Tag Archives: How In Control Of Your Career Are You?

How In Control Of Your Career Are You?

career

With the daily assault of data, emails and information delivered at a rapid rate and requiring an equally rapid response, plus social trivia from Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, how many of us are remembering to focus on the longer term important issues concerning our career?  It is frequently reported that most people will spend more time considering their next holiday or purchase of new electronic devices than they will planning their career.  It is also worth considering that ‘good luck’ is often about where preparation meets opportunity so some career planning and preparation is needed if you want to be lucky!

Here are some tips to ensure you remain in control:

1. Know Yourself

  • Do you know what is most important to you at work?
  • What do you want to achieve over the next five years?
  • Which are you key skills and which do you need to develop?
  • What type of environment do you want to work in?
  • Where do you want to be located in 3 -5 years time?

2. Know Your Options

  • How aware are you of the various options which maybe open to you?
  • Which skills and at which level are required for the next steps in your career?
  • Have you researched the reward and benefits in the role which interested you?
  • Are you clear about the type of team culture you want to work in?
  • Have you made a plan for achieving your goals?
  • What hurdles might you face?

3. Know Your Brand

  • Are you clear what your personal brand/reputation is?
  • Have you reviewed how you present your brand in the last year?

4. Know Your Network

  • Are you an active member of face to face networks?
  • Have you got an up to date profile on Linkedin /Twitter etc.?
  • Do you contribute to online discussions?
  • Have you got career supporters? e.g coach, buddy or mentor

5. Knowing About Making Decisions

  • Are you able to make your own decisions, or do you prefer them to be made for you by others or circumstance?
  • Have you got a systematic process for making decisions?

Running through these points you may find that you do very few or very many of these things.  Most people may be in between. Leaving things to chance may be some people’s preferred way of dealing with things and others may be very structured in their approach, so which is the best way forward? The reality of a 21st century career which is likely to be long with disruptions on the way means that we will need to ensure that we can weather the ups and downs and deal with disruption.  The way to do this is to consider and develop the key skills for managing your career proactively by adopting some of the steps above.

This is a guest blog by Gill Amos of Active Development.

Contact details:

mailto:gill@active-development.co.uk

http://www.active-development.co.uk/

Telephone: +44 (0)1604 708064

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