领导力内部网络是一个在线社区，商界最具思想和影响力的人士会在此及时回答关于职业生涯和领导力的问题。今天的问题是：对于即将进入职场的应届生，你有什么建议？回答者是《你养育了我们，现在与我们共事：千禧一代、职业成功和打造强大职场团队》（You Raised Us, Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Workplace Teams）的作者、Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership的总裁和波士顿学院工作家庭中心（Boston College Center for Work & Family）的访问学者劳伦•斯蒂勒•瑞克林。

每到毕业季，老一辈人总会尤其热心地贡献自己的才智，希望能给这些应届生在职业生涯开始之际一些点拨。毕业典礼上的发言者仔细推敲着语言，试图给他们带来鼓舞和欢乐，而朋友和亲戚则时刻准备着用自己的智慧箴言进行一番例行教导。

对应届生而言，尽管铺天盖地的建议都是出于善意，却让人感到喘不过气。想要理清这些海量建议，从中找到追逐梦想的道路，与此同时给领导留下深刻印象，打破代沟，装扮成成功人士，展现出任何必要的好印象和出色的职业道德，这可不是容易的事情。

作为加入建议大军的一员，我在此建议的重点放在两个方面。首先是避免职场上的流言蜚语。你可能很难拒绝去讨论同事的表现（或表现不足）、外形（包括评级打分，以及讨论身材和着装选择），或者是猜测谁将丢掉饭碗或有机会晋升高级经理。这类办公室谈话可以让人在平凡事务之余作为消遣，同时了解同事的想法。不过它们对职业生涯往往有破坏性影响，对于无意间涉及的谈话目标也很不友好。

那些远离流言蜚语的人更容易在职场上赢得尊重。他们对这些问题的沉默，不会被看作自负或是对参与讨论者的否定，而是作为一种沉默的力量，树立起行为的榜样。

我的第二条建议是当心建议。你面对的挑战是弄清那些给你建议的人是单纯为你好，还是为了其他什么事情。毕竟，建议会受到恐惧、嫉妒、竞争、爱情、不求回报的喜爱，或其他个人或职业考量的影响。

确保你获得的建议，是那些可以信赖的人为了你的最大利益而提出的明智建议。要做到这点，你需要认识到没有人可以完美地提供关于一切问题的建议。扩大你可以信赖的人群，并明智地选择它们。

在你正式走向讲台，接受学位证书的时候，一定会百感交集。之后你很快就会迈出进入职场的第一步，那一瞬间又将是充满兴奋而忐忑不安的。确保自己带着其他人赠予你的最佳智慧，并选择那些符合你目标和梦想的建议。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

The Leadership Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question, “What advice do you have for college graduates entering the workforce?” is written by Lauren Stiller Rikleen, author of You Raised Us, Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Workplace Teams, president of the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership, and a visiting scholar at the Boston College Center for Work & Family.

Graduation season marks that time of year when senior generations are particularly eager to offer their wisdom, hoping to influence new graduates as they embark on their careers. Commencement speakers carefully craft remarks to try to inspire and delight, while friends and relatives stand ready to reinforce the formal guidance with their own words of wisdom.

For the new graduate, the wide-ranging advice, albeit well meaning, can feel overwhelming. It is no small feat to sort through myriad recommendations for ways to pursue your dreams while impressing your supervisors, breaking generational stereotypes, dressing for success, and otherwise demonstrating that ever necessary good impression and strong work ethic.

As another voice adding to the advice mix, I will focus my recommendations on two areas. The first involves avoiding gossip in the workplace. It can be hard to resist the conversations that focus on a colleague’s performance (or lack thereof), visual appearance (including rating systems and comments on body type and clothing selections), or predictions about who is likely to lose their jobs or otherwise find themselves in the crosshairs of a senior manager. Office talk of this nature offers a diversion from mundane tasks and insights into what your colleagues think. But they are also often destructive to careers and unkind to their unaware recipients.

Those who stay above the fray by avoiding office gossip tend to be the more respected people in the workplace. Their silence on these issues is not seen as stuffiness or negative judgment on those participating, but rather as a quiet strength of character that serves as a behavior to model.

My second piece of advice is to be wary of advice. Your challenge is to discern if those giving advice have your best interests in mind, or even know what those best interests may be. After all, advice can be influenced by fear, jealousy, rivalry, love, unrequited affection, or other personal or professional considerations. Even family members may offer advice tinged by their own worries or other family dynamics.

Make sure you heed advice from people you can trust to offer wise guidance in your best interests. This requires a recognition that there is no perfect source of advice for all issues. Broaden your base of people you rely on and choose them wisely.

Many mixed emotions accompany you on that ceremonial walk to the dais to receive your diploma. Shortly after, you will be taking your first steps into your new workplace, another moment filled with excitement and trepidation. Be sure to bring with you the best of the wisdom others have tried to impart and select the advice that fits your goals and dreams.