How to Improve Your Career
Making a well thought out career choice is the most important thing you can do to insure having a successful life at work. There are several factors you should look at when making a career choice, including your personality, values, interests and skills. The goal of this process, called self assessment, is to find a career that is a good match for you.
Career skills are crucial to your ability to climb positions and successfully change jobs within an industry. Career change is also a scenario where your career training for specific abilities and skills will play a crucial role
If you find yourself at your desk with some free time, here are few things you can do to help improve your career:
If you do nothing else on this list today, do this. Find someone (or several people) that you respect and ask them to mentor you. Most people will be more than happy to pass along advice that they have learned over the years which can be invaluable in helping your career. They will also be great people to use as a sounding board with ideas you have and help you figure out the best way to obtain the goals you are seeking to accomplish. A mentor can have amazing effects on your career and will make your advancements much easier.
- Identify How You Procrastinate
We all do it, but if you can identify how you're doing it and put in a system to discourage yourself from doing so, you will dramatically increase your productivity. In most cases their big vice is watching TV far too much or spending too much time on social networking sites. Once you have identified places that you are spending too much time, take steps to reduce the amount the time you spend on them and instead use that time to further your career.
The big myth in business is that the ones who work the hardest are the ones that get ahead the most. Working hard is important, but working smart is just as important. Working smart means finding the areas within your job that are essential to your group and to the company and focusing most of your resources in those area. This is one of the best pieces of advice what we can ever receive when working for a large company. Take some time to look at your job and what portions of it are most essential to others both inside and outside your group. If you pinpoint those areas that are most essential, you become the person that people come to when things need to get done.
We used to think that making list is useless until we start making them yourself in a way that was useful for you. We actually should have two lists - one is a list of all the things we want to do and one is for our daily must do list. On the daily list, we can only place the three most important things we have to do that day and work on those three things until they're done. Once finished, then we can go to our general list and choose projects from there. This ensures that we get those things that we may not like to do as much that would be constantly delegated to the end of the longer list. How you develop your list to work for you may be very different, but creating a list system will help you be more productive. Once you complete something, don't throw the list away. Instead, date and file them in a work completed folder. This will allow you to have a documented list of all the tasks you accomplished which you can take out at your next performance review or when asking for a raise.
As someone who was the worst student ever when it came to languages in school, we can have many proofs that absolutely anyone can learn any language. We think all of our language teachers would roll over in their graves if they knew we are proficient in other languages. Being proficient in more languages can open up a lot of career opportunities and is well worth pursuing if you have an interest in one. There are plenty of resources online.
Too many people feel that education ends when you receive that college diploma. In fact, it's a never ending pursuit even if you aren't taking formal classes. There are almost certainly classes you can take or skills that you can obtain that will make it easier for you to advance in your career. Take a few moments to talk with your boss or a mentor to find out what skills will make your advancement easier. Talk with your personnel department and ask if they will help pay for you to obtain these skills. Many will. It's easier than ever to take classes while working full time with online education.
Take some time to look over your resume to update it and improve it. It's always a good idea to have an up-to-date resume handy on the off chance that another opportunity arises. Make new copies and place them in your briefcase so that they are always ready to hand out.
We have learned over the years that one of the most important things you can do in any job you have is to stay in contact with people you meet. This can be an easy way to improve your career, keep network lines open and create new network contacts.
There are probably more than a few professional contacts that you have made that you haven't touched based with in awhile. There may be some people that you have never met, but that you would like to make contact with. Spend a few minutes sending out emails to some of these people to reestablish contact or create a new contact.
For the exact same reason that you should send out some emails, you should also make a few phone calls to catch up with peers and others. Calling is a more direct approach that will make sure that your message doesn't get lost in all the other emails the recipient receives.
One of the most effective tools we can use when we work for a large company will be the lunch break. First because we really didn't like eating alone, but later because of all the advantages it offers. Lunch time give you an opportunity to talk with people about ideas you have in a more informal setting than the office.
So before you can make a career choice you have to learn about yourself. Your values, interests, and skills, in combination with certain personality traits, will make some careers especially suitable for you and some particularly inappropriate.
You can use self assessment tools, often called "career tests," to gather this information and, subsequently, to generate a list of occupations that are deemed appropriate. Some people choose to have "career counselors" other career development professionals administer these tests but many opt to use "free career tests" that are available on the Web.
How to Face an Interview
Interviews are like anything else in life, they take practice to perfect. As the Job market is highly competitive it is always necessary to maintain a high standard of professionalism.
Preparing for an Interview:
Presentation, Punctuality, Preparation
Some Frequently asked Interview Questions and Suggested Answers
Tell us about yourself
Keep your answer short and focused on your professional life. A brief history of education, carrier and special interests should be made.
Why are you interested in this job?
Show Interest and demonstrate tat you have researched the job and know what you are getting into. Mention the value-add you can bring to the job.
What do you know about this company?
Prepare in advance, and in a word, research, so, you can provide relevant and current information about your prospective employer to the interviewer. Start by researching the company online. Review the "About Us" section of the company web site. Google the company, read blogs that mention it, and check Discussion Boards and social networking sites.
What are your salary requirements - both short-term and long-term?
Before you start talking pay (and salary negotiations) with a prospective employer, you need to find out how much the job (and you) are worth. You will need to take the time to research salaries, so, you are prepared to get what you're worth and a job offer that's realistic and reasonable. When interviewing for a new position, do your best not to bring up compensation until the employer makes you an offer.
How to prepare your Resume or Curriculum Vitae
To prepare an effective C.V there are important points to be considered such as:
- It should be clear, concise and complete
- Must update with current employment and educational information
What to include in your CV:
The following are the information that can be included in your CV. The elements that you include will depend on what you are applying for, so be sure to incorporate the most relevant information to support your candidacy in your CV.
- Contact information
- Brief biography
- Undergraduate education
- Graduate education
- Scholarship
- Training
- Study abroad
- Theses
- Biography
- Research experience
- Graduate fieldwork
- Employment history
- Awards to honors
- Technical, Computer & language skills
