What are the biggest lessons you have learned in the corporate world?

Following are my 2 cents:

1. If you believe that your company is politics-free, you are wrong. This is human nature to struggle for power and with this, politics is automatically born.
2. Always keep your acts discrete. You need to understand that it’s just a matter of time when your colleagues turn against you in pursuit of a better position. If you are aiming for something, process it as discretely as possible.
3. Never rely on the company too much. Despite the friendly nature of your management and colleagues, you are working for a firm whose primary work is to earn money. No matter your personal relation, you will get fired if the company doesn’t feel you are useful enough. Stay loyal to the work, not your company.
4. Before a company decides on down-sizing/laying-off, you can predict that it’s about to happen. It starts with the small things; your manager treating you differently, more important stuff starts being passed over to other teams, you start getting neglected in team and group meetings. When these things begin to happen, know something is about to happen, and get prepared.
5. Always keep your skills sharp and up to date. When you joined your company, you replaced someone already working over there. Similarly, there is someone younger, more talented resource outside preparing himself for your position. You need to take risks, try to climb up the corporate ladder because if you don’t you can easily be dispensable.
6. Lastly and most importantly, understand the difference between professional and personal relationships. There will be times when you will need to have a tough conversation with a friendly colleague of yours. You need to maintain a thin professional boundary around you at all times which makes people aware of the limitations they can go to. If you don’t do this, you will often find yourself exploited with those close to you.

Overall, the competition in the corporate world can be fierce and at times might lead people to get panic attacks. But if you learn to maintain your work-life balance and create solid boundaries for yourself and people around you; corporate jobs can be highly rewarding.

Originally written on Quora.