So, why do nearly two-thirds of women choose work-life balance over salary? According to Beth Lawlor, president of U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management, the answer is simple.

“Statistics show that women are substantially more likely than men to take time away from their careers to care for others,” she says. “In fact, a found that a full 50% of women aged 25-54 who are not in the labor force cited caring for others as the main reason they are not working.”

As a result, Lawlor believes that women’s careers tend to be crooked lines, more “lattice” than linear, so finding a way to blend life with work (rather than balancing it evenly) is critical. Following are her seven principles for women to consider when thinking about career growth.

7 principles of a woman’s career journey

1. Create your own internal board of directors.

“Oftentimes, as women, we tend to check in with our posse or our husbands or wives, because they love us and prop us up,” Lawlor explains. “But a better approach is to create a board of directors of people who you respect but who are not always going to tell you what you want to hear. They’re going to tell you what you need to hear. Having diverse opinions—different genders, in your industry, out of your industry—that really is a very thoughtful approach to how you make big decisions.”

2. Remember your values and stick to them.

“That sounds very, very basic, but integrity really matters,” she says. “No one ever gets promoted from writing an awesome email, but plenty of people get fired for writing a horrible email, or a too-colorful email, or an accusatory email. So be thoughtful; think about who you are as a person.”

3. Accept that your plan may change.

“I always give the example of a safari,” says Lawlor. “You’re dead set on seeing a lion and her cubs, and you’re so busy looking for the lions that you miss the giraffe, and you miss the hippopotamus. My advice to women is, don’t be so prescriptive with your careers and with your life. Give yourself permission to make choices where your heart leads.”

4. Never stop learning.

“Even if you’re in a job that you hate, it teaches you what you don’t like,” she says. “No matter where you are on the food chain, you always want to learn, and you can always learn from people at all levels of the organization.”

5. Failure isn’t a bad thing.

“I was laid off from a job 10 years ago,” Lawlor recalls. “Sometimes it’s hard to bounce back. It wasn’t fine what happened to me, but I’m thankful it happened because it taught me to focus on the lessons I learned, like resilience. Sometimes, the biggest growth opportunities come from failure. I came out better on the other side.”

6. Support other women.

“We have to support one another from a career perspective,” Lawlor says. “And we need to give permission to one another, as women, to make choices on where our hearts are and not always where our minds are.”

7. Know your worth outside of work.

“For women, you have other stuff to identify who you are, outside of your career,” she concludes. “Everybody has a different path. And, knowing your worth outside of work, it’s just an incredible gift.”

Work-life balance: Tips for taking a career break

Given that careers can be lattices and that breaks are sometimes necessary, there are important considerations you’ll need to make before stepping away from the workplace. First and foremost, Lawlor says, make sure you can swing it financially.

Start by speaking to a financial advisor. “Think of the financial advisor as being like Ferdinand Magellan,” she says. “You’ve got somebody that’s an explorer who wants to uncover what your goals are. What things are really important to you? What do you worry about? What will give you peace of mind? What’s your risk tolerance? A financial advisor can be the steward of your finances while you’re going out doing something great that you love to do. We’ve got you. That’s what we do.”

If you need to keep the money coming in, think about doing some freelance or consulting work. “Have some kind of plan, but accept that your plan may change, and that’s OK,” she says.

But whatever you choose to do, stay relevant. “Stay connected, stay networking with people,” Lawlor advises. “Stay in women’s groups, stay on LinkedIn, write an interesting article. Stay relevant by keeping your name out there. Maybe take some courses online; listen to podcasts. Don’t just disappear and not listen to what’s interesting, relevant and newsworthy in the industry that you’re in.”

Even though it may seem counterintuitive to step back from a career, it can be advantageous, offering perspective on what really matters to you. When you return to the workforce, Lawlor advocates wearing what you’ve achieved as a badge of honor.

“Sometimes a certain demographic may say, ‘Oh, you took a break to have kids.’ I would say, ‘Yeah, and thank goodness I did because my kids are amazing. That is one of the greatest accomplishments in my life.’

“It’s all in how you position it,” she adds. “Be proud of what you gained as an individual during that time. And when you say it with confidence, people believe you, and they honor that.”

College students and recent graduates are entering a very difficult job market. For some, getting an interview can feel like an impossible feat, let alone getting a position. It’s not hopeless, though. In fact, career advisor Gorick Ng not only knows young college grads who have landed jobs, but also how they did it.

Ng gave some solid advice and shared the things college students did that helped them successfully land a job shortly after earning their diploma. Here are the ways those grads got their careers started:

1. Start your career training while you’re still a student

The earlier you’re on your career track, the better off you’ll be once you graduate. That said, it’s not too late to start, even if you’re a senior. Including extracurricular activities and volunteer work on your resume can help strengthen your candidacy as a new hire.

While it can be great to include activities and titles relevant to the job itself (such as being president of the coding club for software development positions), other extracurricular activities can also be included if they demonstrate leadership and planning skills (such as being a tutor or leading a party planning committee).

