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