2 little principles...

I have the pleasure and great opportunity to work with new folks that are hired into Microsoft. These range from those fresh out of college to industry hires with years of experience in their chosen field. Regardless of background, there are strong similarities in challenges they will face: company culture, job satisfaction, and career advancement. These are the things I tend to focus on when I get the opportunity to chat with my new colleagues, and out of those discussions I came up with my 2 little principles that I recommend each of them consider.

1. Find something you're passionate about doing in your work and make sure to do that, whatever it is. This may not be something that any of us can do 100% of the time in our work day, or even part of each day of every week, but as long as you can identify something you have a passion for within those things that you get to do for work, it will keep you motivated to continue to develop and pursue that passion more. It will also help make up for the times when you have work to do that may be less glamorous or just downright boring (but necessary, of course).
2. Define what success means to you and work to achieve that, whatever it is. It can be as simple as "I want to make more money" or "I want to work from X campus". The measure of success is your own, regardless of how short or long the timeline would be to achieve it, though I typically suggest sticking with something shorter term and easier to achieve. The reason for keeping the timeline short is so that you can actually achieve this measure of success. It is a fine goal to want to be the CEO of Microsoft, but if you were just hired, you're going to have to work at that goal for quite some time before ever knowing if it's achievable realistically. Goals and ideals of success can and should change over time. Setting a measure of success and achieving it drives you to move onto whatever next measure of success you set.

Between these 2 little principles, I think much can be accomplished regarding job satisfaction (through working on those things that drive you), career development (when considering what success means to you), and company culture (as you interact with others and find out what drives their passions and how they view their own successes).