As businesses across every industry desperately search for talented workers to join their team, there’s no better time to give your career the boost it needs in order to get where you want to go. Employers are scrambling to fill empty job positions and as an experienced worker, you have a lot of negotiation power.
Boosting your career isn’t just about finding a new job with better pay, more perks, and a higher position. While that certainly is encouraging, boosting your career involves a lot more than just filling out job applications. If you really want to give your career an extra nudge towards success, you’ll want to develop a few new habits.
#1. Ask for Feedback
At your current job, make sure you ask for feedback whenever you complete a project. Whether you turn to your boss, your project partner, or your client, getting feedback from those around you is the best way to learn where your strengths and weaknesses lie.
When you ask for feedback, be specific. Questions like “Am I doing alright?” and “Is my work good?” don’t have the specificity they need to have in order to help you grow. Instead, here are a few questions to ask instead:
- What can I do differently in the future?
- What can I improve on?
- How can I be more helpful to you/the team?
- What skills do you think I should develop or improve?
Asking targeted questions will give you answers that you can use to improve your career. To keep track of the answers you receive, get a notebook and write them down. This will make it easier to refer back to them in the future and help you track your progress.
#2. Set Goals
If you don’t set goals, then you have no way to visualize your progression or know how you’re growing.
Setting goals doesn’t have to be hard. Despite what you may think, you don’t need to set big goals or a lot of goals. Setting several smaller goals is a great way to keep moving towards improvement and boost your career.
When it comes to deciding on what goals to set, be sure to take the time to really think about what could help your career. Look back at your notebook of feedback: Are there skills certifications you could earn? Are there workplace soft skills you could improve? If you use the feedback you received to help you set career goals, you’ll know that you’re working towards improvement.
#3. Look Outside of the Workplace
When you’re so focused on boosting your career, you can often get stuck only thinking about your career. At some point, you’re going to get fed up and frustrated as the everyday work tasks become less interesting. Even if you really enjoy your job, focusing too much on it can have a negative effect on it.
Don’t force yourself to enjoy your work if you aren’t. It’s okay to lose interest every once in a while. Instead of being upset with yourself, though, use this time to develop other skills or learn new things that aren’t necessarily required for your job, but that interest you.
Perhaps you’re in the healthcare industry, but you’ve always been interested in digital design. You don’t have to push aside your interest just because most healthcare professionals aren’t also digital design professionals. Instead, try taking an online course to nourish this interest and give you marketable skills. You never know when a strange opportunity might arise.
While you can complete a bunch of courses for free, paying to use certain online platforms like Udemy or Coursera can provide you with recognized certifications that you can add to your resume.
#4. Upgrade Your Resume
Speaking of resumes, if you’re relying on the same one as when you first entered the workforce, then you’re well overdue for an upgrade. Your resume should reflect not only your work experience, but also who you are as a person. As you grow and change in your career, your resume will grow and change as well.
For a lot of people, upgrading their resume is a daunting task. Templates only help if you know what to put on a resume and even then, someone else is going to use the same one so that yours isn’t unique.
When you’re looking to give your career a boost, talking with an executive resume writer is a good way to start you off on the right foot. They’ll work with you to understand your career goals and ask about your experiences. Once they have a good idea of who you are as a person, they’ll build a custom resume that will stand up to any C level position.
Even if you aren’t looking for a C level position, working with executive resume writers will help you design an interview-proof resume that is made to impress.
#5. Network
You hear it a lot, but networking is the best thing you can do for your career. When you network, it’s important to keep an open mind and look around. Sometimes, the best network is one that you find in your own office.
A good place to start, if you haven’t yet developed a network, is in your current workplace. Get to know more of your coworkers and talk with people in other departments. Show genuine interest and be eager to meet new people they may introduce you to.
Another good method is to use online tools such as LinkedIn. By contacting professionals in your industry and joining online groups, you’ll meet more people than ever before and grow your network professionally.
Always Keep on Improving
Even once you reach the top level position or you finally land your dream job, never stop trying to improve. There are always soft skills you could work on, technical expertise you could gain, and new networks to connect with. By continuing to improve and working hard to help your career, you’ll get the most out of it.
