Posts Tagged ‘Career’

If you are reading this blog, I am guessing that you are probably someone who wants to achieve success as a manager or leader and have a successful career.  When it comes to our career and setting goals , very few have a clear idea of what they want and why they want it.

Think about your career 10 years from now and ask yourself the following:

What level do I want to be at 10 years from now?

If I was in my perfect job I would be ……?

I want to be known as a manager and leader who……?

Now think about why you want it.  The obvious answer is the financial rewards that come with success.  Yet in truth, money alone is not the long term driver. 

So what is it that makes you want to achieve career success?

Many people want to achieve success in their careers.  Far fewer have a clear overall goal for their career.  Having an overall career goal is about knowing just how far you want to climb the career ladder.  Maybe middle management is as far as you want to go.  Others might aspire to be a Director or even a CEO or Managing Director.  There are a range of benefits of having a clear career goal and these include:

1. Helping you to make the best choices about potential career opportunities.
2. Helping you determine where career fits into your overall lifestyle priorities.
3. Avoiding taking short term decisions that are detrimental to achieving your end goal.

As well as having a clear career goal consider the sacrifices that you are willing and not willing to make to achieve it.  Also take the time to carry out some formal assessment of your strengths so that you can determine whether you are a good fit for the different types of roles that you might aspire to gain.

At the end of the day there is no certainty when it comes to career success but establishing a clear end goal can greatly enhance your chance of achieving what you want.

Selection interviews are still the most common way of appointing new staff.  If you are the candidate, your objective is to persuade those hiring that you are the best person for the job.  Having been interviewed many times myself and interviewed loads of applicants, I believe that there are 5 things that you must be able to demonstrate in job interviews:

1. Experience so that you can step into the role and make an impact from day one.  Remember you are unlikely to be able to show experience in every aspect of the job but look for areas where you have something similar to what is required.
2. Results and achievements.  Too often candidates focus on talking about their responsibilities rather than what they have delivered in terms of results.
3. Potential.   Recruiting someone is expensive so it is important to demonstrate that you have the potential to grow and progress within the organisation.
4. Fit.  Employers want to know that you can get on with others and work successfully as part of a team.
5. Confidence.  At interviews we are all nervous.  Being confident is about knowing and believing that you have something to offer.  The way you interact during the interview and handle challenging questions demonstrates confidence.

Job interviews are not always predictable but I believe that you can increase your chances of success by focusing on the above areas.