The HBR Work Smart Collection (4 Books)

15 Four Pieces of Career Advice It’s OK to Ignore

by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

When you are in the earliest stages of your career, there is no shortage of advice to help you navigate things like how to get hired, make a good impression, and fulfill your wildest job aspirations. But what is talked about less often is the advice that you actually shouldn’t follow, which turns out to be a lot of it.

Some of the most common career tips—just be yourself, focus on your strengths, follow your passion—don’t pan out in the real world. Even when the advice feels intuitively right, much of the actual data and research suggests that we are probably better off doing the exact opposite.

Here are a few gold standard tips you should probably just ignore, ...