Listing the skills you’ve learned at internships and part-time positions helps you stand out as well. Speaking of which…

2. Know the timelines for the jobs and internships you want

While the summer is typically when internships are available, many applications need to be submitted months in advance. Some are even available year-round. It’s best to do your research to understand the recruitment timelines for internships and student jobs. Applying for and getting these positions can boost your resume when you search for full-time work.

Even if you don’t get the internship, the process of applying and interviewing can be good practice when you apply for a full-time position. It’s also an opportunity to become a familiar face and make connections.

3. Expand your network beyond your peers, and stay in touch

While you’ll make connections with other people in your major who could help you, it’s very likely that you and your immediate peers are applying for the same pool of jobs. To get an edge or a job lead, it can be helpful to reach out and develop relationships beyond your current sphere.

Become friends with older students who graduate in your chosen field. This can allow you to stay in touch with someone already in your industry who could get a job and possibly recommend you for a role once you’ve graduated. Creating and maintaining relationships with college professors or speakers in your field can also create opportunities later. Even approaching those who interviewed you for a position or internship you didn’t get can be a good connection, depending on how well the process went.

While these relationships are professional in nature, it’s important to nurture them as genuine relationships, not transactions. Leading with curiosity about them, their professional lives, and the like will help you create long-lasting allies who have a connection to the field you want to be part of. They may also be willing to act as a reference on your behalf.

4. Submit your resume within 24 hours of a job posting

Applying for a job is easier, which is a wonderful problem to have. With AI-based applications and one-button resume submissions, it has become more difficult for qualified applicants to be seen by recruiters. There is also the problem of ghost jobs clogging up job searches with positions that are either already filled or don’t exist.

With this in mind, it’s best to submit a job application within 24 hours of a posting. This can ensure your resume is near the top of the stack. You can also ask your network if there are email newsletters to subscribe to within your chosen industry. This could alert you to positions before they’re posted online.

If there is a specific company you wish to work for, check its website regularly. Applying through its official website usually gets your resume seen before applications through third-party postings.

There are also some hacks for job search websites like LinkedIn. They can help you winnow down your search to job postings listed within an hour of posting.

5. Display competence, commitment, and compatibility

Ng says that whether it’s a networking contact, recruiter, or potential employer, people want three “yeses” to the following questions:

• “Can this person do the job well?”

• “Is this person excited to be here?”

• “Do I get along with this person?”

Ng sums this up by saying a college student needs to demonstrate the “3 Cs”: competence, commitment, and compatibility.

By showing competence through a resume, commitment through conversation, and compatibility through the professional contacts you retain, you can show an employer that you know what you’re doing, are eager to demonstrate your abilities, and can be molded into what they need.

You’ll likely have hundreds of questions, and managers may seem too busy to answer them all. It will take some time to find your footing, but there are a few practical ways to build confidence, stay organized, and set yourself up for long-term success.

Take 15 Minutes to Prepare Before Every Meeting

If your team is busy and meetings with management are few and far between, prepping for your meetings is a must. As a recent grad, meetings are the best places to receive support and gain guidance on your projects.

Before every meeting, review all of your work and your projects. If you have any questions or concerns, write them down in a list to bring into the meeting. A concrete list ensures that you remember all of your pressing questions during the meeting and get immediate answers rather than waiting for an email or message back.

These answers should serve as your guidance for your projects and help you proceed with more confidence.

Always Put Your Best Foot Forward

As you start to work, it is almost inevitable that you will eventually be assigned a project outside of your comfort zone.

When this happens, take a step back and identify the aspects of the project that intimidate you the most. Do some background research on those aspects, look into case studies about similar projects, and craft a plan of how you can tackle this.

Try these steps:

• Create a simple “learning sprint”, spend one focused hour researching the toughest part of your project.

• Ask a teammate if you can shadow them for a short task related to the project.

• Write down 2–3 specific questions and bring them to your manager or mentor.

If this is your first time working on a task of this nature, no one is expecting perfection. Empower yourself with some research and put in your best effort. As you work through this project, ask your team for support and help.

The best way to learn and grow is through hands-on experience. By putting in your best effort to intimidating projects, you’ll grow your skillset and gain confidence in your abilities.

Stay Organized with a System

It’s a cliche, but it bears repeating: time management is everything. Organization is at the heart of how to succeed in your first job. As you gain new tasks and responsibilities, it’s essential to be able to organize them so everything can be done in an efficient and timely manner. If you have a strong system when you start work, you won’t have to suffer through the learning curve as you pick up new assignments.

• Try a digital tool (like Notion or Asana) for larger projects and a paper notebook for quick daily tasks.

• Use the “two-minute rule”: if something will take under 2 minutes, do it immediately.

• At the start of each week, create a list of what you need to get done and when it needs to be done by.

• Assign each task a priority level (high, medium, low) and schedule it for a certain day that week.

• Schedule a 10-minute “reset” at the end of each day to clean up your to-do list and prepare for the next day.

