Posts Tagged ‘careers’

Many people want to get on as far as they can in their career.  Some achieve what they want while others find it more of a struggle and some will without doubt get stuck.

So what are some of the common career barriers and what should you do about them?

Career Barrier 1: Qualifications

Whether it is fair or not there are many professions where it is pretty much impossible to go beyond a certain level unless you get qualified and gain membership of the professional body.

Solution: Either sign up to get the qualification or make a real commitment to get qualified if you have already started but are being sporadic in your studies.

Career Barrier 2: Mobility

As you get older and perhaps have family mobility or lack of it can sometimes stop you from getting access to the opportunities you would like.

Solution: Seriously consider relocating or perhaps working away from home during the week for a defined period of time to get the experience you need.

Career Barrier 3: Experience

Perhaps you are missing on some vital experience to get to the next level.

Solution: Find out precisely the experience you need and seek out opportunities to gain it.  This might be through a secondment, covering for some else or perhaps doing something voluntary outside of work to gain the experience.

Career Barrier 4: Lack of Insight

It staggers me just how few people really know themselves and their strengths.  This makes it really difficult to effectively market what you have to offer.

Solution: Take one or several of the online assessments or alternatively work with a career coach or mentor to help you unlock your hidden talents.

Career Barrier 5: Job Interview Performance

I never cease to be amazed just how poorly people perform in job interviews despite the fact that they are still among the most common ways of recruiting people.

Solution: Make sure you are making sufficient time to prepare for interviews and do some mock interviews before the real thing.  The feedback you get will greatly improve your performance.

The Bottom Line: Achieving success in your career requires commitment and effort.  The question is are you willing to put in the work to get the results you desire?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professionals to achieve more success in their career and get the rewards and recognition they deserve.  He invites you to check out his free audio masterclass at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/careers-main.html

Everyone spends a significant amount of their life at work.  To get the most out of your career you need to manage it.  So what are key steps that you need to take to manage your career.

Tip 1: Know what you want to achieve 

When you have a career as opposed to a job, you take a long term view.  Those who achieve most will generally have a very clear vision of what they want to achieve.

What’s your vision?

Tip 2: Set out a plan

Once you have clarity on your vision, the next step is to develop a plan.  Your plan needs to clearly set out:

• Where you currently are

• Where you want to get to

• The steps to move you to where you want to get to

In setting out your plan, think about skills, knowledge, experience, education and personal attributes.

Tip 3: Find a coach or mentor

Most people have 10-15 years to reach their vision so you need support and accountability to make it happen.  A coach or mentor can help you:

• Get clarity on your next move

• Make the right moves that contribute to your overall vision

• Avoid wasting time and effort going down the wrong path

Tip 4: Deliver outstanding performance

If you want to progress and reach the top, you need to build a reputation of being someone who consistently delivers outstanding performance.  One of the ways of delivering outstanding performance is to be clear about what you are measured on and make sure everything you do contributes to success.

Tip 5: Don’t move out of a job because you are disgruntled

Sometimes people move jobs because something short term annoys them.  It might be that they are not feeling valued, that they are not supported or whatever they do it will never be good enough.

If you find yourself in this situation, speak to someone more senior before taking action or to you coach or mentor.

Tip 6: Discuss you career with your boss

Employees are sometimes reluctant to discuss their career with their boss.  They worry that their boss might misinterpret this.  The truth is that the best bosses want to have people around them who are motivated and have a desire to get on.

How could you create a relationship with your boss that allowed you to openly speak about your career?

Tip 7: Avoid job moves that only offer short term advantages

It is easy to be lured in the short term by money.  Keep the focus on your vision and test job opportunities in terms of what you need to progress rather than short term financial gains.

Tip 8: Leave jobs on good terms

You might be working with someone today who pops up at some organisation you want to work with in the future.  This is more common than you think so always leave on good terms.

Tip 9: Speak openly to superiors about internal positions that are of interest to you

Managers often form a completely wrong impression about individual’s career aspirations.  If there is an internal post that would help you closer to your goal, speak to your superior about it.

Tip 10:  Be open to lateral moves

It is easy to think that every job change needs to be a move up the ladder.  Sometimes it might be useful to move at a similar level to get new experience.  For example imagine all of your experience was in subsidiary companies and you wanted some head office experience.  A lateral move might be the best way to do it.

Tip 11: Plan moves in advance

When you have secured a position and have got some clarity about some of the skills and experience you are gaining, start thinking about your next couple of moves.  Why?  The main reason is that it keeps you alert for new opportunities that might be ideal for you as you move towards your vision.

