Play the game for yourself.  If you get a better offer somewhere else, take it.  If your boss is an asshole or putting a glass ceiling over you, leave.  If you need time off, take it.  If your team isn&amp;#x27;t being effective, throw them under the bus and move on.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>driverdan</author><text>&amp;gt; Get the scoop on what&amp;#x27;s actually going on at executive levels by making friends with the office managers&amp;#x2F;personal assistants.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d expand this to always make friends with gatekeepers. Office managers, PAs, front desk, kitchen staff, building security, etc. They&amp;#x27;re hardworking people who tend to be ignored and mistreated. Respect them, be friendly, and it will open many gates along with making their lives better.</text></comment>