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Since I left school, I haven’t stopped working. I worked throughout my entire university years and through my master’s as well, and for a fair amount of time, I had not only a regular job but also a side hustle.

Apart from the fact that I always wanted to be independent and be able to treat myself to everything I needed (you know, drinks, trips, clothes, etc.), I liked being busy, learning new skills, and making progress in my career. While I certainly gained much experience from all these years of hard work, more importantly, I learned many valuable lessons, not only for my professional career but also for my personal life. And I’m still learning…

No matter how you feel about your work life, whether you are a career-oriented person or just want to make ends meet with no particular interest in progressing further, it’s a given that your career and, generally, your professional life will consume a lot of your time. We can use our workplace experiences to teach us valuable lessons to help us grow as people and professionals.

The truth is, those lessons may be even more critical and valuable than the professional skills we gain from university, lifelong learning, etc. So, after a recent wretched work/personal situation, and when I reflected on the lessons learned, I jotted down the 10 hardest truths that my professional life has taught me so far.

You Won’t Get Your Dream Job Immediately

Since we were kids (at least in Greece), the classic parent-preaching fairytale indicated how our lives would be in the future. We would finish school, get into university, find a fabulous job (which wouldn’t be possible to land without a university degree), and live happily ever after. So far, so good. You get into university, you study and study and study, and you are ready to get the managerial position you have always dreamed of. I’m sorry to ruin it for you, but the reality is slightly different. You will have to land many -not dream- jobs until you finally find the one you had always hoped for. If it was so easy, we would be full of managers and no employees to do the job. I am really in favor of studying something that you like since you get the necessary knowledge and skills, but it doesn’t guarantee that the ideal job is that easy to handle. University education is essential; so is work experience. And considering that you want your dream job, you need to learn from more experienced people how to maintain it. And I am not talking only about management positions. Say you want to be a freelancer. How will you manage to be one and get the experience without doing things that you don’t like and things that are far away from what you want to do? So, the sooner you understand that dream jobs are not assigned to you and you have to earn them, the better your professional and personal life will be.

Forget The 8 Hour Shifts

In a world where we talk about the importance of work-life balance and in a society where everyone struggles to juggle life, work, friends, kids, and family, talking about working more than the 8-hour shifts sounds almost illegal. However, if you want to progress, you should drop your expectations around only working 40 hours a week. That doesn’t mean you should be at work for more than 8 hours. That means that to excel in your work, you will probably need more time to focus on your skills. And no matter how much you want to, it won’t always be easy to grab your bag and leave when everyone struggles to do the work. Also, I count the hours I spend on education, extra training, and keeping up with my industry as working hours. And to be honest, even though companies nowadays offer a tremendous amount of training within working hours, for you to take it to that next level, you will need to study far beyond that. If that’s not for you, you can skip the rest of the article and I wish you well! If this is you, keep reading! This article is for more career-focused people that want to get ahead.

Friends & Business Don’t Work Well Together

This is not only a good one, but also the most important. Don’t work with friends; repeat after me: don’t work with friends. No matter how many years you know each other, how much fun you have together, or whether you know them so well, there is a sour spot there. The interaction with a person in your personal life and dealing with them professionally is entirely different. Some people are one person at home and a whole different person at work. This means that working with a friend doesn’t mean it will be the same as going out for drinks and talking about your job. And no matter how good of friends you are, your career aspirations may not match up and may end up being catastrophic for your relationship. So, keep your business and friendships separate, and don’t give in to the social media hype of how life would be working with your friends. Difficult and, sometimes, unpleasant.

Not All Companies Have a Company Culture

Company culture is paramount for employees' well-being and the business's success. However, not all companies have a culture that makes them worth working for. During my professional career, I have changed multiple working environments, and I have seen many different setups, some of them good but some of them bad, and I mean really bad, and it took me some time to recover from when I left (yes, I usually just quit to save my mental health). It’s normal for a company to focus completely on bringing money to the table, and it’s reasonable to make it happen and to want to make it happen fast. However, among all the responsibilities an employer has is to ensure that their employees can work in decent conditions, where respect and trust are cultivated and toxicity gets thrown out the window. Unfortunately, even nowadays, it’s not always possible to run into ideal working environments where you can’t wait to wake up and go to work. So, build up your resilience. Trust me, you will get there.

Your Employer Cares About You -Not More Than His Company

Continuing the conversation about work culture, let’s clarify something. Let’s say that you got a fantastic job. Your employer not only is generous financially but also respects you as a professional and a human being, and your work life is more than ideal. Excellent! Even if that is the case, keep in mind that an employer, no matter the size of a company, whether it’s a big corporation or a small business, put their money and energy into building not because they want to give people a chance to work in great company, but simply because they found an opportunity, they took it, and they basically want to make money out of it. Why would they take the risk otherwise? So, next time you are asked to cancel your doctor’s appointment or sacrifice your kid’s birthday due to an urgent (as always) matter, remember that in case things don’t go as planned, you could end up jobless. Remember not to sacrifice your personal life and health for a job. If they are a good employer, they will respect that, but they will also make sure that THEY are covered in any case.

