Spend a few years selling something. The experience will give you confidence, humility, and job security.

"Hard work alone does not ensure success. Even if it's uncomfortable for you, find some methods of promoting your own achievements. Do not depend on others to do this for you."

So writes a finance manager at a FORTUNE 500 company--one of the many hundreds of you who responded to my requests over the past few months to reveal what you wish someone had told you when you were first starting out in your career. I'm planning to pass all of your insights along to Dress for Success (www.dressforsuccess.org), but meanwhile, you sent plenty of tips that might also help new college grads who are facing the bleakest job market in decades. My only regret is that we don't have the space to include everything you said, because it's all good. A sampling of advice from readers:

• If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. Ethical decline often begins with "just this once"--and when you're down that slope, it's a very slippery climb back up.

• Regardless of your job, and no matter how low on the corporate ladder it is, get your hands on as many trade and business publications as possible and read, read, read. If you learn the jargon, the trends, and the rules of the game, you'll become an expert, and experts make more money and get promoted. This is how directory-assistance operators become executive vice presidents.

• I wish someone had told me not to get involved in office politics. When I think of the time I wasted in comparing grievances at the water cooler and the resulting lack of motivation ... If only someone had grabbed me sooner and told me to mind my own business and just get on with the job.

• Try very hard to let nothing come between you and your job for at least the first six months. Certainly outside distractions do happen, but there is a big difference between someone who has to deal with an occasional emergency and someone for whom every minor life event is an emergency. First impressions are not easily overcome. If you start out establishing a reputation as a committed employee and hard worker, you'll have more slack later; but if you start out by showing that your work comes second (or third or fourth) in your life, it will be almost impossible to convince people of your dedication later on.

• Have friends at work, but don't get caught up in it. Being supportive after hours is fine, but spending too much time in the office or the company cafeteria helping that borderline personality who has boss problems will ultimately reflect on you. Once that teary friend is gone, you'll be remembered as her (or his) supporter, and the "evil boss" will doubt your loyalty.

• If you travel for your job, ask yourself this question when buying shoes: "Could I run through an airport in these?"

• Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions because, more often than not, people will be pleased that you have turned to them for advice. If you come across as interested and keen to learn, you will get the help you need.

• Find a mentor. There is a lot to learn when you're starting out, and at first you may not even know what questions to ask. A mentor can help for the long haul and be there when you're ready with the nitty-gritty questions.

• No matter what your interests or what field you want to get into, spend a few years selling something--any product or service. This experience will give you an appreciation of what customers and business are all about. It will give you confidence, and it will give you humility. It will also give you job security, because everyone is always looking for a good salesperson.

• Dress for the job you want, not necessarily the one you have. That way, when your big chance comes, it isn't as difficult for people to see you as someone to be taken seriously. It's unfortunate that appearances have so much power over perception, but that's the reality.

• Don't depend on external rewards. You'll never have enough control over them, because luck, market conditions, and executive decision-making above you will always play a role. So find something you can be proud to do whether you're highly rewarded or not. It's a lifelong process.

• Do not in any way allow another person in the same company to guide your career path. This path is yours alone. Take ultimate responsibility for it--plan it, work at it, and take it where you want it to go.

• I wish someone had told me to match my career with my abilities and interests, then how to do so. Ideally, everyone should read [Richard Nelson Bolles's classic career guide] What Color Is Your Parachute? (www.jobhuntersbible.com) in the tenth grade and again every year thereafter. After years of floundering, I discovered my calling at age 32. It turns out I went to the wrong undergraduate school, studied the wrong major, took the wrong electives, moved to the wrong part of the country, and went to the wrong graduate school. But at least I got the right graduate degree, and I'm lucky that I eventually found my way, since many people never do.

• Study successful people--in your life, in books, in your company--and figure out how they got where they are, including what choices they made and what obstacles they overcame. A lot of other people have come from nowhere to accomplish great things, and if they can do it, you can do it too.

• Remember that it's not so important what you know now as what you are going to know. Just shut up and listen, because nobody ever learned anything by talking.
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Send questions to askannie@fortunemail.com.