Having a consistent system keeps you on top of deadlines and shows your team you can handle responsibility.

Break Down Tasks Into Manageable Blocks

Big projects can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re just starting out. Instead of trying to tackle everything at once, break projects into smaller, bite-sized steps. Each time you complete one, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment that keeps you moving forward.

• Write your project steps as if you were explaining them to someone else, this forces clarity.

• Set mini-deadlines for each stage so you don’t leave everything to the last minute.

For example, if you’re asked to create a report, split it into stages: gather data, analyze results, build visuals, and draft the write-up. By focusing on one piece at a time, you’ll reduce stress and keep your work on track.

Take Lots of Notes

Another overlooked secret of how to succeed in your first job is note-taking. Early in your career, you’ll be hit with a ton of new information, processes, tools, acronyms, even names. Writing everything down (whether digitally or in a notebook) is the best way to keep it straight.

• Create a personal “work glossary” where you define acronyms and processes you encounter.

• Date your notes so you can easily trace back decisions or instructions.

• After meetings, take 5 minutes to clean up your notes into bullet points you can revisit later.

Don’t worry about looking like you don’t know something. Taking notes shows initiative and ensures you can revisit information later without asking the same question twice. Over time, your notes will become a personal playbook you can lean on.

Try to Connect With Everyone On Your Team

No guide on how to succeed in your first job would be complete without talking about your team. Success in your first job isn’t just about the work, it’s also about the relationships you build. Take the time to introduce yourself to teammates in different roles, ask about their career paths, and find out how your projects connect to theirs.

These conversations give you perspective on how the company works as a whole and show your coworkers that you’re engaged and approachable. Plus, building these connections early makes it easier to ask for help, find mentors, and feel like part of the team.

Learning how to succeed in your first job is about developing habits that will serve you throughout your career. By preparing for meetings, putting your best foot forward, staying organized, breaking down tasks, taking great notes, and building connections, you’ll create a strong foundation for success.

Remember, no one expects perfection when you’re just starting out. What matters is effort, curiosity, and a willingness to learn. Each project you complete and each relationship you build is a step toward your career goals.

“The more you learn, the more you earn.”: Buffett emphasizes that knowledge compounds like money. Investing in your education, skills, and experiences increases opportunities, future earnings, and personal growth. Lifelong learning creates a strong foundation for both career and life success.

“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”: Students should distinguish between cost and true worth. Focus on quality learning, relationships, and decisions rather than short-term gains or appearances. Recognizing value helps prioritize wisely.

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”: Preparation reduces mistakes. When students understand a subject or task thoroughly, risks diminish. Planning, research, and informed action build confidence and minimize unnecessary failures.

“It’s better to hang out with people better than you.”: Surround yourself with mentors and peers who challenge and inspire. High-quality company elevates your thinking, habits, and motivation, pushing you toward growth rather than comfort.

“Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.”: Recognize and seize rare chances with boldness. Students should act decisively on meaningful opportunities instead of hesitating, maximizing potential for growth and achievement.

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”: Patience and long-term thinking matter. Efforts you invest now—studying, saving, or building skills—pay off in the future. Success often comes from consistent work over years, not instant results.

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”: Focus is essential. Students should prioritize tasks and avoid distractions, dedicating energy to meaningful goals rather than spreading themselves too thin. Saying “no” is a tool for effectiveness.

“Don’t save what’s left after spending; spend what’s left after saving.”: Financial discipline starts early. Prioritize saving, budgeting, and investing before indulgence. This habit fosters independence, security, and the ability to pursue larger ambitions responsibly.

“Someone’s opinion doesn’t determine your value.”: Confidence in yourself is crucial. Students must avoid letting external judgments dictate self-worth. Focus on personal growth, learning, and achievements rather than seeking validation from others.

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”: Early habits define your future. Positive routines in studying, health, and discipline compound over time, shaping success. Conversely, bad habits, if ignored, become difficult to overcome later.

If you’re waiting for your manager to hand you a promotion, you may be waiting a while. For most people, earning a promotion requires planning, communication and persistence over time.

Your path to a promotion may vary depending on your profession, but Ziprecruiter CEO Ian Siegal has said early-career employees should expect to get promoted every three years. His claim is in line with a 2018 study by people analytics platform Visier, which found that employees are most likely to earn a promotion in their third year with a company.

How to Get Promoted at Work

If you want to get promoted, you need to take control of your own career development. That means setting goals, charting a path to reach those goals and taking on responsibilities that will give you the skills and experience needed to excel in a higher-level role.

1. Create Value

Before seeking out a higher-level role, you need to prove that you’ve mastered your current responsibilities and are already making a positive contribution to your organization. You can establish yourself as a standout employee by hitting (or exceeding) targets, meeting deadlines and delivering high-quality work in every task assigned to you.

2. Solve Problems

There’s no better sign of a future leader than someone who is able to solve the most pressing challenges facing the team.

