Trading your mortarboard for a company badge is exciting. Just make sure your first job after college is the starting point, not the high point, in a satisfying career.

If you’re a new graduate, you were about 6 years old when a basketball player named Tyreke Evans won the NBA’s rookie-of-the-year award with stats comparable to Michael Jordan’s and LeBron James’s in their debut seasons. You’ve likely forgotten, or never heard of, Evans because injuries, a leaguewide lockout and a two-year drug suspension derailed his promising career.

Flaming out at your first desk job probably wouldn’t carry as much public scrutiny. Then again, it wouldn’t come with millions of dollars to fall back on, either. Better to make strategic decisions early and plan for the day when something in or out of your control goes wrong.

Last week I offered five things grads should know when starting out. I focused on tactical advice, like office norms to learn and academic standards to leave behind. This week I am looking at the big picture, sharing words of caution to avoid sabotaging future prospects.

Don’t fixate on working for big-name brands

Working for a household name will impress your high-school buddies at your five-year reunion. But you could stunt your career growth by being a glorified coffee fetcher at a well-known company.

“Be company agnostic,” suggests Sadé Muhammad , a former chief marketing officer of Time Inc. who leads her own agency, Zeven. “Focus on the actual craft and be flexible about how you express that, whether it’s through your own work, a company or even volunteering—that’s how I filled experience gaps when I was younger in my career.”

I learned this lesson when I accepted two offers after college: a day job at a tiny newspaper in Connecticut and a nights-and-weekends gig at ESPN headquarters. I figured I could juggle both or keep the better option. You can guess which one seemed more exciting.

At the no-name paper, I got to write, edit, take photographs and even learn page design. Meanwhile, at ESPN, I was assigned to a behind-the-scenes post crunching stats for college-football coverage. After a candid manager made clear on day one that the role offered no path to future bylines or airtime, I quit on day two.

Not every boss is such a straight shooter, so try to remember that the skills you develop early in your career are more important than the brands you list on your résumé.

Note that being open to lesser-known companies doesn’t necessarily mean swinging to the other extreme and joining a new venture. Startup cultures and learning opportunities are hit-or-miss, just like those equity stakes that may or may not produce windfalls.

Don’t ignore gut feelings

In an interview or the early days of a new job, you might sense that something is a bit…off. Listen to your instincts, says human-resources consultant Paul Wolfe , because workplace issues tend to fester.

Sure, you can quit in a few months if a role turns out to be a bad fit, or you and your manager prove incompatible. But there are a couple of problems with that. One is a short stint can raise eyebrows in future application processes. A second is you are more likely to rush into another bad situation if you are running away from something.

“It could get cyclical,” says Wolfe, a former HR chief at Indeed and Match Group.

The alternative isn’t great, either: You stay in a miserable job and burn out before you’re 30.

Finding a comfortable, early-career environment can spare you a lot of anguish down the road. You might have to pass up a job opportunity or have a tough conversation with a new colleague to ensure little annoyances don’t spiral.

Beware the hype man

No matter how smart and talented you are, there is a lot you don’t know. You’ll take longer to learn it if all your boss does is pump you up.

Diane Hessan , an entrepreneur and investor who sits on the board of Eastern Bank and was previously a board member at Panera Bread, says her No. 1 advice is to seek out managers who give substantive feedback. Bosses who challenge you early become your best advocates later if you win them over, she adds.

These can be hard to find because a lot of managers think Gen Z workers need to be handled delicately. You might have to make clear that you want constructive criticism or even move internally to join a team led by someone who keeps it real.

This doesn’t mean putting up with a true jerk.

“But a mediocre boss can stall you without your even realizing it,” Hessan says. “You can spend your first two years being busy and learn very little. You end up saying, ‘Gee, I’m in this great company with a salary I dreamed of, but I don’t feel like I’ve got much of a career path ahead of me.’”

Better not pout

I love hearing about successful people’s crappy first jobs. Kim Kross uses a different, poo-related adjective to describe her after-college work as a collections representative for Bally Total Fitness.

“I literally worked in a call center, getting people to pay their bills,” she says.

Scrubbing locker-room toilets sounds more appealing.

Kross says she stayed upbeat and impressed a regional manager who helped fast-track her rise to director of reporting and analytics for the gym chain. Today she is chief operating officer of heyC AI, a professional-development company for teachers.

Her story is a reminder that early impressions can have lasting effects. Your list of potential references is short at the start of your career, so each one carries outsize significance.

Wolfe, the HR consultant, adds that recruiters and hiring managers sometimes conduct “backdoor” references. These involve reaching out to former colleagues other than the ones you cherry-picked for your application, and they often go deep into your past.

This is ostensibly a courtesy to avoid alerting current co-workers that you are job hunting, but it means people you rub the wrong way could ding you years later. Don’t miss out on a job a decade from now because you thought that first job was beneath you.