Career Useful Tips
CAREER: Job, self-employment or business
Your current job role or perhaps business. Maybe you are currently studying. If you are unemployed or managing a busy household, you are performing activities in this area.
Job, self-employment or both, it all comes down to one question. Will the path you have chosen deliver the end results you desire? How you measure that is up to you, however I urge a close reality check on your progress so far. There is no value climbing the corporate ladder of success only find it leaning on the wrong wall.
Waiting for annual reviews from your supervisor won’t necessary determine your goals and accomplishments either; that’s your responsibility. Planning your future is a worthwhile exercise and matching your current trajectory to ensure results is mandatory.
People are seeking more job security than ever before to protect a regular source of income, understandable, when we all know the steady stream of bills arriving each month. True security comes from your skills or bluntly, your ability to produce profit for yourself or employer. Therefore, education and investment in yourself is a wise choice.
To become an increased value asset, you would benefit from adding multi-skills disciplinaries. The more versatile and useful you become, the more value you possess. Here are a few tips that may help.
- Professional development log, This is a depository of your professional development journey. It could be backed up in cloud storage or simply on a hard drive. Examples of your outstanding projects you have worked on that may be useful for that next work review or pay rise negotiation. It also develops your own success library of notes and knowledge.
- Study your industry, It serves well to understand the industry you are engaged. Study your industry to gain valuable insights how your job role or business contribute. Looking at the bigger picture may inspire pursuit of greater opportunities.
- Network with purpose, Now it has even been given a label, it is called your “Social Assets”. The value of who you know. Every chance you get, attend events or meetings that provide an opportunity to connect with a valuable entity. LinkedIn is a great social tool for this. Connecting requests should always be accompany with a personalised note.
- Self-study, The sum of the world’s knowledge is freely available online, consume it with gusto. Free and low-cost high value information that will help fine tune your skills is priceless. Oh, just a quick tip; understand your preferred learning style. Most have a preference to either audio, visual or kinetic style of absorbing knowledge.
- Testimonials, In the words of Dr Robert Caidini, (persuasion authority) social proof is everything. Ask for testimonials from people you have helped or impressed. This is not done often enough because people simply don’t ask for them, yet most are very obliging to give testimonials when they are requested. Building your credibility will help in so many areas.
- Career planning, You already plan so many other things in your life, why not your future? If you spend more time planning your next holiday than your future goals, something is very wrong. This exercise serves to clarify your vision and goals and helps validate your direction.
- Get published, To help brand yourself as a thought leader or authority, get yourself publish. There are so many tools available to make that happen. From a simple blog, or white papers through to eBooks and hard copy. Take note of how role models and mentors and you will see the proof and benefit of this exercise.