Why being a Cubicle Warrior gives you an unfair advantage

When you pay attention to your work environment and have a good understanding of what you want out of a job, you get an unfair advantage over those who don’t. You put your career on offense while most others are playing defense.

By learning and using Cubicle Warrior skills on the job:

Cubicle Warriors get better performance review ratings

The people you work with, for the most part, know how to do their jobs. But doing the job well and being smart about how you approach the job are two different things.

Cubicle Warriors understand that their SMART goals need to be negotiated to protect their interests. They know that having a task management system that organizes their work will give them the right work to do at the right time. They know how to track their goal attainment and their accomplishments. Then, when the annual performance review comes around, they know how to write their performance review in a way that realistically shows their accomplishments and gives their manager ammunition to defend their rating.

You get higher ratings and better pay and bonuses if you execute these skills well.

Better job opportunities through business networking

Cubicle Warriors spend time building their business networks and help others in their business network first. By connecting regularly with their network, they understand how business is changing and where there are possible opportunities for work.

When you build a business network and then totally disregard it once you have found a job, you fail. All jobs have endings and when you see the ending to your job coming up, you have no prospects because your network is gone.

Cubicle Warriors operate from a position of strength

When you work for corporations, corporations have all the advantages: they pay your salary and benefits, can move you to any job position in the company, can request that you transfer to a different city and can lay you off in one heartless minute.

Essentially, corporations want your job skills and work to achieve the corporation’s goals. And that’s OK.

Most people, however, abdicate any position to their manager and the corporation. Cubicle Warriors don’t. While corporations still have all the advantages, Cubicle Warriors have already thought through what work they like doing and what they don’t. They already know where they are willing to live and the parameters around which they would move their family. They have a year’s worth of take-home pay in the bank so if they get laid off, their Castle is not threatened.

In short, the corporation can have the advantages, but it doesn’t own your soul.

Invest the time for your career

One thinks that all this career stuff takes a huge amount of time. And, initially, it does. But the time is more about understanding yourself and your family’s needs, your skills, building a plan for saving, and knowing how you can work your plan.

After that, it is consciously making the effort to maintain and build your business network, judging how long your position will last and having the systems in place to track your work.

Most people won’t take even this little time to do the work. Cubicle Warriors will.

Give yourself an unfair advantage.