Welcome to Edition #28 of Ask Gorick Anything. This AMA is part of Gorick's Newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.
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→ Read time: 3 min
ASK GORICK ANYTHING
“Should I go into the office?”
Have a career question? Ask me here.
Subscriber’s question:
“Hi Gorick, at my internship all employees work from home and come in the office 2 days a week. I have been coming in the office 5 days a week since they asked us to in the beginning.
There's 2 other interns, and 1 of them has already started working from home. It's an hour drive to the office usually.
Do you recommend I keep showing up in office? I don't want them to think I'm breaking any rule or anything.”
—Sofia in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Gorick’s response:
Hi Sofia,
Thanks for your question! What a stressful situation to be in, especially since it might seem like you’re getting mixed signals from everyone around you.
My advice? The “right” answer depends on 2 things: (1) the higher-ups' behavior and (2) your personal goals. Here’s what I mean:
The higher-ups’ behavior
Do people above you, especially your direct supervisor and people at the executive levels, come into the office every day?
If so, there's probably an unspoken rule that, if you want to get ahead, you'd want to show up in the office as well to demonstrate your commitment (read more on the Three C’s here).
If other interns are generally working from home but the higher-ups are in the office, this is actually a hidden opportunity for you to stand out.
Why? Because your coworkers have actually lowered the standard for everybody—so you'd stand out if you worked 3, 4, let alone 5 days vs. their 2.
And if no one’s in the office—including the higher-ups? Then save yourself the commute! After all, no one will even know if you’re in the office.
Your personal goals
Of course, just because there's an unspoken rule of being in the office if you want to get ahead doesn't mean it's the "right" move for you, especially given the long commute.
To that end, my question for you is: Would you like to get a return offer? Do you see a future at this organization?
If the answer is yes, then I'd work extra hard to stand out, especially if you know that not everyone will get a return job offer. (Here are my OREO-inspired strategies for standing out.)
If the answer is no, however, then maybe it’s not worth it to overextend yourself. Life is all about tradeoffs—and cutting corners in one area so you can do better in another is something we all have to do to stay sane.
As you likely already know, there's a lot of economic uncertainty right now—and a lot of new and recent grads are finding it really challenging to get jobs. (AI does play a role in this.)
I'm not sure if the company you're working for is booming or if it's hobbling along, but if you're feeling the economic uncertainty in your job, you may want to work extra hard to get a return offer.
Why? Then you (A) have something to fall back on if the economy goes south and (B) can go into next year's job search in a position of strength because you can now negotiate your offer since you've got an alternative to fall back on.
You’ve got this!
See you Tuesday for our next story and unspoken rule,
Gorick
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