10 Career Lessons You Should Learn in Your 20s

10 Career Lessons You Should Learn in Your 20s Every hiring manager is looking for something different- a unique combination of experience and skills. But there are also a few universal skills and values you should always work to keep sharp. Everyone, no matter what place on the job hierarchy, should check in once in a while to  dig deep and  ask yourself  if you’re working at the top of your personal game.Here are 10 of the top lessons working in the current landscape should teach you. Learn them now, and use them to keep your skills sharp and updated.1. Networking MattersYou may hate social media- and hate small talk even more- but social networks are proven to be a crucial factor in professional success. Put some time and effort into broadening yours. Stand by the proverbial water cooler, even if you hate it. And cultivate as wide and diverse a network as you can.2. Keep LearningThe second you decide you’re done learning, or know enough, is probably the second you become obsolete in your industry and in tod ay’s economy. Don’t be left behind. Be the old dog that learns new tricks, acquires new skills, reads up on all the current trends. Even if it weren’t important for success, your life will still be richer for it.3. Failure is ProductiveDon’t give up next time you fail. Think of each failure as an opportunity, or a beginning. What can you learn or improve for next time. What can you try differently? Build up the dusting-yourself-off muscle.4. Teamwork is DreamworkMost potential bosses are going to want you to demonstrate that you can be a team player. Make sure to build the ability to manage others, to delegate, and to build positive working relationships with your colleagues that help you all do your best work and achieve your loftiest goals.5. Organization  is KeyYou won’t get very far if your desk is buried under a pile of messy papers and your time management skills are nonexistent. Start working on prioritizing, systematizing, and setting you rself up to get things done in a timely and tidy fashion. Demonstrate that you can meet deadlines without sacrificing the quality of your work.6. Practice Awareness/AcumenThis is something you can beef up anytime, and might just prove invaluable. Learn what makes a company or industry tick, what works and doesn’t. What are the newest trends, the deepest seated problems? If you can show that you really get what a company is trying to do and achieve, then you’re halfway to getting hired.7. Cultivate IntegrityDon’t be petty or dishonest. Be fair and responsible in all of your dealings and activities. This is seen as a sign of maturity, self-confidence, and trustworthiness and that’s worth a lot in the hiring process.8. Problem SolveYou’ll need this skill throughout your life, not just on the job. But do find a way to demonstrate to hirers that you can attack a problem, find a solution, and get it done. Prove that you can go the extra distance, every t ime.9. Be AwareDiversity is a hugely important issue in the workplace. You should be as sensitive as possible and as aware as possible of other people and other cultures- and be prepared to demonstrate this in your job search. No excuses for ignorance or intolerance.10. Be Open to Trying New ThingsMake sure you have a willingness to try things different ways, to work alone or on a team, to work remotely, work in an office, to work on multiple things at once. Adaptability is a valuable skill that will serve you both on the job and in your life.

The Use of I in First Person Narration

The Use of I in First Person Narration The Use of â€Å"I† in First Person Narration The Use of â€Å"I† in First Person Narration By Maeve Maddox Graham Broadley wrote: If I am writing a short story in the first person are there any tips or tricks for avoiding the overuse of the word i? My usual writing style leans towards short sentences but this seems to increase the frequency of the word â€Å"I† popping up.   Are longer sentences a way round the problem? Also, Im trying to avoid sentences starting with â€Å"I†.   Do you have any advice, tips and tricks for writing in the first person? It is inevitable that writing in first person will require frequent use of I, me, and myespecially I. This should not present a problem. In a first person narration, the pronoun â€Å"I† is probably as invisible to the reader as the word â€Å"said.† Besides, the point of writing in first person is to establish an intimate bond with the reader. The reader becomes the â€Å"I† of the story. Listen to your own words and thoughts during the course of a day. The word â€Å"I† is probably the most frequent word that forms in your mind and comes from your mouth. Plenty of websites discuss the use of first person narration, but I think the best way to see what works and what doesn’t is to analyze a published work of fiction. You might want to analyze some of your favorite writers to see how they deal with the pronoun I. For example, in preparing this post I took a close look at the way Laurie R. King handles it. Laurie R. King is a prolific writer, averaging a book a year since the publication of her first novel in 1993. She has created not one, but two mystery series. One is set in contemporary California and features Inspector Kate Martinelli. The other is set in the era of Sherlock Holmes and features Mary Russell. King has also written several stand-alone novels. So far I’ve read only some of the Mary Russell books. I find them intelligent, entertaining, and unputdownable. I’ll analyze a few pages to see how King deals with the problems mentioned by our reader. In the first chapter of A Letter of Mary, about 2,000 words, the pronoun â€Å"I† appears 60 times. Note: All of these figures are approximate. Here’s the breakdown on how the pronoun I is distributed: Mary 39 Holmes 7 Dorothy Ruskin (in a letter) 14. The paragraph with the greatest number contains nine: †Megalomania, perhaps; senility, never.† I stood and watched a small fishing boat lying off shore, and I wondered what to do. The work was going slowly, and I could ill afford to take even half a day away from it. On the other hand, it would be a joy to spend some time with that peculiar old lady, whom I indeed remembered very well. Also, Holmes seemed interested. It would at least provide a distraction until I could decide what needed doing for him. â€Å"All right, we’ll have her here a day sooner, then, on the Wednesday. I’ll suggest the noon train. I’m certain Mrs Hudson can be persuaded to leave something for our tea, so we need not risk our visitor’s health. I also think I’ll go to Town tomorrow and drop by the British Museum for a while. Will you come?† Sentence length does not seem to have much to do with the frequency of I. King’s sentences tend to be long. Sentences that begin with the pronoun I don’t particularly jump out. In the analyzed passage, 14 of the narrator’s 39 subject pronouns begin sentences. Bottom line: Write your first person story without worrying about the pronouns. You can always see ways to reduce them in revision, if you think it’s necessary. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:16 Substitutes for â€Å"Because† or â€Å"Because Of†The Possessive ApostropheMay Have vs. Might Have