Networking Is Vital For Your Survival

I can’t even begin to count how many times my networking skills have helped me not only land a job but also facilitate my job in any way. For instance, when you need to do your job or contact someone you can’t by default, your network may be able to help you. Take every chance to meet new people and be open to discussion, even if they are unrelated to your industry. Sometimes, being friendly and having connections with the right people, even if unrelated to your job, is valuable and completely helpful. You never know what life brings and how your connections (the real ones, not the social media ones) can help you move forward. Be social and try to meet new people all the time.

Your Degree Doesn’t Matter As Much As You Think

As a person who always values education and a holder of 2 bachelor's degrees and a master's degree, I can assure you that if you don’t put effort and develop your soft skills, then your degrees won’t matter; they are just a nice decoration for your home office. I am not against getting degrees and qualifications, but if you don’t get actual working experience, working with teams, and learning “how to work,” then nobody will care about your degrees. Please, don’t take that as “cool, I don’t need a degree; I will jump into work directly,” I will stop you here by saying that, depending on your career path, a degree is always a plus and may be quite necessary. You learn the principles and the basics to apply them in your work, and you learn how to be disciplined and understand whether the industry you chose is what you actually want to work on. However, I have worked with people with PhDs who don’t have a clue about what they are talking about when it comes to the real work at the workplace, and I have also worked with people who were not Ivy League graduates, but they were so inspiring and unique in what they brought to the table that nobody could argue their professionalism and value. So, apart from the degree, make sure you develop other skills.

The Sooner The Boundaries, The Later The Burnout

When I started working, I was so career-oriented that I didn’t care about anything but my job, climbing the career ladder, and how to make more money. This put me in a position where I was practically working many weekends, being the party pooper because I had to go to work the next day, or canceling plans and vacations with friends because I had to -guess what?- work. Even though there were reasons that I couldn’t afford to lose my job, I realized that I couldn’t set boundaries and used to be the go-to person to make everyone’s life easier, sacrificing my time and well-being. I don’t think I will ever stop working in a fast-paced mode because, being honest, I love it, but there are times when I need to close the laptop and just enjoy my life outside of work. I came close to burnout, and for the first time in my life, I felt so unmotivated to go to work when I realized that I needed to set boundaries because nobody would do that for me. So, next time your boss, colleague, or whoever wants something from you or calls you during your PTO (they are not illegal, btw, use them!) to ask you for a favor, you can easily say “no”. And if you don’t know how to do it, read this, where you can find great alternatives to the word no. A wise person once told me, “you don’t build a career by saying yes all the time,” and now I know how right they are. You should expect some backlash from the people who are used to you not having boundaries, but it will pass; your employer will get used to it soon.

If You Don’t Ask For What You Want, You Probably Won’t Get It

You work hard and enjoy every piece of your work life, but you feel it’s time for a promotion. Or you don’t think you get the credit for your accomplishments at work. Or you need a day off. Then, why don’t you ask for it? According to many studies and research, women usually hesitate to ask for what they want because we were mostly raised to be polite, easygoing, and docile. We were made to believe that we would never get what we wanted. Well, that is dead wrong, and I am saying that from the position of an easygoing person who wouldn’t ask for more money and acknowledgment and would always stay backstage, letting others get the credits (and the money) for my work. I am not saying you should get in there and start throwing a tantrum; that’s unprofessional. Just ask. I had an experience with a person who wanted more money, never asked for it -they would have gotten them, by the way- and decided to write an incredibly aggressive and insulting email, which -of course- didn’t end up the way they wanted. I understood the source of the venting, but it’s always better to ask for what you want. At the end of the day, you will feel better about yourself, avoid misunderstandings, and won’t randomly vent to people who don’t know your issue. And the worst thing that could happen would be to be denied what you asked for. Then, at least, you know where you stand.

You Won’t Love Every Single Part of Your Job

Whoever says that they love their job, every day, all day -trust me- they are lying. Every job has pros and cons, and not every task will be pleasant, especially in the beginning. For instance, I always despised spreadsheets. But life happens, and I end up running my own business, hiring people, and doing finances, which automatically means that spreadsheets are now a massive part of my work life. Do I like it? No. Do I do it? Yes. I don’t have a choice. Instead of focusing my energy on whining about having to do something I don’t like, I focus my attention on the fact that we have money coming in, and we can all live doing what we want, at least for most of the day. As you understand, you probably won’t find a job that is utterly pleasing to you, but, in general, many of the things you don’t like doing are the things that will help you excel and make progress.