What if the career you’ve always wanted was far closer than you ever imagined?
Many workers think that their chance at a new career begins only when they submit a new application or take on a new responsibility. But the simple truth is that great careers begin well before these events.
To have an awesome career, you need to do an awesome job of planning your next steps. Fortunately, our guide will walk you through everything you need to plan a better career, starting today!
Define “Success” for Yourself
Planning a better career for yourself doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, it begins with the simplest step of all: defining what “success” means to you.
Different workers have different metrics for success. Some people won’t be satisfied until they are running a successful company. Others simply want to find a job that provides a sense of challenge and fulfillment and hold on as long as they can.
Remember: You can’t plan a career to bring you success if you don’t know what success really means!
Create a Career Timeline
During a job interview, it’s always tricky to answer the question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” But the truth is that you can’t plan a successful career until you create your own career timeline.
An ideal timeline maps out where you want to be in one year, five years, and ten years. Once you have a 10-year goal in mind, the next step is figuring out how to reach that goal over the next decade.
Create Goals for Each Day, Week, and Month
A successful worker is a lot like a successful company. That means you need to create goals for yourself to constantly strive for.
Many of these will be small goals. For example, maybe you are a salesperson, and you create a goal of getting five more sales each week. But this adds up, and your employers will likely notice when your service starts bringing in an extra 260 sales per year!
Other goals may be larger goals related to things like the promotion you want to get or the major project you’d like to lead. And over time, you may find yourself falling short of certain goals.
Keep in mind that it’s okay to fall short of your goals because you can reapply yourself that much harder next time. But if you never created goals in the first place, you wouldn’t even know what you need to improve.
Get Expert Advice
Planning the career you want may be difficult because it often feels like you are on the outside looking in. Instead of feeling like an outsider, you should seek out the advice of an insider!
Try to find someone who is an experienced expert in the industry you want to join or the type of job you want to have. Request an interview with this person so that you can get answers to your burning questions and advice about your career aspirations.
If you get lucky, you may eventually cultivate a mentor relationship with an industry veteran. And leaning on their advice is one of the best ways to expand your career horizon.
Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone
What if you’ve already heard your boss give you some of the best career advice you will ever receive? If you’ve ever had a boss encourage you to “step outside of your comfort zone,” then that’s exactly what happened!
Taking on new challenges and new responsibilities is a surprising way to supercharge your career. That’s because such a move helps you discover skills and abilities you never knew you had. Moreover, doing so at work showcases those skills and abilities in front of the very people who can offer you a promotion and a raise.
Long story short? You won’t know what you can do until you try to do a bit of everything. And you may be amazed how many doors will open once you step outside of your comfort zone.
Have an Honest Talk With Your Boss
You may love your current boss or even hate them. But take it from us: Planning a better career for yourself begins with sitting down and having an honest and open conversation with your boss.
This is the perfect opportunity for you to ask for feedback regarding your job performance. Typically, workers are a little too close to the subject matter to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, but an employer can give you an unbiased look.
It’s also the perfect time to let your employer know if you are ready and willing to step into a managerial role. Chances are, there are more opportunities available than you are aware of, and you won’t know until you ask. Similarly, asking your boss for both information about these opportunities and advice for how to improve your performance is a great way of letting them know you are ready for additional responsibilities.
Create an Online Portfolio
Once upon a time, a work portfolio seemed like an outdated concept. After all, it can be awkward and difficult to carry around a giant portfolio to work or to an interview for a new job.
However, it’s easier than ever for you to create an online portfolio. There is nothing to carry around: You will simply have a convenient link that you can shoot to other people as needed.
What goes in a portfolio? It can be almost anything, including presentations you have created, positive feedback from employers and/or clients, infographics about your achievements, etc. The basic idea is that you have an accessible and visual guide to all of your major career accomplishments.
Just imagine a scenario where you and someone equally qualified are up for the same job. In that case, the person with an impressive online portfolio will be the one most likely to get the gig.
Create a Better Career Right Now
Now you know our top tips for starting a better career. But what if you could get an amazing career started right now?
All you have to do is apply to work for Confie. With our amazing work environment, benefits, and advancement options, this is the job you’ve been waiting for!