When it comes to your career, it’s safe to say that everyone has different career goals. Whether you’ve studied for years to get into the sector you want to remain in or you’ve flitted from job to job trying to find that one thing that grabs your interest and challenges you, chances are you won’t have the same goals and aspirations as others, and that’s okay.
But how do you keep moving your career forward if that is what you want? There is nothing wrong with being satisfied with what you are doing right now and not wanting to do anything else or move through the ranks. But if you do and furthering your career is on the cards for you, these tips can help you figure out how to put yourself in the best possible position.
Define Your Goals
Before you even look at what career paths are available to you within or outside your sector, you need to define exactly what you want from your career. Are you seeking new experiences? Improving your knowledge or moving into a leadership role? Working towards starting your own business, moving into a different area in your industry and so on. Figure out what it means to you, what you expect from your career and why you want to do it.
Knowing your why can help you determine how best to move forward and put achievable goals in place that will drive your career from where you are now to help you achieve career satisfaction.
Look At Where You Can Go
Some industries are always changing and innovating, while others are pretty stagnant and won’t really see much change for many years. So, identifying the possibilities within your sector can help you decide how best to approach your career progression and pinpoint possible outcomes or future roles for you to work towards.
Let’s take the medical field. Medicine and related areas are changing at a lightning pace, and there are always different opportunities depending on where you are trained. From choosing a speciality to practise medicine in to niching down on that further to moving towards a more innovative based role such as a medical science leader who helps to drive said innovation or even moving to a teaching role, for example, there are countless opportunities for you, to keep moving forward and progressing and still putting your training to good use.
Find A Mentor
A mentor can be instrumental in helping you understand what your new path will look like and what you can expect while helping to prepare you for what it entails. Mentors are people who have experienced the same journey you might be embarking on and can offer guidance and wisdom to help you gain the necessary skills and knowledge to put you in the best position to move forward.
Set A Timeline
It’s all well and good to set your goals and know where you want to go, but if you’re not actively working towards those goals, they will remain as dreams. You need to be clear about how long it will take to get from where you are to where you want to be and set realistic timelines to help you do just that. Whether it’s taking that new training course to help gain relevant qualifications to help you pursue your goal, knowing that frequent opportunities come up so you’re ready ahead of time, or knowing what your competition will look like, you can prepare for this and so on. Have a definitive deadline for each step in the journey, and keep pushing forward to make your goals a reality.
Network
A great way to help you expand your career and get to your ultimate role is to network with those in your industry. It might be that your ideal role isn’t possible where you’re working now. In this case, networking can open doors to put you on the radar of people who can offer that position or open you up to new ways to get to where you want to be, expose you to new training, new methodologies you can look into and keep up to date with changes and advancements in your area so you can position yourself to take advantage of what is needed and be a front runner.
Grow Your Skill Set
It’s not always about the knowledge you learn to climb the ladder or gain the relevant qualifications; it’s about your skills as a whole. Brushing up on your soft skills, improving communication and how you approach problems, etc., are always valuable skills others have and are some things employers look at when considering new hires or offering promotions.
Look at your hard and soft skills as a complete package, and always be open to feedback and constructive criticism so you can adapt and move forward. Reassess what you know, how you work, and how you connect with those around you.
Track Your Progress
You’re not going to know how well you are or aren’t doing if you’re not tracking your progress. You need to see if you are developing in the right areas, gaining the appropriate knowledge and skill set, or facilitating your career changes and advancements.
You can track your progress by looking at what you’ve done so far and applying it to your current position to see what benefits it offers you. You can ask colleagues and managers for feedback and suggestions to help you identify areas you need to work on or excel at to give you a better idea of where you are.
Note down anything important to work into your progress charts and goals. This will help you adjust your journey based on real-time information. If you don’t know how well you are doing, you won’t know where you need to improve or make the right changes that help you, not hinder you.
Moving forward in your career can be as easy as learning about the company you work for and showing promise and dedication. It can also require many years of training and working the system to move up through the ranks. It all depends on you, what you want, the industry you are in, and your ultimate goals.