By introducing a new solution, you are demonstrating more than business acumen. You are also showing that you will be able to navigate the team in the right direction if given the opportunity to lead.

If you have built up your credibility and won the trust of your team, Dan Marcus, manager of enterprise software sales for Wolters Kluwer, said the team is more likely to see you as a leader and respect you if you are promoted to manager.

“I think a lot of times we as professionals feel like we have to be in a formal management position to demonstrate leadership,” Marcus told Built In. “What I’ve learned from my own personal journey, and what I’ve seen from others, is that anybody can really step up and be a leader within a group setting.”

3. Be a Positive Workplace Presence

Work can be stressful, but how you handle that stress is important. Even if your team falls short on a goal, it’s important that you learn from your loss without letting it drag you down. Staying focused on the next challenge and maintaining a positive attitude can motivate your coworkers to keep pushing forward and rise to the next occasion.

“Such a core part of leadership and getting promoted is to show how you overcome challenges and obstacles,” Marcus said. “It’s critical to always look at the bigger picture of things and not get too focused on the negative.”

4. Demonstrate a Strong Work Ethic

Exhibiting a strong work ethic on a consistent basis can help you earn the trust of your manager and convince them you’ve outgrown your position and are ready for another challenge.

In practice, this may look like finishing your assignments early and using the time to aid coworkers with tasks, completing passion projects to develop new skills or offering to help your manager by taking additional work off their plate.

Your manager may be more likely to take notice and consider you when a higher position opens up.

5. Make Friends

If you’re looking to get promoted, you should develop a network of relationships on your team, within the company and in your profession, said Lulu Rufael, the chief human resources officer for HR software company Atlas.

Whether it’s a friendly relationship with your teammate or a mentoring relationship with a senior colleague, you will want supporters in your corner who can offer advice in challenging situations, suggest ideas about career development opportunities and help you shape the narrative of your professional path. When the right opportunity opens up, these people can also advocate for your promotion.

6. Ask for Feedback

Self-awareness is a key part of career growth. You should know how to make use of your strengths and how to improve your weaknesses. But every individual has their blind spots, and the best advice may come from those who know you well. If you’re having trouble identifying your strengths and weaknesses, ask your manager, colleagues or mentors for feedback. You can also reference past performance reviews for further insights.

Take some time to self-reflect on your assessment of your strengths and weaknesses and weigh the advice others have given you. While this process can be difficult, constructive criticism from yourself and others can help you be honest about your flaws and take meaningful steps to turn your weaknesses into strengths. Lean on your support system when needed, but it’s up to you to identify areas of improvement and target them with professional development training.

7. Improve Your Skills

You should constantly learn new skills and stay on top of industry trends. Whether it’s through reading industry blogs, attending seminars or taking online training courses, continuous learning will put you in a position to offer new solutions or introduce new tools that could help your team be more productive or strategic in its practices.

When seeking out resources or courses on online learning platforms, be sure to check the credibility of the instructor and materials. Research the instructor’s background and qualifications and check ratings and reviews of a course to guarantee you’ll get the most value out of your learning time.

8. Keep Track of Your Accomplishments

Making the case for a job promotion can be a lot easier when you are tracking your wins. Tejal Wagadia, a technical recruiter who blogs about career topics, suggests keeping a “brag book” that lists all of your accomplishments and any positive feedback you may have received from clients or coworkers.

Wagadia’s brag book is a folder on her computer that stores screenshots of complimentary emails and her own written summaries of projects that exceeded expectations or were completed ahead of the deadline.

“Having a brag book is going to be helpful because we tend to forget all of the things that we have done,” she said. “They will likely ask for this when they go and talk to their supervisor or the HR person about your promotion.”

9. Take Initiative

If you really want a promotion, there’s no clearer way to demonstrate your abilities than doing the work.

“If you can show that you already have done the work and the position even before you got the job, that will really set you apart from the other candidates,” Marcus said.

Marcus also suggests employees regularly talk with their managers about their career goals and the progress they are making toward reaching them. This way, you can take on extra responsibilities that further your advancement while avoiding a situation where your efforts go unrecognized or your workload becomes unmanageable.

To attain the skills needed for a promotion, you may have to step out of your comfort zone and take a calculated risk. Rufael, for example, started in HR, but a mentor told her she might have to get experience in other areas to reach the leadership level. After receiving a project management certification, Rufael left the HR team to become a process improvement leader, then a director of an IT team before going back to HR operations as a vice president.

“When the promotion opportunities came up for me, it wasn’t just because I had this expertise in HR,” she said. “It was because I had this learning and expertise in all these different areas. Those were calculated risks.”

10. Model Yourself After Others Who Have Been Promoted

Wagadia suggests employees get a sense of their next steps by identifying a senior employee performing a similar job at a higher level and asking them about the skills and requirements of their job. By comparing the requisite skills of the senior-level position against your own job responsibilities, you can identify gaps in your skills and experience.

