5 pieces of popular career advice that you should ignore

Business Insider — 27 May 2025

Jochen Menges, Professor of Human Resource Management and Leadership at the University of Zurich, challenges the popular career advice to “follow your passion,” calling it “probably as vague as it gets” and “not an actionable goal.” Instead, he recommends setting goals around the emotions you want to feel at work, such as pride, and aligning your career with those emotional needs. “If I align my emotional needs more with what I do — with my career prospects — then I’m a lot better off. That, in turn, will accelerate your career,” he says.

Menges also highlights the growing importance of soft skills in an AI-driven workplace. As machines increasingly take over technical tasks, humans will often need to interpret and evaluate what AI systems produce. “Now, you’ve got to bring those emotions back because whatever AI does needs evaluation, and that evaluation comes down to how we feel about what appears on our screens,” he explains.

The article challenges several familiar pieces of career advice, urging readers to question simplistic slogans. It suggests that adaptability, emotional judgment, and clarity about what truly drives you can offer a more sustainable path to success than chasing a passion or climbing a rigid corporate ladder.

Article by Tim Paradis