Some career advice from the CEO of Booz and Company:
He offered 10 career development tips:
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Pay attention to human capital and who you are as a human being; consider how you think about and construct problems.
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Get and feed a network. If you only get in touch with people when you need something, it doesn’t work. Be helpful to others as well, even if it’s difficult to take the time and effort.
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Find mentors. No one is good enough to sort out his problems on his own. Good mentors are the ones who have influenced you and paid attention to you. They not only advocate for you, but they are critical of you as well.
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Seek diverse experiences and stretch yourself into areas where you are not naturally comfortable. Diverse experience builds character.
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Be curious about the world and its issues; despite the pain of the financial crisis, it has been an accelerated learning curve.
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Be interested or else you can’t be interesting. Nothing is worse than a dull dinner companion — you can be interested in anything.
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Form an educated and distinctive point of view. It helps you make sense of abstraction. Have a worldview to see what forces are at play.
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Read. At the minimum read a daily financial paper and a dozen good books a year.
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Look after yourself. Careers are an endurance game and work happens to you more than any other activity.
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Make time for people you love and who love you. It’s too early to let these people become a subsidiary early in your career. The thing about time is that it is very unforgiving.