If you are in software, ALWAYS keep yourself employable. Learn as much as you can on your weekends and after work hours so that you can get a job in a week’s time. Your company is your worst enemy, and they are trying to screw you as much as they can, and there might come a situation quite often that you just cannot continue at your current position and so you need to move out. So if your knowledge base is shallow, you are in for a nasty ride.
Don’t work for a company for more than 2 yrs (max) if you are not getting something substantial in that company. If you stay for more than 2 yrs at your current company without much gains in position or salary, you are pushing your self down the pyramid, and you won’t be able to recover.
Surround yourself with people smarter than you. If you always the smartest person in the room, you are at the wrong place.
You might feel humiliated by people, who are more intelligent that you are, behaving bad with you. But keep taking that crap and still continue learning from them. This would help you see a better day tomorrow. Don’t feel sad that they behave rude. Most of the time they would, and yet keep pestering them whenever they are in a good mood.
Don’t behave bad with your colleagues. You never know who is going to be your manager tomorrow
If you are getting into a technology or domain, ask yourself a question: Can a normal 15 yr old guy be replaced by a normal 2 yr experienced guy in this particular field. If so, don’t spend too much time learning or getting into it, as you would soon be replaced by a 2 yr expd guy who can perform the same job.
Don’t be at a place where you are not valued. If they make you feel always that you are just a burden and dispensable (and on top of it, you are not learning anything new), just leave that place.
Doing a good 2 yr MS or MBA would give you more return that 10 yrs of work experience with just a bachelor degree
If you are in product development cos. and want to work for some of those cos. like apple, microsoft, amazon etc etc., always keep yourself super technical, even if you are a manager. If you do not like technology, then go and join services and do project management and handle big accounts. If you are in some not so great product companies, and you are a manager who has lost touch with technology also, and you handle a team of 3 people, your career is over. You are neither a guy who has the experience of managing a global account of 500 people, nor you have any depth in technology. So your next career move would be to start a chai shop.
Try to find patent generating ideas, get guidance from people who have filed patents, and try to file some patents. That would give you a super credibility.
If your company doesnt give you a good lunch and doesnt provide you with good facilities, leave that company.