You can also observe the employee on a daily basis to determine what leadership skills and traits they exhibit. Perhaps they excel at communicating their ideas with others or are very empathetic and show consideration for others’ feelings. Based on the traits you notice, think of courses, tasks and other ways that will allow you to develop these same traits.

These approaches will allow for a more productive conversation with your manager about what types of projects will give you the experience you need to reach the next step of your career.

“Nobody wants to do all of the work for somebody who hasn’t done any of the work themselves,” Wagadia said.

11. Just Ask Your Boss for a Promotion

The work you put into setting career goals and identifying steps to advancement won’t mean anything unless you articulate these aspirations to your manager.

You can start the conversation by meeting with your manager to tell them you’re interested in earning a job promotion and working with them to develop an action plan to achieve this goal. To build your case, you may also want to conduct salary research in addition to providing your manager with examples of how you’ve gone above and beyond in your current role.

If you don’t already have a standing one-on-one meeting with your manager, Wagadia suggests sending your manager an email recapping your discussion and then scheduling a follow-up meeting at a time that gives them enough time to talk to their manager or the HR department. You may not get promoted at that next meeting, but Wagadia said it’s important to keep the conversation going with your manager.

“Don’t let the ball drop,” Wagadia said. “Nobody should be more invested in your promotion than you.”

In fact, companies are increasingly requiring prior experience, hybrid skillsets or even advanced degrees for roles in software development, UX or data analytics that were traditionally reserved for professionals looking to begin their careers.

What’s going on? The definition of “entry-level” and the requirements for those positions have shifted as organizations move towards flatter hierarchies, making it crucial for employees to take ownership of their work with limited oversight, explained Scott Dettman, CEO of Avenica.

While employers may state that they require experience for an entry-level job, don’t let that stop you. Here are some tips for landing a so-called “entry-level” job in tech that requires several years of hands-on experience.

Apply Anyway

Don’t take the requirements literally. An employer may expand the experience requirements for a position just to see who they can attract, explained Karen Sharp-Price, a professional career coach who has experience in human resources. Plus, you can use cumulative experience (i.e., the total across multiple jobs, internships, side projects and student activities, whether they were paid or unpaid) to satisfy the requirement.

Since you have no way of knowing the size of the applicant pool, don’t let exaggerated or unrealistic requirements keep you from throwing your hat in the ring for a role at a company you’ve researched. If you’re a good fit, you’re a good fit.

Also a more experienced candidate will usually demand a higher salary, giving a less experienced candidate with a lower salary demand the edge once the screening process begins.

Don’t Be a One-Trick Pony

Employers increasingly require more experience for entry-level jobs due to the rising complexity of work and the desire for candidates who can do more than one thing well, Dettman said.

For example, an employer may advertise for an entry-level UX designer with marketing experience or an entry-level data scientist with “sales skills” so they can effectively communicate their insights, methodologies, and ideas to stakeholders.

Developing distinct, yet complementary areas of expertise is crucial for navigating the evolving market for entry-level talent and staying competitive.

To effectively present yourself as versatile and muti-faceted despite having limited work experience, showcase both technical and non-technical skills, relevant coursework, certifications, and internships or projects where you’ve applied your skills in your resume, online profiles and interviews.

By requiring more experience, employers hope to ensure that new hires work out. So be sure to offer a portfolio, code samples and other examples of your work as proof of your broader abilities.

Market Yourself as High Potential

No matter what the job description says, hiring managers are looking to hire workers with the most potential, not the most experience, especially for entry-level positions.

High-potential individuals are characterized by a combination of traits that will not only make you a more attractive candidate but help you bypass the lengthy experience requirements in job postings.

For example, high potential candidates don’t apply for jobs, they campaign. “If you’re counting on the sheer volume of applications to land a position, be prepared to be disappointed,” Dettman warned.

High-potential candidates skip over the screening process by leveraging their existing network, making new contacts and requesting informational interviews with people who work in their desired field, industry and employers. They exhibit reasonable self-confidence, strong communication skills and a willingness to learn.

When a candidate consistently demonstrates initiative and follow-through, they tend to leave a strong impression that leads to introductions, referrals and ultimately offers.

Spend more time researching companies and less time applying for jobs, advised Sharp-Price.

The better you can articulate what you’re looking for in a career and employer and why, the more impressive you’ll be. When clearly articulated, your “why” demonstrates to employers that you are not just looking for a job, but a company and culture where you can grow and contribute.

Take a Non-Linear Approach

Many new college graduates approach job searching like consumers by expressing a preference for certain industries, roles and career paths; as a result, many are struggling to find jobs.

Don’t overlook industries that are often considered to be less glamorous or sexy. Viewing your first job as a building block, even though it might be less than ideal, provides valuable groundwork for future success.

The primary advantage of a non-linear career path is that you are able to develop a diverse skill set while broadening your perspectives and experiences. Building your career in a non-linear way can give you the chance to take on different challenges, step outside of your comfort zone to learn new skills, and adapt to the rapid changes in the talent market, especially in technology.

That model is rapidly shifting.