Tip 12: Keep your CV or Resume up to date

Make a habit of regularly updating your CV to capture new experience, skills or attributes that you have developed.

Tip 13: Record achievements and successes

In every interview you will always be asked about achievements and successes.  If you record achievements on a weekly or monthly basis you will have a bank of successes available to draw from when faced with this question.

In addition, you will also have the drive and motivation to do even more.

Tip 14: Don’t stay in a job too long

If you want to reach a senior level, you need to find the right balance.  Move too regularly and your loyalty will be questioned.  Stay too long and your ambition and desire will be questioned.  Three indicators that the time might be right to move on are:

• The excitement has gone from the job

• You are not getting any new experience

• The job is too easy

In my experience moving every 2-4 years is about right, but be aware of industry or sector norms.

If you want a career rather than just a series of jobs, you need to take control.  What’s your first step?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements Ltd is author of the Career Accelerator Self Coaching Workbook.  For more information click here

Whatever point you are at in your career, chances are that you want to achieve success.  The reasons why people want career success are varied and include:

• Financial rewards and benefits

• The status and standing of being in a senior role

• The challenge of climbing the career ladder and overcoming the obstacles that arise

• Sense of personal achievement

While there are a whole host of reasons why people want to achieve career success, there is in my experience one key question that you need to be able to answer.  So what is that question?

WHAT IS YOUR OVERALL CAREER GOAL?

There are a number of reasons why it is essential that you answer this question and they include:

Reason 1: Helps you make choices

If you want to climb the career ladder and get a senior level post, you will need to gain a wide of skills, knowledge and experience.  In addition, you will have to develop a broad range of personal attributes.  Chances are there will be many opportunities that will arise which might appear attractive financially but might not be beneficial in achieving your overall career goal.  By being clear on your overall career goal you can make informed career move choices.

Reason 2: Helps you decide priorities

Every time you make a choice around your career, for example, stepping up to the next level, chances are you will be required to commit more to work.  If this fits in with your priorities around lifestyle then there is no problem.  The reality is that most people don’t take the time to consider where career fits into there overall lifestyle priorities.  We sometimes forget that the majority of people work to live not live to work.

Reason 3: Helps you determine how much you want it

Climbing the career ladder and holding down a job at a senior level is not easy.  A question you need to be able to answer is how much do you want it?  You will need to consider how determined you are, how much sacrifice you are ready to make, how much pressure you are comfortable dealing with to name just a few.  I suggest you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 means that you want it 100% and are willing to do what it takes to get there.

Bottom Line- Achieving career success requires determination, drive and a whole range of other personal attributes.  At the end of the day you need to be clear on your overall career goal if you are to maximise your chances of career success.

If you aspire to be a leader, you might notice that sometimes you continually move forward.  At other times you continually struggle.  The career ladder, unlike a normal ladder is not the same width at the top as it is at the bottom.  In many ways it is similar to a pyramid.  The higher you climb the narrower it gets.  As you try to take the next step in your career you might be finding it a struggle for one of the following 5 reasons.

Reason 1: Your resume or CV does not sell you

Make no mistake you resume or CV has one primary purpose: to get you to the next stage in the selection process.  Too often, people create resumes or CVs that list what they do rather than mentioning what they have achieved.  Remember you have to influence the recruiter that you are worth going forward to the next stage so highlight clearly and concisely your achievements.

Reason 2: You don’t know yourself

For anyone who aspires to be a leader, self awareness is an important quality to have.  Everybody, no matter who they are has areas in which they excel and areas where they are not so strong.  If you cannot articulate clearly what your areas of excellence are and where you need to develop, make the time to do a self assessment.

Reason 3: You don’t have the qualifications

In many fields, particularly professions, there is going to be a ceiling on how far you can go without the recognised professional qualification.  If you are in this situation you have two choices.  Either do what it takes to get the qualification or accept that their will be limits on how far you progress.  If it is the latter, look at ways of gaining new experience at the level you can reach.

Reason 4: You don’t have the right mindset

Believe it or not many people fail to get to the level they desire because they don’t believe that they are capable or good enough.  If this is you, take the time to separate fact from fiction when it comes to your limiting beliefs.

Reason 5: You are not willing to make the sacrifices

No long term success is achieved as a leader without some element of sacrifice.  Every time you say yes to something you are saying no to something else.  Make sure that you are willing to make the sacrifices before you seek to pursue a role as a leader.

Bottom Line – It is not always the most capable that achieve success in their leadership career.  So what action could you take to achieve success in progressing your leadership career?

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.