START THIS YEAR WITH A NEW CAREER PLAN

By Karen Conole

A new year is already upon us, and most of us are still wondering where the last one went—and what we did with it, when it was here. If you can’t remember many—or any—good things that you accomplished either personally and professionally this past year, then maybe it’s time to re-examine your approach to both.

While each of us has a personal situation that is unique, for which we employ our own particular strategies for success, most all of us can apply the following techniques for success in our professional lives, to get ourselves realigned with our chosen career paths:

1. Give Your Resume A Long Look

Odds are, it’s been a while since you’ve thought about your resume—let alone revised it—but you should have something positive to add to it at least once a year. That is, you should be able to add a new skill you acquired, an advanced responsibility you handled and/or a useful organization you joined—especially one that enhances you professionally.

If that hasn’t been the case for a while, then resolve to make this the year that you start “polishing the diamond” that is your potential.

Take a class. Many adult school classes are free and are offered at times that don’t conflict with most job schedules. Resolve to add a new office skill to your resume each semester and they’ll accumulate pretty quickly. And, perhaps unlike your earlier school years, classes taken as an adult can be very enjoyable, with the positive atmosphere of other like-minded adults pursuing purposeful goals.

Join a professional organization that serves your industry. As well as learning skills you can use to do your job “smarter” as well as better, you’ll find that members of these organizations have a passion for the work which can be contagious. You’ll be surprised at how your perspective can change when you see the enthusiasm that others have for the same type of work that you may have simply regarded as “just a job.” You’ll also be exposed to valuable networking contacts, which may provide you with access to new and better future jobs.

With each year your resume should look a bit more impressive to you, as well as to any prospective employers.

It’s not enough to just “tread water” these days, as you’ll be quickly eclipsed by up-and-comers with more current skills and fresh motivation, so resolve to be excited about the prospect of growth, approach it wholeheartedly and enjoy the process. It only has to be “work” if you think of it that way.

2. Re-examine Your Attitude Toward Your Job

Unless you’ve won a big lottery jackpot, work is probably going to involve a good share of your adult life for quite some time, so adjust your attitude toward it or it will become a very long grind, indeed.

Think of how often you hear someone say they’re just “in it for the paycheck.” Those people have reduced their working lives to “survival mode” and have forgotten the elements of their work that attracted them to it in the first place.

This might even be okay with their employers, so long as the work gets done, but pitching a tent on your career path is the surest way to get passed by for career advancement.

Try changing your perspective from that of an employee serving a boss to one of a co-professional enhancing your firm’s success by serving your clients beyond their expectations. In truth, you and your boss are co-professionals, albeit with different responsibilities and corresponding compensation, and you both serve another “master”—your client—whose satisfaction you need to keep your business thriving. Sink or swim, you’re in it together, so devise ways you can help to make your team look good and everybody wins.

3. Know What You Really Want.

Do you know what you want your life to be like a year from now? How about five years from now? What did you hope, ten years ago, that your life would be like today? Did you have any preconceptions about your future? Many people don’t plan at all, preferring to “take life as it comes,” but that outlook relegates them to always reacting to circumstances, rather than creating the circumstances they need for success.

It’s not enough to want change in your life; you must actively plan for it and chart a course of action for it. You would never attempt to drive to a new destination without a map, or at least general directions, and expect to get there at all, let alone on time. Why play hit-and-miss with something as important as your career?

Give it some serious thought then write down the type of job you’d like, where it’s located, whom you want to work for and with, and your pay expectations. With clear goals in mind, you’ll be able to make the choices, both large and small, which further those goals and discard the ones which hinder them.

4. Have a Plan B (And Even Plan C)

Life is unpredictable, hence the maxim, “Expect the best and plan for the worst.” Regardless of your best efforts, there are myriad possible events outside your control which might cause you at some point to lose your job.

If that happens, you’re going to want that plan B to fall back on. While you still have employment, cultivate another source of income and you can rest a lot easier with the knowledge that, should things go sideways, you’ll be okay. That means knowing the market and how you can best position yourself in it. That means keeping your skills and experience current and enticing to prospective employers. That means cultivating your networking contacts who you can look to for references or—ideally—job leads, should the need ever arise.

5. Be The Best You Can Be In Your Current Job

The best way to advance in your career is to show you care about your work and do it exceptionally well. With a reputation for excellence you may find your talents tapped for increasingly important work. You can never go wrong by being the best at what you do, but you should take care to make others around you look good in the process, or you may find your best efforts obscured by insecure or envious coworkers.

Don’t concern yourself with garnering accolades but, instead, focus on making the whole team successful. Remember: “A high tide raises all boats.”

Do, however, keep a running list of your goals and of your accomplishments once you’ve achieved them, so that you can present them during your annual review, or when you want to request a higher salary or a position with increased responsibility. Don’t expect your boss to have kept track of all your personal triumphs. She may have a general sense of your competence, but your concrete examples will likely be the thing to turn the tide in your favor.

Start today. No one will do it for you—no one can or should. Keep asking yourself what you are doing to enhance your worth or visibility, and then resolve to rise to your own challenge. You’ll very soon find yourself much farther down a career path ideally suited to you—one of your own creation.