Simple Ways to Advance Your Career

At this time of the year, you may feel on wind down mode as you start to look forward to your holidays and relaxing. But in fact, now presents the perfect opportunity to refresh your career goals and get yourself ready to go. Take care of a few important tasks now, and you will be one step ahead of the game. And many of these things don’t take a huge amount of effort, but added together, they can really end up having a big impact on your future. So, let’s run through them here and now.

Set Yourself New Goals

The best way of focusing your ambition is by setting yourself some goals which you can work towards. Perhaps you have already done this in the past, but you need to refresh them based on where you currently are in your life and what you want to achieve. Whenever you are setting goals for yourself, you should make sure to break them down into smaller steps which are actionable, time-limited and achievable. Otherwise, you will find that they drag out indefinitely.

Keep Networking

The connections that you make can end up being invaluable for your career, so make sure that you don’t lose your contacts during the summer months. It could be the simple action of taking an old work colleague out for a coffee. You never know what sort of opportunities may arise from doing this. Even sending out a couple of messages to catch up could end up shaping your future direction. They may be working for a new organisation now and can give you an ‘in’ if you are looking for a new job opening.

Refresh Your Resume

If you have been in a job role for a while, it may have been some time since you last refreshed your resume – but this is something which is worth doing even if you aren’t currently looking for anything new. Your resume should be a document that is constantly updated based on your most recent responsibilities and achievements. But you also need to remove the things on there which are no longer relevant. If you suddenly decide that you want to want to apply for a new job, it is all ready to go whenever you want.

Sort Out Your Online Profiles

As well as refreshing your resume, it is also worth taking the time to update your online profiles at the same time. Start off with the ones which are going to be directly relevant to your working life such as your LinkedIn account. But you may also want to go through your personal accounts to make sure that there is nothing which could be embarrassing or damaging to your professional career. It may also be worth checking out the top results when you put your name into Google. You don’t want potential employers to uncover things which you didn’t know about yourself!

Clear Out Your Desk

You may think that clearing out your task is a fairly small and irrelevant task, but there is something cathartic about throwing away the things that you no longer need and filing the things that you do in a proper storage system. An uncluttered desk is the sign of an uncluttered mind. You should also do the same to your home office. You could also think about whether there is anything else which is going to help you work more efficiently such as a standing desk.

Sign Up for Professional Development

Now is the time to sign up for some professional development as many courses will start after summer is over. Think carefully about the specific skills which you would like to develop over the coming months. Your company may be able to offer some courses or you may have to search for them yourself. But with so many options available on the internet these days such as an online MBA course, you are bound to be able to find something which is relevant to you. Otherwise, you could check out the industry conferences and networking events which are coming up so that you can put them into your calendar.

Schedule a Review Meeting

Reviewing your accomplishments and setting some future targets with your boss is something which is always worth doing. If your company doesn’t have a formal review process, you are going to have to be the one who is proactive. This is what will put you at the forefront of your boss’s mind when it comes to promotions, salary increases etc. Before the meeting takes place, make sure that you are thoroughly prepared with what you are going to say, as well as your specific goals and ambitions for the future.

Go Over Your Accomplishments from the Past 12 Months

While you may be determined to look forward in your career, a big part of your professional advancement should involve recapping what you have already achieved. This will tell you how successful you have been, and whether you are comfortable staying on the same course or whether now is the time to change tack. It is also worth identifying any setbacks which you have had. Learning from your mistakes is something which all good professionals should be able to do.

If you don’t take the time and effort involved in advancing your career, nobody else is going to do it for you. These are just some of the steps that you can take to move yourself forward professionally. After all, you don’t want to risk stagnating – or worse – moving backwards. You should be able to tick of all the items on this list without too much trouble. Added together, they should put you in a good position when people are getting serious about their working lives once again.