Have you ever thought where your job is taking you? Great, then you’ve taken the first steps towards turning your job into a career. A career is more than simply what you do to earn money; it lives and breathes and will flourish or fade according to how you look after it. Ignore career planning and development and you are likely to make passive decisions about your development and end up doing what someone else wants you to do. Fine, you may be doing a great job but you need to consider if that fits with your own drivers and meets your own definition of success.
So how do you make a start?
Some of you will be fortunate enough to have a productive career mentoring relationship with someone who helps you identify your current position along with your skills and drivers and translate these into strategy and direction. Couple this with actions that they hold you accountable for and you’re well on your way.
Those of you who haven’t got a mentor (or a good one at any rate) can still kick-off with a bit of self analysis. Let’s look first at what motivates you (your drivers). If you struggle with that, think about times when you’re at you most motivated and analyse what it was that you enjoyed about the activity.
Next, take a look at your current role (your position). How does this fit with your drivers? Do you compromise some or all of them? If so, take a look at ways in which you could get more out of your current role and make it fit better with what is important to you. It may be that you want to get more involved in a certain technical aspect or that you simply want to cut down your hours. Remember, they’re your drivers so they’re the ones that really matter. It is all well and good achieving and surpassing the expectations that others set for you but if they don’t align with what is important to you, there will be limited satisfaction in achieving them.
Now it’s time to develop a direction. This is the tricky part. Without a mentor who has experience in your field, it can often be hard to generate ideas about the kinds of roles, organisations and industries that will link well with your drivers. You could end up trawling through endless websites and still find yourself getting nowhere. The key here is really to ask questions. Simply ask, ask and ask again. The more people you speak to and the more questions you ask, the more information you get and the closer you get to finding your direction. Try friends, colleagues, former colleagues, blogs, forums, careers fairs (see link to our careers fair, below) and so on. If you find out about a role or an area of work that interests you, then research in more detail. You’ll soon find you begin to develop a career direction. It doesn’t have to be definite and inflexible, but it does need to be a genuine direction.
So now that you have direction, what do you do? Take a look at the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. Look at your skills and experience and compare them to the skills and experience required for the roles and careers you are considering. This way, you can identify the gaps and work out how to close them. That is your career strategy.
Finally – believe in yourself! If people tell you your goals and ambitions are unrealistic, ask why. There are a lot of people who have a vested interest in your career but the only one that matters to you IS you.
www.blueprint-talent.co.uk
To read Chris’ blog on mentoring, click on the following link: www.ion.icaew.com/Careersblog/18124