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How to Be Useful
Jan. 10th, 2009 08:20 amIt seems to Megan Hustad that 20 and 30 year olds are having a hard time surviving in the corporate hierarchy, so she distilled 100 years of "success literature" - all the way back to Horatio Alger and up to Donald Trump - into one quick, easy to read and funny book. It's subtitled A Beginner's Guide to Not Hating Work.
There are a number of reasons why the office hierarchy doesn't work for young people anymore - particularly because they don't have much in the way of expectation. The first chapter, which focuses on "just be yourself" (it's crap advice, apparently) is a gentle way of telling the reader that they are not a special snowflake. So don't be yourself, just do your best to conform for the first few years of your working life. Build up a reputation as reliable, hard working and polite - and then when the time comes, you can slowly undo all this when you have greater ambitions and don't want to be the office gopher. This is discussed in a later chapter as well, and one I found the most useful. It seems people start feeling discontent around the 4 year mark.
The second chapter on politeness was a hoot. It seems most people should know this, but I guess it needs to told. Don't snipe others as you never know who's listening. That old guy in the elevator - maybe he's the CEO - but they probably have power over you. Cut down on cynical remarks - they can come back to haunt you when cool jobs get passed to someone else - you just might be building a reputation for hating things.
There's a chapter on dressing for success, and a chapter on how to tell deprecating stories well. Everyone likes a good story, and if you're going to tell one, it's a good idea to practice it for flawless delivery. Know when there's a right time to not be too "smart" - it's usually better to make your boss look smart instead. I don't know how applicable all this advice is, perhaps it depends on how rigid the office hierarchy is, but like any self-help books, there's always some useful gems.
There are a number of reasons why the office hierarchy doesn't work for young people anymore - particularly because they don't have much in the way of expectation. The first chapter, which focuses on "just be yourself" (it's crap advice, apparently) is a gentle way of telling the reader that they are not a special snowflake. So don't be yourself, just do your best to conform for the first few years of your working life. Build up a reputation as reliable, hard working and polite - and then when the time comes, you can slowly undo all this when you have greater ambitions and don't want to be the office gopher. This is discussed in a later chapter as well, and one I found the most useful. It seems people start feeling discontent around the 4 year mark.
The second chapter on politeness was a hoot. It seems most people should know this, but I guess it needs to told. Don't snipe others as you never know who's listening. That old guy in the elevator - maybe he's the CEO - but they probably have power over you. Cut down on cynical remarks - they can come back to haunt you when cool jobs get passed to someone else - you just might be building a reputation for hating things.
There's a chapter on dressing for success, and a chapter on how to tell deprecating stories well. Everyone likes a good story, and if you're going to tell one, it's a good idea to practice it for flawless delivery. Know when there's a right time to not be too "smart" - it's usually better to make your boss look smart instead. I don't know how applicable all this advice is, perhaps it depends on how rigid the office hierarchy is, but like any self-help books, there's always some useful gems.
