11 Surprising Ways to Hurt Your Career

by Megan Malugani, Monster Contributing Writer

While most career advice focuses on how to succeed, we can all learn valuable lessons by dissecting career failure as well. Workplace experts offer insights into some of the top ways workers undermine their own careers and jeopardize their career development.

1. Not Taking Your Education Seriously: If you party too much in college and end up with a run of the mill 2.5 GPA, you'll be passed over for the best entry-level jobs, says New York City based executive recruiter and coach Brian Drum of Drum Associates.



2. Not Having a Plan: In the current poor job market, you may have defaulted into a career you aren't crazy about. That is OK, as long as you develop career plans to get where you want to be.



3. Lying: You'll lose professional credibility in a hurry if you lie, from exaggerating on your resume to getting caught fibbing on Facebook.



4. Sullying Your Reputation on Facebook or Twitter: Social media can harm your reputation in other ways, too. Personal posts and tweets from work -- when you are supposed to be doing your job -- can tag you as a slacker.



5. Not Respecting Professional Boundaries: Sharing TMI about your personal life with colleagues is unprofessional.



6. Gossiping, Slandering, Excessively Criticizing: If you publicly bash fellow employees, the boss, the board of directors or even your competitors, you'll be perceived as negative at best and a troublemaker at worst.



7. Carrying on an Inappropriate Relationship with Your Boss: A romantic entanglement with a boss can do real damage to your ability to collaborate with peers.



8. Not Controlling Your Alcohol Intake or Libido: Getting drunk at the office party or on a business trip damages your credibility. Ditto a romantic, ahem, "indiscretion" that your colleagues know about.



9. Job-Hopping Just for the Money: Job-hopping -- in moderation -- may not automatically disqualify you from a position. "But it gets to the point -- like if you have seven or eight jobs by the time you are 35 -- that employers are not going to want to invest in you," Drum says.



10. Losing Touch with References: You'll kick yourself later if you leave a job without collecting personal contact information from colleagues who can serve as professional references for you in the future.



11. Leaving a Job on Bad Terms: Don't become a lame duck when you've got one foot out the door, Drum says. "The employer only remembers about the last five minutes you were there," he says.

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Combating Entry-Level Boredom

One of the most common complaints we hear from young professionals in entry-level positions is that they are bored out of their minds. They are generally assigned menial tasks which, thanks to the wonder of word processing, do not take up much time, and their supervisors are reluctant to assign any substantial work.

Compounding the problem of boredom is the ever popular "face time" requirement. Everyone feels pressured to hang around the office for eight hours or more, out-waiting the boss or each other, regardless of their workload. This essentially trains us to be less efficient, because we feel penalized for finishing our work too quickly.

Consequences of Boredom:
After leaving school filled with enthusiasm and ambition, the letdown of insignificant workloads can cause feelings of depression and worthlessness. And our twenties are a dangerous time to be bored at work because we are now forming on-the-job habits which, like smoking or biting our nails, will be hard to break.

Tips on Battling Boredom:

• Start out the day by writing down your "five before five" - a list of things you want to accomplish before the day is over -- and tape it to your monitor as a constant reminder.




• Be honest with your supervisor and ask for more work. Hopefully, he or she will appreciate your efficiency and ability to get the job done fast and reward you with a more challenging set of tasks. If your employer does not value efficiency, then perhaps it is time to look for a better fit.




• A mentor can help you think of ways to increase and diversify your tasks by explaining the various roles and skills required in your industry or organization. A mentor can be any person with a career track to which you aspire, whether that is a co-worker, friend of the family, or fellow alum.




• Try online courses to further your job skills and association Web sites for research and literature relevant to your field. Keep up with the news in your industry, and you'll be prepared with some impressive small talk next time you run into your boss' boss in the elevator.




• Set up a meeting with a co-worker or supervisor to discuss the status of a project. Let them know that you are interested in becoming more involved.

Information provided by CareerRookie Spring 2012

WATCH OUT!! 10 Interview Questions Designed to Trick You

For the long-term unemployed or those workers looking for a change, getting an interview in today's market may feel like a win in itself. But once you're in the door, interviewers often put you through an obstacle course of depceptive questions with double meanings or hidden agendas. Do you know how to read the subtext?

"On the other side of the desk, hiring managers spend countless long hours inteviewing candidate after candidate," says Joyce Lain Kennedy, a nationally syndicated careers columnist and author of Job Interviews for Dummies. " A tricky question may be used as a time management tool to quickly eliminate a less qualified candidate."

Kenney says that even if job hunters have rehearsed anticipated topics, an unexpected question may jar loose an authentic answer that exposes hidden problems. She outlines the top 10 most common questions designed to trick you.

1. Why have you been out of work so long, and how many others were laid off? This question may also be followed by the more direct, "Why were you laid off?" Kennedy says it is an attempt to figure out if there is something wrong with you that your former company or that other potential employers have already discovered.



2. If employed, how do you manage time for interviews? "The real question is whether you are lying to and short-changing your current employer while looking for other work," says Kennedy. The interviewer may wonder: If you 're cheating on your current boss, why wouldn't you later cheat on me?



3. How did you prepare for this interview? The intention of this question is to decipher how much you really care about the job or if you're simply going through the motions or winging it.



4. Do you know anyone who works for us? This one really is a tricky question, says Kennedy, because most interviewees expect that knowing someone on the inside is always a good thing. "Nothing beats having a friend deliver your resume to a hiring manager, but that transaction presumes the friend is well thought of in the company," she says. Because the interviewer will likely associate the friend's characteristics and reputation with your merits, she recommends only mentioning someone by name if you're certain of their positive standing in the organization.



5. Where would you really like to work? "The real agenda for this question is assurance that you aren't applying to every job opening in sight," says Kennedy.



6. What bugs you about coworkers or bosses? Don't fall into this trap. Kennedy says you always want to present yourself as optimistic and action-oriented, and hiring managers may use this question to tease out whether you'll have trouble working with others or could drag down workplace morale and productivity.



7. Can you describe how you solved a work or school problem? Kennedy says that, really, no one should be too taken aback by this, as it's one of the most basic interview questions and should always be anticipated.



8. Can you describe a work or school instance in which you messed up? This one is a minefield. "One question within the question is whether you learn from your mistakes or keep repeating the same error," says Kennedy. Similarly, the interviewer may be trying to glean whether you're too self-important or not self-aware enough to take responsibility for your failings.



9. How does this position compare with others you're applying for? "The intent is to gather intel on the competitive job market or get a handle on what it will take to bring you on board," says Kennedy.



10. If you won the lottery, would you still work? It's another opportunity to underscore your motivation and work ethic. Kennedy advises acknowledging that you' d be thrilled to win the lottery but would still look for meaningful work because meeting challenges and achieving make you happy.

Information provided by Forbes.com and written by Jenna Goudrea. To see article in full.