How To Review Your Career
The end of a calendar year is often a time when people stop, reflect and determine their next steps in their career. If you are someone who does this in a structured way you will be streets ahead of the majority of other people.
So how should you approach a review of your career? What I have found works well is to ask yourself a serious of open questions, reflect and answer them honestly. Some of the questions that you want to consider include:
What did I set out to achieve in my career this year?
You set some specific intentions for this year didn’t you? Maybe you did and if so this is easy to articulate and if not it might be something for your future planning.
What did I actually achieve this year?
You probably spent more of your life in work than anywhere else. I am sure you were busy doing lots of things. On the other hand what did you actually achieve?
What new experiences did you gain?
Career success is obtained over the long term. Along the way you want to be adding to your list of assets. New experiences are a way of adding to what you can offer in the future.
What contributions did you make?
You received a salary and if you are accountant or other professional, probably a pretty good salary. But what did you contribute to the organisation that you work for in the last year? What is different as a result of your contributions?
What have you done to develop yourself?
A lot of people think that development is something that you have to really focus on in the early stages of your career. The truth is it is something you have to keep doing for the whole of your career. What have you done this year to develop yourself?
What value have you added?
Adding value is something that is talked about a lot and often people confuse adding value with doing the job. When people add value they go above and beyond the role they are in. They help the organisation or a group of people be better at what they do, they look for and make improvements. How about you?
Am I growing or stagnating?
There is nothing wrong with consciously choosing to stay in a role. On the other hand just bobbing along without much thought or consideration is never a great strategy. Really ask yourself if you are growing if that is what you want and if not do something about it.
The truth is doing a career review does require work and effort on your part but in my experience the benefits far exceed the time and effort it takes to do it.
Duncan Brodie helps accountants achieve more career success. Learn more here.
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.