Getting yourself on the career ladder and immersed in your job can be one of the most rewarding things in your life. If it’s a job you really love, it can seem like every day is just a day of enjoyment and fun that you are being paid for — it’s like a double bonus. However, for the majority of us, it’s just another slog at the office with a pay that often doesn’t reflect our capabilities.
If the latter seems more like you, it’s time to break that monotonous regime and go for what you deserve. Below are some tips to get started:
Make Connections
One of the most important things that you can do in the corporate world to propel yourself further is to make connections. Whether this is at another branch of the company that you are working at, the people that you liaise with on a daily basis, the drivers who deliver the office supplies or even just the people who are popping in for a bit of work experience — it all counts.
What you are doing is essentially being kept in mind for anything that may be of interest to you and to them. Making sure that you keep healthy relationships with these people will ensure that you are on the top of their priority list should anything pop up that they think will suit you. You don’t have to keep it just to real-life, either. Social media is a great way to make connections at work, especially with sites like LinkedIn giving you the best opportunities to scout around and get in touch with those who may be of use to you.
Build Your Resume
Getting your resume up to par with the top people in the business can be hard to do alone, but if you don’t have the experience required to make the grade then this can be even tougher. Make sure that you are constantly adding experiences and work as you go along and as you do them, rather than waiting until you’re applying for your next job and trying to remember everything and fit it all on.
You are more likely to remember your responsibilities and duties within a job if you note them down while fresh on the brain rather than trying to drag them up from memory a bit later on.
Look For Courses
Always keep an eye open for something that will help you better yourself within your career — even if it’s not related to the one that you are in currently. We all have our idea of what we want to be doing for the rest of our lives, and while some of them are completely out of reach (you can’t sip pina coladas on a beach in Barbados and get paid for it, unless you’re really lucky), there are still a few which are totally obtainable. You just need to know how to get there.
Every little thing helps when it comes to preparing for your dream job, and quite a lot of it is available to you on the internet. For example, if you are happy in your chosen career but want to progress further up the ladder, you could look into getting an Online Organizational Leadership Degree to really give you some stable grounding towards it. The beauty of taking a course online is that you don’t have to travel out of your own home/office to be able to learn; you do it in your own time.
Keep An Eye Out For Alternatives
Although you may love where you work, the people around you, and your daily tasks, there’s that risk of being too content..meaning you’re no longer challenging yourself on a daily basis. The challenge that you aim for is something that can confirm whether you are doing a job correctly or not — it’s something called the Learning Pit, which is mainly used to assess educational development within schools. It’s a relatively new concept, but if you are not challenging yourself and stumping yourself for answers every day, you are not learning.
There is a feeling of elation when you get out of the Learning Pit, and you can help others make their way out too. It’s good leaders who are more prone to being resilient and being reciprocal in helping others to find their way out. Those who go to their jobs every day, have an easy ride and aren’t challenging themselves aren’t learning as they’re going along, which will make it harder for them to fall into a new job where they will face continual challenges and testing. If you know that you are in this sort of line of work, look around for alternatives to the job that you are doing. It could be within the company that you are working for, or a different one altogether.
What you need to be looking for is something to test you and help you educate yourself about anything and everything to do with the position you currently hold. Not everybody knows all there is to know about their job, and even those leading you or teaching you haven’t figured everything out. But at least make the effort to get there.
Listen To Feedback
Listening to the opinions of others on how you’re doing, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative, is one of the most important things that you can do to help you develop your potential. Ask what is expected of you, question whether you could do more. Instead of focusing on going to work just for the paycheck, act as if it is your own business and think about what you would like and assume from your employees. It is this that your boss will be looking for when it comes to promotion time.
Keep focused on your goal and you will get there in no time; or at least it will feel like no time if you’re having fun along the way.
*This article was contributed.