Across industries, millennials are increasingly building careers around their ideas, expertise and lived experiences, distributing them directly to audiences through podcasts, newsletters, YouTube channels and social platforms. In the process, a growing number of professionals are discovering that their influence, and often their income, no longer depends on a single company or title.

Instead, their intellectual perspective has become the product.

The Job Title Is No Longer The Career

The shift is happening alongside the explosive growth of the creator economy. The sector is now estimated to be worth more than $250 billion globally and projected to surpass $1 trillion within the next decade. More than 200 million people worldwide now consider themselves creators, and millions are generating income from digital content, education or online communities built around their expertise.

But the most interesting development inside this ecosystem is the emergence of what could be described as a thought leader workforce: professionals who use digital platforms to distribute knowledge rather than simply capture attention. Financial educator Anthony O’Neal sees that distinction clearly. O’Neal built his audience after working for six years with personal finance personality Dave Ramsey before launching his own platform.

“I don’t want to be known as a content creator,” he said. “I want to be known as a thought leader who happens to be on YouTube.” He later explains that despite selling products to his online followers and securing brand deals, what he does is different.

That framing reflects a broader shift in how millennial professionals are approaching work. Content is not necessarily the career itself—it’s the distribution channel for expertise. For many, the path begins with professional experience that eventually evolves into intellectual capital.

The Rise Of The Thought Leader Workforce

Tech founders Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson launched their podcast Rich Lessons during career transition periods after Allen shut down her fintech company and Wilson exited a startup she launched and led as CEO. Instead of quietly moving on to their next venture, the pair chose to publicly document the lessons they learned building companies. The idea was sparked in part by the sheer volume of entrepreneurs seeking advice.

“We were getting so many people asking for mentorship,” Allen told me. “You can’t mentor everyone. So the podcast became a way to share what we’ve learned in a structured way where people could come find it.”

The result is what Allen and Wilson describe as a form of scaled mentorship, turning private entrepreneurial insights into widely accessible professional guidance. That dynamic, transforming experience into publicly distributed knowledge, is becoming increasingly common across industries.

For Cheryl Polote Williamson, a media entrepreneur and author, building platforms around ideas has been central to her career strategy. Williamson hosts a podcast focused on personal transformation and business growth, which she sees as part of a broader media ecosystem that includes books, magazines and events.

“Every single thing that I have done, it is all about media,” she said. “It’s about building a media empire to show people that as long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to be great.”

Williamson’s podcast, now entering its third season, has become a space for conversations about topics that rarely receive mainstream attention, from business failures to health issues and generational trauma.

“What I realized is people were carrying things they never talked about,” she said. “When people hear those conversations, they realize they’re not alone.”

For Williamson, the value of digital platforms lies in their ability to amplify voices and experiences that traditional media often overlooks. But like many professionals building platforms today, she also sees content as part of a broader business strategy.

“Anytime that you can make impact on people’s lives, you will make money,” she said.

That perspective highlights an important reality about the creator economy: content itself is rarely the only revenue stream. Instead, platforms often function as professional infrastructure, driving speaking engagements, consulting opportunities, book deals and partnerships. O’Neal’s business illustrates the potential scale of this model. After leaving Ramsey’s organization, he built a multi-million-dollar company through a mix of digital content, books and speaking engagements.

“If you have eyeballs and people’s attention, you can build wealth,” he said.

Still, turning attention into income is far from guaranteed. Nearly half of creators earn less than $10,000 annually, highlighting how difficult it can be to transform digital visibility into a sustainable business.

Turning Professional Experience Into Intellectual Capital

Those who succeed often approach content differently. Rather than treating it as entertainment or personal branding alone, they view it as intellectual distribution, namely an opportunity to scale their knowledge and influence beyond traditional workplaces.

This approach is also reshaping how professional credibility is built. Historically, thought leadership flowed through institutions such as universities, corporations or media outlets. Today, individuals can publish insights directly to audiences of thousands, or even millions, without those intermediaries.

For many millennials, that shift reflects a broader reassessment of career security. Economic volatility, startup failures and layoffs have pushed professionals to diversify their sources of income and influence. Owning an audience, rather than relying solely on an employer, offers a new form of professional leverage.

Allen says that idea became increasingly clear as Rich Lessons began to grow. Even as the podcast gained traction on social platforms, she and Wilson focused on building direct relationships with listeners through email and newsletters. Platforms can change algorithms overnight, Allen noted, but direct audience access provides long-term stability.

The rise of the thought leader workforce signals a deeper transformation in how careers are built. Increasingly, professionals are cultivating parallel identities: one inside their formal job and another built around their ideas. In that emerging model of work, influence is no longer confined to boardrooms or corporate titles.

Instead, it belongs to those who can transform knowledge into platforms, and platforms into opportunity.

Warren Buffett says the most “important” career advice he ever received — and later passed on to his own children — came from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1841 essay, “Self-Reliance.” The essay advises choosing work that fits your nature, not parental expectations or society’s approval.

