Pro-tips: Be your best self (at work)

Pro-tips exist to help improve your professional life. These are general and not aimed at anyone specific... but some issues do seem to come up fairly regularly, hence the post.

Learn your job in and out. You should strive to be as technically competent as you can. Everyone has a work life balance, but even reading an hour a day after work can make you stand out amongst your peers. I highly recommend Udemy, I have found no equal to their classes in terms of price/knowledge ratio.

Learn what your manager and customers want. Having an idea of their expectations will help you move forward. Find their pain-points and eliminate them. A competent boss will love it.

Work your job in and out. Doing just 10% more than your peers makes you stand out. You will have real competition at some point, you will need to figure out smarter ways to out-work them. If one hour of your work is worth a day of their work, your boss will notice. (Did I do a post on that before?)

Take ownership. I really like working with and for people who own their mistakes. It usually takes very little to be accountable for your actions, other than eating humble salad.

Leave your personal life at home. As best you can, remember that your coworkers and customers are not primarily there to be your friends, nor are they there to be your enemies. If you are having trouble at home, leave it there, and vice versa.

Be cordial. This is a lesson I learned the hard way. Try not to do, even if it means you need to go off-site for a few minutes. If I told my boss "I have to run by the bank" and spent an hour offsite, things would have gone way better than they did.