When it comes to your career, the only thing more valuable than your experience is your reputation. Unfortunately, the latter is much easier to tank than the former. After all, no matter how many times you lose your temper, you get to keep your CV.
Lifehacker recently asked their commenters to chime in with ways in which it’s possible to ruin our professional reputations. Their conversation was enlightening. Here are a few of the fastest ways to get a rep you don’t want:
1. Lose Your Temper
As user Kevin_H points out, there’s rarely an excuse for losing your temper if your colleagues have it under control. Either you have a high-stress job, in which case, everyone is in the same boat, or you don’t — in which case, you’re liable to become the person no one wants to share an elevator with, for fear that you’ll Hulk out.
2. Lie
“This is quite embarrassing, but during my first job I got caught in lie,” writes Penhat. “I was working as a temp at the time, trying to find full time work, and I kept having to come up with excuses to sneak away from interviews. After a few months, they offered me a permanent position, but since it was an organization I didn’t really care for I continued looking for work. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful so I lied about my whereabouts when I was offered an interview. I ended up getting caught, they rescinded their offer and the interview I had didn’t offer me the job anyways.”
3. Badmouth Your Boss
Ckitten writes, “Never badmouth your old employer, ever. It might be tempting but just keep it cordial when they come up, especially in interviews!”
Talking smack about your former boss — or anyone at your old company — will almost always come back to bite you. Even if none of your old colleagues ever find out what you said, potential employers will note your attitude. And then, most likely, they’ll decline to hire you, in order to avoid being the victim of badmouthing down the line.
Tell Us What You Think
What reputation-ruiners have we failed to include here? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.
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