Your boss might not want to know the real you after all.
One of the many pieces of career advice that emerged years ago and has somehow persisted is the idea that we should bring our whole selves to work.
That doesn't always work, and it's starting to look a bit threadbare with age, especially as the job market has cooled and employers can be more selective about those they hire.
"If you love wearing tight little leather outfits that are strapped on, I don't want to see that," said Margie Warrell, a leadership consultant and author of the book "The Courage Gap."
"That's not appropriate," she told Business Insider.
The whole-self idea is just one example of bumper-sticker wisdom that was meant to guide us through our careers but often doesn't hold up.
Here are six bits of trite work advice — and what to consider instead:
Follow your passion
The impulse to align your work with what you love makes sense. Yet, feeling like you have to "find your passion" can also set you up to fail.
"That's probably as vague as it gets," said Jochen Menges, a professor of human resource management and leadership at the University of Zurich. "It's not an actionable goal."
He told Business Insider that a better approach would be to set goals centered on the emotion you want to feel in your work, such as pride, even though you might not experience it every day.
"If I align my emotional needs more with what I do — with my career prospects — then I'm a lot better off," he said. That, in turn, will accelerate your career, Menges said.
Finding a job is a numbers game
When you're looking for a job, it can be tempting to apply to as many roles as possible to boost your chances of getting something.
It's an especially tempting tactic, given how often people report applying and never hearing back. In a LinkedIn survey conducted in late 2024 across more than a dozen countries, 37% of respondents said they had been applying more but hearing back less often.
While the spray-and-pray approach might be appealing, it's not always the best option. That's because networking to make connections inside an employer can often be more effective, recruiters say.
If you have a list of places you're targeting, you can — and should — network before the job gets posted, veteran career coach Laura Labovich told Business Insider. That's because once a job listing is live, recruiters and hiring managers aren't likely to do more than point you to the application.
Climb the corporate ladder
On a ladder, you can only go up or down.
The idea of scaling a corporate hierarchy has become outdated for many workers, Christian Tröster, an Academy of Management scholar and a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Germany's Kühne Logistics University, told Business Insider.
Instead, he said, people might want to consider what he called a "protean" career — one that changes shape over time.
Tröster said that rather than ascending a ladder, a better aim for many workers would be to become "psychologically successful."
"The ultimate goal of your career is feeling proud and accomplished," he said.
One practical reason you might not want to climb the ladder is that a push by some corporate leaders for "flatter" organizational structures — and an elimination of middle management — can mean there aren't as many rungs for ambitious workers to grab onto.
"Careers today are no longer linear," Warrell said. Instead, workers might opt for a lateral move, a side gig, or a so-called portfolio career, where you take on multiple jobs to earn a living while maintaining flexibility.
Warrell said that workers who chart their own paths are often more fulfilled than those who try to grind their way up an org chart.
Don't job-hop
Career advice once often included the suggestion that workers avoid changing jobs for at least a year to avoid appearing as though they weren't committed to an organization.
While a string of frequent job changes can raise concerns among prospective employers, Warrell said prohibitions on job-hopping have often softened.
She said "smart" job changes — even in relatively quick succession — that indicate you're taking on extra responsibility and developing new skills can add polish, not tarnish, to a résumé.
"It can be seen as a sign of ambition, adaptability — not instability," Warrell said.
Focus on tech skills
Technical mastery — especially in hot areas like artificial intelligence — can take you far and often leave you with your pick of jobs. Yet it's not the only route to career success.
AI is already taking on some coders' work, for example. In surveys, employers often say they're after so-called soft skills — abilities such as communication and teamwork.
Menges said one reason soft skills are important is that humans will still often be needed to evaluate what AI produces.
To help do that, he said, workers will need to rely in part on emotion for guidance. Menges said that in the 20th century, workers were often told to sequester their feelings in the workplace.
"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 said.
Bring your whole self to work
While it might have been well-intentioned, critics have long found the idea of showing up at work as the unvarnished version of yourself to be problematic.
Business leaders, including Google's Sundar Pichai and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, have pushed back on the concept.
Ella F. Washington, a professor of practice at Georgetown University, previously told Business Insider that a better way to think about the idea is to bring your whole professional self to work.
That might mean putting aside your politics or working with people you might not like. Or, Warrell said, it could mean pushing through a bad mood.
"If one part of your whole self is that you're short-tempered and grumpy in the morning, don't bring that self to work," she said.
Do you have a story to share about your job hunt or career? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
An earlier version of this story appeared on March 3, 2025.
