GORICK NG: I would start with the cliche of there is no such thing as a stupid question, which I was told certainly many times over by my managers, by my coworkers. ALISON BEARD: And apart from doing that work before the work, outlining expectations, defining tasks, etc., is there anything else that you would want to tell managers, especially older ones from that sort of white male establishment background that we’re talking about that they should do differently for people who are new to the workforce and especially those who don’t come from that same background? ALISON BEARD: That’s Gorick Ng, a career advisor at Harvard and the author of the book, The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right.