Over the past 5 years while working in corporate America, I learned many lessons through blood, sweat and tears – things I wished I knew when I first started working full-time. I’m no expert on launching your career or even about finding the perfect career, however, these are a few tips and tricks that I have came to realization in the past 5 years.

During a workshop on a work retreat, someone said something that made a very profound statement that have left an impact on me: there are lessons taught, lessons learned and lessons bought. I want to share with you the accumulation of the lessons that I learned and bought in my own experience. For nearly all career advice, I would say take it with a grain of salt but these are advice I wished someone shared with me when I first started out my career.

Negotiate Your Salary

As a recent college graduate, I remembered being very uncomfortable with negotiating my salary. However, negotiating your salary isn’t just about the monetary benefits (which I’m not going to say is not nice), it’s about knowing your worth. Being a female of color, I was raised to never ask for more that what is offered and that was something I struggled with. Over time, I learned negotiating your salary is being confident on who you are and knowing what you can bring to the table. Also negotiating your salary at the beginning of your career will give you a good platform for future raises — think about wanting to start with more cards on your hand at the beginning of the game and continuously adding to it. I’m not saying this is easy — negotiating your salary may require some practice and help from mentors — this is something I’m continuously working on.

Don’t Limit Yourself

Starting a career is almost like getting to re-invent yourself! When I first started to job hunt during college, I didn’t apply to a lot of job opportunities because I thought I was not experienced in the field or not qualified. However, over time, I learned that if anything, this is the best time to put yourself out there — try new industries and ventures that you never thought of doing. When applying for entry-level positions, most applicants come in with very little experience so the playing field is pretty even. If I got to re-do the job hunt right after college, I would have taken more opportunities and explored different career options.

Find People in Your Network

People always talk about networking and how it’s important. However, no one really talks about how to use your network. I would say that the best time to utilize your network is during your job search. It’s more than just getting an interview or a recommendation for a job you are interested in — when applying to a job, I would say find people who works or used to work at that company and ask what are the pros and cons of the company. People in your network will be a little more honest about the day-to-day life at that company.

Glassdoor Reviews

Glassdoor was something that I didn’t know about when I was in college. I would compare Glassdoor to Yelp — the reviews are great but take it with a grain of salt. Similar to Yelp, people only write very detailed reviews when they’re angry or upset, it may be quite biased. However, it’s a good reference point to see how the culture of the place is. Culture is important because this is where you are looking to spend 40-50 hours a week — you need to make sure you can see yourself there.

Set a Goal for Yourself

When I first started my current position, I had a picture of myself being there for maybe 3 months and then move to something different. However, 3 years later, I am at this same company, pursuing a career with a promising future. When I first applied to this job, I didn’t really think about where I would end up in the long run. It’s very important to have a goal for yourself because it’s going to keep you excited to go to work every day and get you motivated.

What’s Important to You

Culture, work life balance, benefits, upward mobility and the ability to travel — those are some items to consider when applying to a job. It’s very important to know what you value in your life and if the job can offer that for you. In the past 3 years, I have seen many talented and not-so-talented people leave their jobs because they never really evaluated what they wanted in life. When I first started out, I didn’t care too much about work-life balance and salary but focused more on work culture and upward mobility which my company can provide. However, if work-life balance was important to me, then I may have been miserable. It’s possible to make it work for you — work life balance became more important for me as I progressed in my career and as I became a manager, I had more control over it but there are times when I have to sacrifice that for a few weeks or months to get myself stabilize.

Commute Time

Boy oh boy — living in the Bay this topic cannot be more true. When I first started at my company, I was living with my parents in Oakland and working in Palo Alto/Mountain View, the commute was horrendous and I had to pay $5 to cross the bridge every day. I was naive and didn’t think too much of the commute. I remember waking up at 5am and arriving at the office at 5:30am and sleeping in my car until I started work at 7am. I was 22 at the time and was stupid in not factoring in how much time it took out of my life. Due to traffic, I was finding myself in the car for 2-3 hours a day — 2 hours a day I was never going to get back and those $5/day — that added up really quickly. When interviewing, you should factor whether the location is feasible for you to commute there every day.

1 Year from Now

It may be daunting to think about where you see yourself in a company a year from now when you are still unemployed. However, you need to picture yourself — whether this is something you can see yourself pursuing long term. At the same time, you want to see where you think you might want to end up at 1 year after. When I first started my training program, I did not really think where my career will take me a year from then — I didn’t think of where my career was going to take me.

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There you have it, those are 8 advice tips that I wished someone told me when I first started my career. It’s not something eye-opening or life-changing; however, these are a few things that would change my career path. There are things that I am still working on but with every career, there’s always room for improvement. Good luck job hunting out there!