Tracking Your Way to Career Success
As an ambitious professional, I assume that you have set some intentions for your career and even landing your next job.
Maybe your aspiration is to make it to the most senior level in your professional field.
Or it might be that it’s the content of the work, the type of organisation or the culture that really motivates you.
Setting intentions is a great starting point.
Of course it is easy to say you want to land that next job, improve your skills, take on more responsibility, be challenged or do really interesting work.
On the other hand intentions don’t necessarily lead to action. If you take action, do you do it consistently?
Do you track your progress?
I recently got one of those devices that tracks number of steps, calories burned and even sleep patterns.
It wasn’t because I wanted to or needed to lose weight.
The value of the device is the insight that it gives you.
The insight allows you to make decisions, change behaviours and habits.
Right now you might be looking to take the next step in your career.
If you are like most you probably have done some work on your CV and started to make applications.
But have you set up a process to track what happens as a result of those applications?
Let’s say you have applied for 6 jobs. Each job while in your professional field has a slightly different job title. The roles might be in different sectors or industries.
There are a range of possible outcomes.
The first outcome is that you never hear again from the employer or recruiter.
The second outcome is that you get the email, phone call to say you have been unsuccessful.
A third outcome is that you get a first interview but get rejected.
A fourth outcome is that you get invited to a second and even third interview where you get rejected.
Another outcome is that you get an offer that you reject
Alternatively you get an offer that you accept.
If you were to set up a simple spreadsheet where you tracked your applications, you would start to get insight into:
Roles where you are making it beyond the first cut review.
Sectors or industries where you are attracting interest
How well you are doing at either moving to the next stage in the interview process or getting offered the job.
With this insight you can start to look at changes you might make in areas like:
- Job search strategy
- How you reach decisions about what to apply for and what not to apply for
- Interview preparation
- How you can better sell yourself in job interviews
So here’s my suggestion. Start systematically tracking your applications and use this as a basis of making change, so that you achieve the career success you want.
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.