Day 26: 3 Mistakes I Made Early In My Career — And What I Would Have Done Differently

I have been working in Tech for almost 14 years.

And in that time, I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things:

• Worked in Oscar awarding films
• Got to meet people from all over the world
• Within Tech kept working in different industries

There isn’t much I would change about my journey.

But if I could go back, here are a few of the mistakes I made early on — and what I would have done differently:

1. Didn’t Care About Work-Life Balance

Especially during my younger years I never truly cared how many hours I worked.

If I was able to work more, I would work more. The problem with this is that I lost the opportunity to enjoy other parts of life, like getting to know more about the city I was in.

Looking back I would slap myself in the face and just enjoy London a lot more.

2. Changed Jobs Purely For Money

I’ve changed jobs purely for money just once in my life.

It took me about 3 days to know that something was off but I said to myself I had to hold on. The money was awesome. After 9 months of misery, I decided to leave for absolutely nowhere.

I had enough.

That taught me that there is much more than just money when changing jobs: the project, the team, the location, etc. It’s a full package.

3. Thought It Was A Solo Career

I think everyone in a moment makes this mistake. They think their career is just about themselves.

What I found is that when I focused solely on myself, on my career, on my job, I was extremely unhappy.

It’s when I find myself in a community, working together that I feel accomplished.