Emerson wrote that each person can discover their unique genius only by trusting their own experience and intuition. He warned that copying someone else’s life is a way of wasting your own talents.

Buffett’s father, a stockbroker who later became a politician, adopted this view and deliberately did not pressure his son to join the family business or go into politics.

Buffett recently told CNBC that his dad “had no feeling that I should follow in his footsteps,” which he said was critical to his development. Instead, his father urged him to find what uniquely excited him, a message straight out of Emerson’s work.

Buffett remembered his father paraphrasing a quote from “Self-Reliance” to drive home his point: “The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”

Giving the same advice to his own children

Buffett has passed down the advice his father gave him to his own children.

“I told my own kids … look for the job you’d take if you didn’t need a job,” Buffet told CNBC. “And that’s basically what my dad was telling me.”

Buffett tried to give his three children the same freedom his father gave him: no scripted career path and no assumption they would go into finance.

Buffett’s children have pursued careers in fields like music and agriculture rather than trying to follow in their father’s footsteps with investing. Buffett has, however, included his children in philanthropy efforts, tasking them with giving away his $149 billion fortune within 10 years of his death.

How Buffett applied the advice

Buffett discovered his passion for business and investing early, buying his first stock at age 11. Following that inner pull, Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway into a company worth more than $1 trillion by the time he stepped down as CEO at the end of last year. He led the conglomerate for 60 years.

Buffett says he did not choose investing because it was expected or glamorous, but because it was the kind of work he would have wanted to do even without a paycheck. The billionaire acknowledged in a 2021 letter to shareholders that “economic realities” may interfere with a student’s search to find a job they would do even if they weren’t getting paid.

“Even so, I urge the students never to give up the quest,” he wrote in the letter. “For when they find that sort of job, they will no longer be ‘working.’”

You don’t need a grand speech or a manifesto to set boundaries. You just need a series of quiet, firm choices. Start small—maybe today you actually leave on time, or tomorrow you ignore Slack for one hour. Watch how fast your energy rebounds when you stop giving it away for free.

How to set boundaries at work and prevent burnout

It’s a familiar feeling: you look up from your laptop, the sun has long since set, your coffee is a cold, oily puddle, and you realize work has once again swallowed your entire personality. In our 2026 “hyper-connected” world, the line between “the office” and “the rest of my life” isn’t just blurred—it’s basically been erased.

But here’s the truth your boss might not tell you: boundaries aren’t an act of rebellion; they’re an act of survival. Setting limits doesn’t make you “difficult” or “lazy.” It makes you a high-performer who actually has the gas left in the tank to do a good job. If you’re tired of being a human Slack notification, here are five practical ways to reclaim your life without the workplace drama.

Save Your Brain from Multi-Tasking

We’ve all tried to do “deep work” while a group chat pings every thirty seconds. Science tells us that every time you get interrupted, it takes about 23 minutes to get back into a state of flow. If you’re interrupted five times an hour, you’re essentially working in a blender.

The Move: Carve out two “sacred slots” daily (think 9:30 AM and 2:00 PM).

How to follow it: Mark your calendar as “Busy” and tell the team: “I’m going heads-down on the [Project Name] until 11:00 to get it across the line. Catch you then!” This isn’t being antisocial; it’s being protective of the quality you deliver. People respect a pro who knows how to focus.

Kill the “Sad Desk Lunch” Tradition

The “working lunch” is one of the greatest scams of the modern era. Eating while staring at a spreadsheet doesn’t make you more productive; it just makes you resentful and crumbs-covered.

Your brain is hardware, and even the best hardware needs a reboot. Stepping away for 30 minutes—to walk, to read, or to actually taste your food—drops your cortisol levels and allows your subconscious to solve the problems you’ve been staring at all morning. High performers treat lunch as non-negotiable fuel, not an optional luxury.

Stop Sending the “Unlimited Availability” Signal

If you answer an email at 9:00 PM on a Tuesday, you aren’t just “getting ahead”—you’re training your colleagues that you are always open for business.

Decide on a hard stop time (let’s say 6:00 PM) and stick to it like it’s a doctor’s appointment. Pack the bag, shut the lid, and leave. If you feel the “one more email” itch, remind yourself: no one on their deathbed wishes they’d spent more time on a slide deck. Staying late occasionally is being a team player; staying late every night is a habit that invites burnout.

Stop Covering Up for Your Lazy Colleagues Always

There is a massive difference between being a helpful teammate and being a crutch for a slacker. If you find yourself constantly “covering” or “polishing” a co-worker’s messy output, you aren’t helping them—you’re enabling them.

Instead, set a boundary: next time the “Can you just handle this?” request comes in, pivot gently. “I’d love to help, but my plate is at capacity with [Task X]. If you can get it to a draft stage by Friday, I can give it a 10-minute look then.” Energy is finite. Spend yours on your own growth, not on cleaning up someone else’s avoidable chaos.

Distance Yourself from the “Energy Vampires” and toxic colleagues

We all know them: the colleagues who leave you feeling physically drained after a five-minute conversation. Whether they are chronic complainers or “drama magnets,” they are taxing on your mental health.

