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Kevin and I were talking today about career development and pretty quickly came up with a list of tips. From Kevin’s post:

1. Don’t be a dick: Translated - be constructive, helpful and positive
2. Teach yourself something new on every project.
3. Be passionate about what you do: If you’re not, find something else to do.
4. Get involved in the internal and external communities.
5. Repeat step one.
6. Know when to run: No one talks about it, but you have to know when to get out of a bad situation. I’ve been very lucky at AOL to know when it was time to move on to a new group or challenge. Thankfully, I’ve always found a soft place to land with new challenges.
7. Expect change, roll with it, move on: Working in a company means things will change. When you’re not in charge, there will be lots of stuff that happens that you don’t agree with. You have to know when to fight, when to give up, and when to move on. The quicker you can do all three, the better.

A few of these I would consider general rules for living a proper life, but in particular they should serve as a model for anyone looking to advance in their field. If you’ve got any tips of your own, post them in the comments!