The Best Career Advice You've Never Heard
Marie Claire South Africa|April 2018

Sometimes top tips come from left field. We’ve collected 12 of the best to help you chart your path to the top.

The Best Career Advice You've Never Heard

1 WHO YOU WORK FOR REALLY MATTERS

Who you work for can influence your career possibly more than anything else. If you have the pleasure of working for someone who believes in you, encourages you and optimises your ability to soar, then you are the official winner of the career lottery – even if you’re not at the number one company of choice. Good bosses are like good teachers – they can shape you in massive ways, and are just as relevant to a young intern as to a midlife middle-manager. The key is to work out where your absolute best person to work for actually is. If you can’t work directly for them, then there is no harm in asking them to mentor you. This was the experience of Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson, who met his lifelong mentor and co-aviation entrepreneur, the late Sir Freddie Laker, after cold-calling him for advice.

‘When we were starting up our first Virgin businesses, we would simply find someone who was already running a business in the industry we were hoping to enter (not a direct competitor, of course) and ask him if he’d be willing to spare some time to give us advice,’ Richard says. ‘It really was that simple. Don’t be shy – people are usually flattered by a request for advice.’

2 WHO YOU HAVE KIDS WITH MATTERS MORE

This story is from the April 2018 edition of Marie Claire South Africa.

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This story is from the April 2018 edition of Marie Claire South Africa.

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