The Little Things No One Tells You About Your 9-5 (Pt. 1)
The Obsession | Edition - 029
Welcome to The Obsession, glad you're here.
This is part one of a three-part series on tips for starting out at your 9-5 job.
About 50% of America's millionaires work a 9-5 W-2 job. That does not include the C-suite. There is a lot of opportunity sitting right in front of you.
As someone who has only worked as a W-2 employee since college, these are some things that I believe helped me find early success at my corporate job.
The little things matter.
If you are an analyst or whatever the entry-level position is at your company, you are building two things. Your experience and your personal brand.
Your brand is more important than you might think. I'd argue it's more important than your actual ability to do the job.
When you're in this entry-level role, you should do everything you can to stand out as a top performer. And I'm not talking about the one big sale or case study that gets forgotten about a week later. I'm talking about the things you can do every single day.
Here are two easy ones that worked for me.
First, show up for more hours than you're paid to. Before you freak out, hear me out.
You probably have some sort of metric for your job. For me, it was inbound calls taken. By simple math, if you show up for two to three extra hours a day, you're going to get more calls. So I would show up early and sometimes work through my lunch.
This made it easy to always be number one on the leaderboard. Not because I was better than anyone. Just because I was in the building a little bit longer.
Second, get advice from and follow up with everyone internally. People love to give advice (like I'm doing right now) because it makes them feel important when someone asks for it.
If you're looking to be promoted, there are probably many teams that could hire you. Make sure you are talking to all of them. The managers and the team members.
People don't decide to promote someone over a 30-minute interview. They decide based on how they see you over the course of a 1-3 year analyst role. And they're going to ask their team how they feel about you before they bring you on.
My point here is this: your performance and your capability to do the job is table stakes. What separates you is how you show up every day.
What is something small you did early in your career that made a bigger impact than you expected?
Stay tuned for parts two and three.
THE WEEKLY 3
1) One Question I Asked Myself
Am I doing enough of the small things every day, or am I waiting for one big moment to prove myself?
2) One Idea That Shifted Me
Your personal brand at work is built in the hours and hallways, not in the interview room. People are watching long before they're deciding.
3) One Challenge to Take Into Your Week
Pick one small thing you can do every day this week to stand out. Show up earlier, follow up with someone on another team, or ask someone for advice you've been putting off. Do it every day. See what happens.
