Best-Selling Author Scott Berkun’s Biggest Mistakes

Scott Berkun is a best-selling author and a professional speaker. He has worked at Microsoft for 9 years and with Automattic, the Creators of WordPress.

Scott authors a popular blog where he has posted over 1400 posts since 2003. One of the blog posts talks about his biggest mistakes he has commited in his life.

I figured this would be a great fit for this ‘My Mistake’ project. I have taken one of his mistakes to highlight here.

Not staying with the same boss/group.
When I was there (’94 to ’03), after a long stint on the IE team, I jumped around Microsoft every couple of years, putting my curiosity and passions ahead of climbing ladders. I wanted a diversity of experiences – I had four job titles in nine years at Microsoft – but this made it harder to get promoted and, in some cases, to earn respect in the MSFT culture. The advice I give people often is pick your manager first. A great manager will negate most other work problems, whereas an awful manager will negate most other work pleasures. Good managers get promoted and often their best people rise with them. For what I do now, my diversity of experience is an asset, but my career at Microsoft suffered for it.

To read his entire list, visit his website.