There's a nice Yugopnik video about a "capitalism survival guide" that tries to help navigate a disillusioned worker in the modern hellscape. There are some two VERY important things that he brough up as tips to the modern worker:
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Everyone is winging it. Regardless of the high expectations you see in job descriptions, you need to figure out how to bullshit your way past them: unless its something like a doctor, pilot, or engineer, you can probably learn the skills without getting a degree in them.
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Work JUST enough, the employee that stays the extra hours and stuff doesn't always get the promotion. Depending on your work and position, working more might just be a net negative, as your extra mile becomes next time's bare minimum. This can then hurt your co-workers too, and as for you individually, you might suffer the curse of being the "go-to" guy. Ergo, extra work for you for the same pay as before.
Another tip: master the lingo. I hate it so much and it definitely makes me roll my eyes so hard they'll pop out of the back of my head, but...
Understanding and being able to use the lingo changes everything. You can do less and get credit for more, get more credit for the things you actually do, make yourself seem valuable to important people....
It sucks so so so much, but the reality is that I have a bunch of coworkers making six figures who do absolutely nothing, but they've mastered the lingo. They just show up to meetings and spew some bullshit about "action items" and that's their entire job.