If you guys listen to my other podcast with host Kai Wang, you might have noticed we talk about a concept called “quiet quitting”, or doing the bare minimum at work to get by.

Recently, there’s a concept of “quiet firing” where your boss sees you’re a lazy sack and doesn’t give you any of the promotions or raise you ask for. It’s a two-way street!

The people I’ve seen (or at least interview and communicate with regularly) don’t want to quietly quit. They’re not toxic bros trying to sociopathically step on people to get ahead either.

There’s a subset I enjoy talking to that would like a nice job or get to a point where they enjoy doing what they’re doing. Some people have a hard time doing that.

After interviewing a ton of top performers of the industry, and applied it myself, I’m sharing some of the common themes I’ve seen when it comes to skyrocketing your career.

For reference, the max salary I got was a pretty sizeable six figure salary when I left my latest job. I started at $25 dollars an hour when I started my first job.

Connect and Be Curious

Fiona Fleming is a prime example of someone who’s used her curiosity to connect and learn. The best part is, she has always been able to keep in contact with her crew. When you’re curious, you generally learn the best way to acquire knowledge when working? Connect with people and ask them.

Connecting isn’t just going to an awkward networking event and trying to smooze, it’s a lot more than that.

I used to have a lot of anxiety trying to network but I started to change that when I actually joined organizations and eventually lead them.

The best connectors are the ones who take initiative and actually make the events. Fiona for example leads the IFT group in Australia and is branded as a reliable person in her industry.

My Food Job Rocks follows a similar vein. The original intent of My Food Job Rocks was to selfishly be a way for me to network. It’s a win-win situation. I’d interview cool people and share it. This two-pronged networking approach helped me in my career and my well-being.

Most importantly, connecting grows exponentially. It’s similar to compound interest. Why? Because reputation is extremely valuable. When people know you as a nice person in the industry and say it again and again, it starts to become true. The connections I’ve made in college paid dividends as I kept in contact with them over the years.

If you want to truly become a connector, create something valuable that allows you to meet people. This can be as simple as a monthly dinner, or a conference, or well, even a podcast. There are so many ways. The most important thing is that you need to make something where people see you as the go-to person

Subject Matter Expert – Be Really Good

To gain trust in your organization, or even your industry, you have to be really good at your job. You have to be the go-to person for any technical problems and that’s a tough challenge.

Being really good at your job requires a lot of confidence which can be hard when you’re just starting your career. I would say it wasn’t until I was 30 where I actually realized I’m good at what I do. What’s worse is that in general, if you’re an ambitious upstart who keeps climbing, you will always feel like you’re not the expert because not many people want to keep on learning!

Just like being a great networker, being a subject matter expert requires you to tell the world to come to you for a problem only you can initiate and solve. It takes a lot of practice, but it’s worth it.

Generally, the best way to start this journey is to really tackle a hard challenge from beginning to end. There are always plenty of hard challenges at work and you will have to be proactive in solving them. If you’re just starting out, going above and beyond your project (eg: you work well cross-functionally, you pick up the phone and solve the problem right there, or you understand financials) is important. There is no playbook going above and beyond, but there is a mentality.

What is also very important is that you need to be likeable. When it’s down to the wire, most people get ahead by being likeable. Sure, you might have heard of the CEO who got to where they are stepping on other people, but there are plenty of people who climbed through the ranks by being thoughtful, understanding, and have the ability to go out of their way to help people when things don’t go well.

Make Decisions – Take Big Risks Early

The basis of leadership is to make decisions that if things go wrong, you would have to bare responsibility. This is stressful, anxious, and jarring. That’s why many people don’t do it.

Have you ever been on a group chat and someone asks someone to start something? Like an excel organizer. And then they don’t want to do that? Some may think it’s delegating, but it’s not. Making decisions involves being actionable.

When we look at top tier resumes, we see actionable statements such as “built division to produce $15 million in revenue” flooding their piece of paper. People like that because it shows that they not only got stuff done, but also produce revenue.

If your resume has none of that, then it’s important to consider taking initiative and start to build those out. It’s ok if you don’t have that. Most people stretch the truth on their achievements on their resume.

An important thing to note is Emotional Intelligence when it comes to making a decision. It’s more than just saying “we’ll do this”. Great decision makers have to balance making everyone happy, articulating the decision well, giving credit to the team, and balance emotions on both sides. Without considering this, it’s easy to see a great decision-maker become a tyrant. Though some tyrants succeed, most are called out on their BS.

There are plenty of people I’ve interviewed and knew personally who had to make big decisions early in life to get to where they have today. I recall talking to Mike Leonard, new CEO of Motif. After proving himself to Pepsi’s executive team, he was offered on the spot during a private plane ride to grow the Asian division and he took it, and crushed it.

These opportunities compound when you are well-liked, a subject matter expert, and actionable.

You’re More Valuable than you Think

Sometimes I read posts on a platform called subtle Asian mental health. The anonymous posters here have so much anxiety at work and are so scared to find another job.

I know a ton of friends who have impostor syndrome, or that you feel you’re not good enough to do the job and therefore it scares you to advance or take risks. I’ve been there before. It really sucks.

It takes time for you to be competent in your skills. You’ll figure it out in different ways.

The best advice I’ve gotten to know your worth is to actually talk to other people and try and find stories that are similar to what you are either going through or want to achieve. Once you realize that everyone’s human, everyone’s scared, everyone wants to just live, life gets a bit easier.