Career advice is one of those things that everyone gets inundated with. And yet, what worked for people in the past isn't what's going to work for folks in the future. If so, we'd all still need to be experts in sailing ships.
I like this short article from Seth's Blog, which basically calls out how professional reviews of movies have become completely obsolete. I have never taken professional reviews seriously, which is why when movie ads say things like "5 Stars from the Rolling Stones" I don't blink an eye. It's relevant to career discussions because the skills that worked well for people in the past aren't going to necessarily be what you need in the future.
Looking at the Information Warfare community, we need people with real cyber experience in the future. Right now we're not there, and people are more focused on getting their IDWO pin and doing tactical SIGINT then Cyber, but at some point there will be a shift, and the people that have pursued that education will be in a better spot then the traditionalists.
From Seth's Blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/11/what-are-professional-reviews-for.html