You can’t always fire these people, but you can “polite-distance” them.

The Strategy: Keep interactions short and work-focused.

The Exit: “That sounds like a lot, but I’ve got a deadline breathing down my neck—gotta run!” You aren’t being cold; you’re being a steward of your own vibe. Surround yourself with the people who actually spark your creativity, and let the “mood-hoovers” find someone else to haunt.

Here are five strategic career moves that help you become unfireable in 2026 and beyond, along with specific steps you can take to make each one a reality.

Becoming Indispensable Through Cross‑Functional Collaboration

One of the strongest ways to become unfireable is by working across teams and functions. Employees who only excel in their own silo risk being overlooked when organizational priorities shift. Collaborating with other departments increases your visibility, expands your network and deepens your understanding of how the business works, with Deloitte research suggesting a 53% improvement in performance.

To build cross‑functional influence, start by identifying departments that intersect with your daily work. Reach out to a colleague in one of those areas with a simple offer to help or a request to understand their priorities. For example, if you’re in operations, connect with sales to better anticipate demand patterns. Attend (or ask to be included in) meetings where different teams share updates.

When you take the time to understand others’ challenges and contribute solutions, you become a bridge that helps the organization operate more smoothly. Leaders notice people who connect dots between functions because they reduce friction and help teams work together effectively.

Owning High‑Impact Outcomes, Not Just Tasks

Task ownership keeps the lights on, but outcome ownership drives business success. Professionals who are seen as responsible for results, not just execution, become go‑to people when decisions are made. People who deliver outcomes understand context, take thoughtful initiative and hold themselves accountable for results that matter.

To shift from tasks to outcomes, start with one project and define what success looks like in measurable terms. Instead of saying, “I completed the customer report,” reframe it as, “I completed the customer report and highlighted three key insights that helped the team reduce churn by 8%.”

Track progress against the outcomes you define and communicate results in a concise, business‑focused way. When you habitually demonstrate that you don’t just do work but produce value, your contributions become too valuable to ignore.

Building Expertise That Robots And Outsourcing Can’t Replicate

Technology is reshaping the workplace at a rapid pace. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 projects that by 2030, 39% of the skills employees use today will be outdated or transformed. Employers are prioritizing workers who combine technical know-how with uniquely human capabilities like creativity, problem-solving and judgment. Professionals who invest in skills that machines or outsourcing can’t replicate become far more resilient and indispensable.

To stay ahead, identify emerging skills in your field that intersect with human judgment. For instance, mastering AI tools to analyze data while interpreting the business implications creates value that no automated system can deliver alone. Similarly, developing expertise in regulatory frameworks, complex project management or client relationships ensures that your contribution is difficult to replace.

Start small by dedicating a few hours per week to deep learning in one high-impact area and applying it to real projects at work. Share your insights with your team or leadership to demonstrate both competence and the practical impact of your growing expertise. By focusing on skills that are both rare and essential, you position yourself as someone the organization cannot do without.

Being The Go‑To Person For Critical Processes

Every organization has critical processes, such as onboarding, annual planning, quality control, compliance reporting or customer escalation handling, to name a few. When you’re the person others rely on to keep these processes running, your presence becomes a point of stability.

To become that person, identify a process that is important, a bit under‑managed or not owned by a clear owner. Take the initiative to document it, improve it and help others understand it. For example, if your team’s onboarding process is inconsistent, build a reliable checklist, schedule regular check‑ins and offer coaching to new joiners.

When teammates come to you first for guidance or troubleshooting, you’re not only supporting smooth operations but also building credibility as someone who ensures continuity and reliability. This kind of contribution becomes a subtle but significant reason for leadership to retain you, even when budgets tighten.

Aligning Your Work With Long‑Term Company Goals

Being a professional who contributes to long‑term strategic priorities makes you more valuable than someone who only executes short‑term tasks. Leaders are always thinking ahead, and employees who help translate strategic direction into operational action gain influence and visibility.

Start by understanding your company’s key objectives for the next year. These may come from leadership town halls, strategic planning documents or department goals. Then, position your projects and contributions in terms of how they support those objectives.

if your company is prioritizing customer retention, frame your work in terms of customer satisfaction gains or churn reduction. Use language in updates and meetings that links your efforts directly to strategic outcomes. This practice helps others, including decision makers, see you as someone who completes work and moves the organization forward.

Becoming unfireable does not mean you can never leave your job or that your role is completely irreplaceable in the literal sense. What it means is that you’re consistently contributing at a level where decision makers value your presence, expertise and impact so much that replacing you becomes costly in terms of time, clarity and stability.

Each of these five simple career moves are ways to reinforce your value strategically. Start by choosing one area to focus on this quarter, set a few measurable goals and document the results as you go. Over time, these actions compound into a professional reputation that leaders respect and depend on. Remember, you’re building not just a job history but a career story that positions you for longevity and influence. You’ve got this!