Career management is a term that is often used in the entertainment and sports industry. But since this strategy has helped numerous professionals in these fields find success, applying it to achieve your dreams is something worth trying.
Career management refers to the process of combining structured planning and actively managing your professional career.
Regardless of which field you are in and the position you currently hold, when you decide to take control of your progress in your chosen profession, your ultimate goals should be to experience personal fulfilment, financial security, and work-life balance, and to achieve your career goals.
Career Management Strategies
Although managing your career may seem like a challenging endeavour, there are simple tips and strategies for doing this effectively.
Executive and Career Coaches offering career management consulting share below six helpful tips and techniques for steering your profession in the right track and achieving all your goals:
1.   Establish clear, long-term career goals
Knowing where you want to take your career begins with determining what results you want to get at the end and the things you want to experience while on the journey.
Be as specific as possible when writing down your goals. Create timelines whenever possible. Do you see yourself being a manager after a couple of years or working overseas within five years?
Additionally, make sure your target goals do not only focus on how much money you can make. Think about what you need to be happy with your job and feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment.
You can even start thinking about how your current job can help you start preparing for your retirement and future travel plans.
2.   Conduct a self-assessment
Once you figure out your goals, the next step is to determine what your strengths are and how you can improve and use them to your advantage. Additionally, you have to know what your areas of development are as well and find out how you can develop them.
Conducting a simple SWOT analysis will help you identify your strengths and areas of development. Once you are aware of them, you will determine what skills you have to work on — the ones that you need to experience career progression.
Also, you can use psychometric self-assessment tools, such as Myers-Briggs and the Big Five Personality Traits Model, to understand the way you think and the preferences that you have. Being aware of these will help you determine what roles and responsibilities will suit you best as you climb the career ladder.
You will be able to find and take these tests online. But if you want an expert to conduct and explain the results to you, look for career management consultants who can help you with these.
3.   Set your short-term action plans
Establishing your long-term goals and knowing more about yourself, including your strengths and areas of development, are excellent foundations for working on the next career management step: knowing what short-term actions you need to take.
Examples of these short-term action items include taking up skill development courses, signing up for on-the-job training, and joining a mentorship or coaching programme.
Whichever you choose, make sure you also consider your current skills so that you know which ones you need to learn or improve.
Don’t forget to celebrate every time you reach a milestone in your items. These events can serve as additional sources of motivation as you manage your career and work on moving up the ladder.
4.   Use available resources in your current workplace
There are plenty of people in your workplace who can lend you a hand in managing your career. Even if they don’t provide concrete help, tapping into their knowledge and expertise can still be beneficial for your plans.
Start by finding out from the HR team what sponsored resources you have access to which you can use for advancing your career. These can include tuition reimbursement or professional certification reimbursement.
If you want to learn about the minimum experience and skills requirements for certain positions, talk to the recruitment or talent acquisition team. You can also ask them for advice about creating a better resume that stands out.
Lastly, if your company has a talent development team, ask them for their assistance in connecting you with a mentor and signing up for learning and upskilling opportunities.
5.   Broaden your network
Since career progression is always part of your career management goals, you need to use all possible resources to achieve this.
Your online and offline networks, including the ones inside and outside your organization, can help you in various ways as you navigate your career route. They can inform you of job and training opportunities you may be interested in and share industry news and updates that you need to know about.
If you want to broaden your network successfully, figure out how you can be of service to your current connections. Consider introducing them to each other or sending them articles and information that they will find useful and valuable.
You can also attend events to build and expand your network of contacts. If you think the conference or seminar is something that your friends or colleagues will find beneficial, inform and encourage them to join, too.
6.   Don’t shy away from opportunities
Whether you are asked to volunteer to do a certain task, or assigned to take on a new role, find the courage to take them on. Be open-minded and consider taking the risk.
Keep in mind that if you are successful in taking on the new job, you can highlight this in your resume, which will be another accomplishment you can be proud of.
By volunteering to take on additional work or roles, you also show that you are capable of handling more responsibilities. When the management and others notice that you can deal with risks successfully, your chances of achieving career advancement will be higher.
And whether you are presented with an opportunity for career progression in your current workplace or at another company, don’t be afraid of failure. Even if you don’t succeed, use these experiences as learning opportunities and factor them in your career management strategy.
If you want to do a better job of managing your career, keep in mind that you don’t have to do this alone. Career Coaches can help you stay on track and make better plans and decisions so that you can be happy and accomplish more things personally and professionally.
AUTHOR BIO
Leila Rezaiguia is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kompass Consultancy, an innovative global talent management consultancy headquartered in Dubai and with offices in Abu Dhabi and Sydney, that specialises in enabling individuals, organisations and educational institutions to achieve performance excellence and career success. Leila is a multi-lingual (English, Arabic and French) PCC Coach, Mentor Coach, Trainer, Facilitator and Business Mentor who is passionate about coaching, women in leadership, talent management and organisational development.
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