- Scott H Young - https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog -

The Best Career Articles

Posted By Scott Young On In General | No Comments

Work occupies much of our waking lives. Why not spend the time to build a career you love, rather than one which makes you miserable? Below are some of my best ideas on how to build a successful career:

The 5 Best Career Articles

I’ve written a lot about your career, but if you’re looking to get started, here are my best five essays on the topic:

  1. If You Want to Be an Author Don’t Start Writing (and Other Strangely Useful Career Advice) [1] – Understanding how your career actually works, not just doing what feels good, is the first step to mastering it.
  2. What Do You Want to Do With Your Life [2] – An older and popular article about trying to decide where to go in your career.
  3. The Interview Method: Why Our Assumptions About Success are Often Wrong [3] – and why you need to test those assumptions to figure out what actually works.
  4. Fantasizing About Retirement? Here’s How to Build a Career You Won’t Want to Quit [4] – Many of us dream of escaping, but work isn’t going away, so you ought to make it something great instead.
  5. You Need to Negotiate Your Lifestyle [5] – Bosses, clients and colleagues aren’t just going to give you the life you dream of, you need to negotiate what you want.

Top Performer

In addition to my free articles on career topics, I teach a course, along with author Cal Newport, on building rare and valuable skills to improve your career. This popular course offers limited sessions, but if you’d like to sign-up to find out about our next one, you can here. [6]

Building Career Skills

As much of my writing focuses on learning, I’ve applied that lens to look at a lot of career problems as well. It’s my belief that mastering rare and valuable skills is the best way to look at your career, and thus I’ve written a lot exploring that topic. Here’s some articles on becoming better at your career:

  1. How to Figure Out Which Skills You Need to Build to Improve Your Career [7]
  2. How Much of Your Career is Running to Stay in the Same Spot [8] – Most of the work you do isn’t going to make you much better.
  3. Capital Trumps Courage [9] – Building skills matters more than being bold, and this boring truth prevents a lot of people from improving.
  4. Why Most People Get Stuck in Their Career [10]
  5. Which Skills Should You Master? [11]
  6. Pick Three Things. Now Do Them Well. [12]
  7. What’s Your Growth Ratio? [13]
  8. How Much Specialization? [14]
  9. Getting Good: How I’m Trying to Become a Better Writer [15]
  10. Should Future Entrepreneurs Go to College? [16]
  11. What are You Going to Be Exceptional at in 10 Years? [17]

How to Network, Find Mentors and Build Relationships

Your career isn’t a solitary activity. Every promotion you get, new job you apply to, or clients/customers you gain will be new people to win over. Here’s how to build the relationships that matter:

  1. Look for Partial Mentors [18] – Finding that perfect mentor who always knows more than you may be impossible. Here’s what to do instead.
  2. Why You Need Mentors (and Why You Don’t Have Them Yet) [19]
  3. What Matters More: Your Network or Your Skills? [20] Why being good may also lead to making connections.
  4. “It’s Who You Know” [21]
  5. Could You Sell Who You Are in 30 Seconds? [22]
  6. How to Meet Interesting People [23]
  7. How to Escape the Toxic Friends Holding You Back [24]
  8. How to Figure Out What People Want [25]

Designing Your Career and Lifestyle

Work/life balance, enjoying work and making it meaningful matter more than just a paycheck. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Bored with Your Job? The Recipe for Enjoying Your Work. [26]
  2. Don’t Follow Your Passion [27]
  3. The Path to Happiness: Do What You Love, Not What You Like [28]
  4. Career Planning and the Dao [29]
  5. How I Became a Full-Time Blogger [30]
  6. Two Ways to Think About Career Fulfillment [31]
  7. Is Getting Rich Worth It? [32]
    1. …and is it important for living the ideal life? [33]
  8. Should You Pursue Your Dream, Even if You’ll Probably Fail? [34]
  9. Is Owning Your Own Business Worth It? [35]
  10. Don’t Follow Your Passion, Do Less to Achieve More and the Magic of the Failed Simulation Effect [36] – My review of Cal Newport’s book.
  11. How to Find What You’re Passionate About (and Get Paid for It) [37]
  12. Should You Wander the World or Build a Home? [38]
  13. Should Your Twenties Be For Work or Play? [39]

More Thoughts on Career

  1. Know Your Competition [40] – Who you compete against matters a lot for what your expectations ought to be.
  2. Some Useful Distinctions When Thinking About Your Career [41]
  3. I Told My Friend Not to Start a Business… Here’s Why [42]
  4. Why the Risky Option Can Sometimes Be the Safest [43]
  5. Why Does Most Career Advice Suck? [44]
  6. What Matters More: Marketing or Mastery? [45]
  7. Day Jobs vs Side Projects [46] – Why working on projects on the side may be better than trying to transition to a new pursuit all at once.
  8. Should You Plan to Retire? [47]
  9. Why I’m Not Trying to Build Passive Income [48]