I know we are all biased to our own opinions, in particular when it comes to career advice so we'll take the later portion of the question with a grain of salt.

I'll go with #2 (since I never got any career advice growing up).

My piece of advice is to have a long-term mindset when it comes to the current decisions you make.

A lot of people look at jobs and focus on the current situation (makes way more sense if you are late in your career or close to retirement), i.e. current salary, benefits, leadership level, cost of living, location, etc. and I think that is where folks can go wrong. My advice to folks, especially young in their working career, is to think hard about where you want to be 10, 15, 20 years from now. What position is it? What company or type of company? What location? What skill (hard and soft) are needed to get there? Then start working towards that.

By way of experience, when I transitioned from the Army to Corporate there were plenty of gov't jobs or Junior Military Officer leadership programs that could have kept me in roughly the same salary range as I was getting in the military. But there just didn't seem to be the opportunity and growth potential there. They were cookie-cutter programs where you'd be just another number and that didn't appeal to me. Long story short, I found the company where I was going to have the opportunity to get where I want to be but it was going to be a $20k pay cut which isn't fun or easy, especially with 4 kids. But we made it through the program and in the four years since I've been out my income has more than doubled from when I started at this company and I'm in a great place in my career with a trajectory that I am more than satisfied with.

Take away: Had I been so focussed on current salary (plug for living below your means and preparing for a transition) and situation, I don't think I would have made the same decision.

Advice: Determine where you want to be in 10-20 years down the road in your career and start working towards that now.

What has been impactful advice for you or that you think is important to share?