Starting Out: The Advice We Wish We'd Been Given

Career Conversations: a special episode of The Route to Networking Podcast, hosted by Victoria and Chloe from Hamilton Barnes

If you're a regular listener, this episode might throw you a little. There are two voices at the mic, and neither of them belongs to a guest.

Usually, Victoria (Head of Marketing at Hamilton Barnes) and Chloe (Senior Marketing Executive) are the ones working behind the scenes: planning episodes, booking guests and making sure everything comes together. This time, they've swapped sides of the microphone.

Why? Because after more than 250 conversations with professionals across the industry, plus countless chats with candidates and hiring managers, the same questions keep coming up. What should I actually do with my career? Do I need another qualification? How do I get experience when every "entry-level" job wants three years of it?

So this episode is for students, graduates and anyone taking their first steps into the working world. Think of it as the advice they wish they'd been given, a few lessons learned the hard way, and, in their own words, "maybe a couple of questionable life choices".

Here's what they cover.

1. Passion or Practicality?

We've all been told to "follow your passion". We've also been nudged towards the safe options: doctor, lawyer, engineer. But how realistic is either piece of advice when you're 21 and expected to choose what you'll do for the next 40 years, often without knowing what half the jobs even involve?

Victoria and Chloe come at this from opposite directions. One had a clear plan mapped out from university onwards, aiming for a very specific career. The other never pinned it down to one path and has been figuring it out as she goes. Neither ended up quite where they expected, and their stories show that whether you're eyeing network engineering, cyber security or still weighing up your options, your first plan doesn't have to be your final one. (Listen in to find out just how big one of those detours was. Let's just say it wasn't a small one.)

The big idea in this section flips the usual advice on its head: what if passion doesn't have to come first? Sometimes you only discover you love something after you've started doing it and got good at it.

They also tackle a real dilemma from a listener: take a job that isn't quite what you want long-term, or hold out for something you're more passionate about? Their answer swaps "Is this my dream job?" for a far more useful question.

2. Are Certifications Enough to Get You Hired?

You've studied, you've passed the exams, you've got the certs. Time to apply. You open an entry-level job description and there it is: three years' experience required.

It's the classic catch-22. How do you get experience if nobody will give you the experience?

Certifications absolutely have value, especially early on. They show you've built knowledge and committed to learning. But they don't prove you can apply that knowledge in a real environment, where things rarely behave the way they did in the exam question. As Victoria and Chloe put it, a cert isn't the finished project. It's one part of the picture.

So what fills in the rest? This section is packed with practical ideas for "DIY-ing" your experience, plus a surprisingly strong case for projects that go wrong. Hiring managers on the podcast have said the same thing again and again: they want to hear how you think, not just what you've passed.

They also call out a trap many early-career candidates fall into: one cert, then another, then another, until your LinkedIn headline needs an extension. Their question to ask yourself before booking the next exam is a genuinely sharp one.

3. The Untaught Workplace Lessons

The jump from university to your first professional role can feel huge. Suddenly there are emails, meetings, deadlines and people using phrases you've never heard before, while everyone else seems to know exactly what's going on. You smile, you nod, you quietly Google later.

This section covers the skills nobody puts on a syllabus:

• Asking for help. When should you ask, and when should you figure it out yourself? There's a simple shift in how you ask that makes all the difference (and a memorable four-word motto to go with it).
• Communication. You can be technically brilliant, but if you can't give an update, flag a missed deadline or ask for what you need, you've got what they call a "technically brilliant problem".
• Owning your mistakes. Wrong email, misunderstood brief, the dreaded reply-all. Mistakes will happen. What people remember is how you handle them, and hiding them only makes things worse.
• The unwritten rules. How formal should emails be? Is it "Hi" or "Dear"? Can you use an emoji? Nobody hands you a slide deck on this, so how do you work it out?

It's a reassuring listen for anyone who's ever worried they ask too many questions. And there's a warning about the day you suddenly realise you've started speaking fluent corporate jargon yourself.

4. Imposter Syndrome

You got the job. Everyone's happy. You made it. Then you actually start, and a new thought creeps in: they hired me, so now I need to make sure they never realise they've made a mistake.

It's one of the strangest parts of starting out. You've been handed clear evidence that someone believes in you, and your brain responds with: "No."

Victoria and Chloe unpack why it's so common, starting with the unfair comparison at the heart of it: measuring your first few weeks against a colleague's tenth year. They also draw a really useful line between two thoughts that feel similar but couldn't be more different:

• "I don't know this yet", which gives you something to act on
• "I don't deserve to be here", which is just your brain, in their words, ‘being a hater’

They talk about why feedback matters more than your own (very harsh) self-assessment, and whether imposter syndrome ever really goes away. Spoiler: it might not, but it does change shape, and so does the way you handle it.

They finish with a listener who finally landed their dream role and is now terrified of being "found out". It's a moment that will sound very familiar to a lot of people.

5. Is Salary Really the Best Measure of Career Progress?

Number goes up, career goes well. Simple, right?

Salary is the easiest way to measure progress because it's an actual number. Imagine telling someone your confidence is up 37% on last year and your troubleshooting is having a very strong quarter. But a number on its own leaves out half the story: industry, location, role, priorities and personal circumstances all shape what people earn.

In this final section, Victoria and Chloe make the case for the progress nobody sends a congratulations email about. Handling something on your own that used to need help. Being trusted with more. The day someone asks you for help with the thing you used to ask about.

Then they tackle the most dangerous part of the conversation: comparison. You're perfectly happy with how things are going, until someone you graduated with posts "I'm delighted to announce…" alongside a professionally taken headshot. Cue the mental maths.

To be clear, they're not saying pay doesn't matter. As they point out, landlords still don't accept professional development as a form of payment. But they share a set of questions that give a far fuller picture of where you are, ending with one that might change how you scroll LinkedIn.

The Bottom Line

If there's one message running through the whole episode, it's this: you don't need your entire career figured out before you start. You don't need every certification, you don't need to know everything, and you definitely don't need to be the finished product before someone gives you a chance.

This article only scratches the surface. The full episode is packed with listener dilemmas, honest stories from both hosts and plenty of laughs along the way. Whether you're still at university, freshly graduated or a few months into your first role, it's well worth a listen.

Got a question?

Victoria and Chloe would love to hear from you. You can find them both on LinkedIn or through the Hamilton Barnes website.

More support for starting out

• Empowering Future Network Engineers: training resources, career advice and practical support for getting into the industry, plus a LinkedIn community where you can connect with others doing the same.
• Hamilton Barnes jobs: roles across networking, data centres, telecoms, security, cloud and more.
• Interactive quiz: not sure where you fit? Try the quiz on the Hamilton Barnes Media Hub, under Industry Insights and Interactive Tools.
• The Route to Networking Podcast: conversations with professionals across tech about their careers, experiences and advice.