What Are Some Common Career Landmines People Step On

1.) Ignoring your Best Interests

Career Landmine

I learned at a young age that jobs do not have your best interest in mind. Careers do. The difference between a job and a career is skill set.

I worked as a stadium cleaner in the summer, I showed up every day, then did overtime. I was offered a higher paying fun job at a charity, by a friend. However, I turned it down, because I didn’t want to let my manager down.

Because of medical reasons, which are better now. I told my supervisor, that I needed to leave due to some minor chest pain.

Take into account, that we were over-staffed that day as well.

She sarcastically asked me “are you going to die?”

I said “Nope, not for a place that doesn’t care about my well being.”

Then luckily got that job working with my friend. Which I should’ve picked up from the get-go(beginning)

After that humbling experience. I realized, companies do what’s best for them.

If you don’t look out for your best interest, then who will?

2.) Being Replaceable


A common career landmine that many people often ignore, is not investing in their education. Whether it be through books, online courses, or school.

The difference between being indispensable(not easy to replace) vs dispensable is your skill set.

When a chandelier flickers and/or burns out it gets repaired/restored. A light bulb, on the other hand, gets thrown out. Even if it can be fixed it’s not worth the time because of how easy it is to get a new one.

When you can be easily replaced, you’re dancing in a career landmine field. Be a Chandelier, not a light bulb.

A common example is why skilled programmers can call in sick more often. Without fear of losing their job. While many fast food workers don’t even have paid sick days. Research shows 63 percent of workers don’t have access to paid sick days

Are you easily replaceable? How hard would it be for your boss to hire another you? Think about the time it would take, the chance they were responsible, etc.

I used to work in retail. During the job interview, I offered to manage their social media. For a pay bump of course.

A few months down the road I realized that even though I was paid the most. Other people were getting fired. People that were more dedicated, and never came late.

When my co-worker said, he got laid off I wondered how?

Because I was immature and did not put as much effort as I should’ve into that job. After I came to work late for the 5th time in a row.

My boss said, “if you weren’t a tech geek, you’d be out of here by now!”

When layoffs are being made, the last thing people discuss at a boardroom, “is John Doe a good person?”

When hospitals run out of money, the doctor never loses their job. When a stadium I worked at made cuts to staff, the chefs, and laborers were out the door first.

3.) Lack of Ownership

Pizza Pie

I know people with cushy jobs. . My friend named John’s job for a hotel was reviewing restaurants. All John had to do was take a picture of the food, then write about the experience of the venue.

He was paid 500$ per review. Literally getting paid to eat and talk about it. After some time, the companies blog picked up traction on the internet. John was proud.

So proud, that he would tease me for working on my own blog for free!

After his year contract was up, he was laid off. While this company was still making thousands of dollars off his videos.

Entrepreneurship is difficult. However, in 3–5 years. There is an upward trend in income.

4.) Lack of portfolio(continued)

People work jobs for years and after their done. All they have to show for it is a line of words on a piece of paper called a resume.

“Show, and then tell. not the other way around”

That’s what happened to John. He couldn’t find a job after getting fired. He applied to other jobs, but his name wasn’t on the reviews he was getting paid for.

Why would anybody hire John? Without proof of experience.

Would you hire someone for a job, just because they say they can do it.

When you’re looking for a barber/stylist, would you rather a resume? Or a picture of the hair they actually cut.

Have proof you can do the work. Are you a web developer? Show me your website. Are you a Home Decorator? Show me your house… or at least a home you decorated :p

4.) Scared of Asking for a Raise

Money Raise

The fourth career landmine. Never negotiating a raise/promotion. The Hardest workers are often scared to ask for a raise. Then get upset when they’re under compensated/appreciated.

Look, people like your boss often don’t become successful by paying more than necessary. A sad truth.

However, we do the same thing too. For example, when paying for TV subscriptions, we virtually never offer to pay more? We wait until a price increase and then decide if it’s worth the boost.

You have the leverage. When you want a raise, the boss needs to pick between increasing your income. Which, you’ll almost always still make more money than what you’re getting paid.


Getting rid of you. Looking for another employee. Vetting other employees. interviewing them. Teach them how to do the job. Hope they aren’t annoying or smell bad and a bunch of other variables. Wait for them to get up to your skill level.

5.) Interview Anxiety

Intimidating Interviewer with glasses and bald head.

Unless you’re living under a rock, that’s also under another rock. It becomes obvious that the most skilled people don’t always get the best jobs.

The higher you go, the more pressure there is to do good in Interviews. Interview skills don’t matter as much at Mcdonalds, but they do at top companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple.

Survey shows 92% of US adults have some form of interview anxiety.

Want to overcome interview anxiety. Go →here


92% of U.S. Adults Fear Something About Job Interviews, Survey Finds

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