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Knowing your 'place' in your career can make or break you. No matter what area of the whole wide world of the ultimate goal of receiving a 'pay check' you find yourself in, the only things your truly have to sell or offer anyone else is yourself.

I truly believe that given certain situations, circumstances and occurrences that everyone falls into a particular place. We all have a certain 'place' in certain areas on our lives. Of knowing your place can prove to be difficult in more personal relationships such as friendships, romantic involvements, and with family. However, in the career arena an appreciation of knowing your 'place' is vital to success and growth.

For me in the legal field there is a certain hierarchy that is unspoken in this world. I know this exists in all different career worlds so it can apply to many of you out there. In many fields the people starting out have to pay their dues, get hazed, work their way to the top etc. Just recently watching “Flipping Out” on Bravo I noticed the same thing occurring. The main character, Jeff, is very hard on his assistants. He expects perfection and to have them help make his life run a certain way. The assistants complain and can’t hack it. Jeff then gets berated for being so hard or for being such a ‘jerk’ etc. I remember him commenting, “I have been doing this for 20 years and if they can’t do what I had to do then they should find another job.” I am sure Oprah, Martha Stewart etc. all expect the same. Knowing that you are starting out and that you don’t have the experience (no matter how fabulous you already are) will help you in the long run. Taking a step back to learn from those who have been around, have already ‘made’ it, and being a good employee to them is the formula for success. You will start to gain your own reputation, make your own mark, and always have these people as colleges and references. You will soon be able to sell your own name even better than they are selling their own.

I am starting out my career and working for an attorney who has his own private practice. He has been in private practice for 13 years and an attorney for 18. He knows everyone and has a great reputation. Within our office is another law firm. We don’t work directly with them but share office space and help each other from time to time. The husband and wife team that runs that practice have also been around for a very long time and have great reputations.

I have been hired by my boss as an assistant soon to be associate. I basically do all the legal work except go to court, until I get licensed. I understand my place with my boss. I try to make his work load easier and life at the office run smoothly. Sometimes my duties are not limited to legal work but expand into secretarially, personal assistant, and marketing duties. Is this what I went to school for? No. However, by doing this I have been basically handed a partnership in a practice with a great reputation and client base. Numerous times my boss has commented on how he enjoys working with me and as soon as possible he wants to make the practice Solare and Scott. I have already slowly been making a name for myself. I even have other attorneys telling me that they have heard great things about me.

To provide a comparison the practice that office shares with us has an associate that they hired a few months ago. He graduated with me, I didn’t have good opinion of him then and it has definitely not improved. He has the same opportunities as I do, to be apart and really learn from people that have made it for themselves. He has this great opportunity to link his name with two people that are very highly respected in our community. He undoubtedly is also a good attorney but does not know his place. He has not done the work they hired him for and has repeatedly show boated. He has repeatedly made the husband very upset. He is continually making mistakes that they have warned him about. It seems as though he is moments away from getting fired about twice a month and if the wife was not pregnant right now we would have been out the door a long time ago. He is starting to get a bad reputation for himself. Other attorneys are being told that he is hard to work with and that others are having issues with him. He most likely will continue on and be successful as attorney. He will be successful because he will make money by doing anything to get a client not because he has a good reputation or following in the community.

The point of this is to remind myself and others to know your place in the work world. Never do anything that is demeaning or below you but at the same time a little bit of hard work and paying your dues will go a long way. We all have to start somewhere and sometimes that is the bottom but when we get to the top we will want someone to do the same things for us that we did for our bosses back in the day. By knowing your place now you will be able to more quickly elevate your place in the future.