March 2007
Career Development - How to help yourself
Once firmly ensconced in a job, it can be all too easy to sit back and settle into the straightforward daily tasks to which you’ve become accustomed, entirely forgetting about setting yourself new challenges and the various ways in which to continue developing your career. Often, the thought of the effort involved in working our way up the career ladder puts us off – as if we’re not busy enough just getting through the week’s tasks!
According to Brett Solomon however, team leader of the newly expanded office personnel division at leading north east recruitment specialist, Thorpe Molloy Recruitment, getting stuck soon leads to boredom and distraction for many of us. He advises that it’s worth office personnel bearing in mind a few pointers on the subject of self-help career development.
“Pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone at work is never easy of course, but is key to avoiding the situation of becoming bored and uninspired by the job. While work is essential to most of us as a means of paying the bills, ideally it should also be a largely satisfying endeavour; something that interests and motivates us. To achieve this we have to keep looking at opportunities for growth.”
Brett outlines some of the issues to be addressed when looking for career development in administrative departments.
Self assessment
The first step in developing your own career is to assess your personal characteristics, including interests, skills, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes and so on. The more experience you have in the world of work the better you will know yourself but be aware of changes to your character profile in terms of new, recently acquired skills for example, or new found interests. Few of us retain the same interests and skills over the course of our working lives!
Embrace challenges
Taking on greater responsibility for activities at work does two positive things: one is that it shows colleagues and employers that you are self confident and willing to embrace a challenge. The other is that it provides you with experience of additional tasks and duties which can subsequently be added to your portfolio of key skills.
Training opportunities
In a similar vein to accepting greater responsibility at work, looking for training opportunities is a great way in which to expand your repertoire of knowledge and transferable skills. From data processing and appliance operation courses to customer service and team building workshops, there are a host of training opportunities for companies nowadays, most of which can be applied in workplaces across the country.
CV enhancement
Your CV is a crucial component of your career development; it is not unheard of to have to submit your CV when applying for internal positions. It is a marketing tool, a means of promoting yourself to the employment world. Writing your CV from an employer’s perspective is a good starting point; would you stand out from the competition? Remember that it will act as the first point of contact with any potential employers so first impressions are critical. Keep it clear and concise, while also making sure it contains all the relevant, and up to date, information. Views on length and number of pages vary but I would advise that shorter is better; employers are busy people who cannot afford to donate huge amounts of time to trawling through an extensive CV. It’s worth ensuring that your name is on each page, so that if they get separated, the employer still knows who they are reading about.
Take time out
It’s worth taking some time out from the grind of your daily work to reflect on your career and the sort of plans you’d like to put in place for the future. Trying to do this in the midst of a working life simply detracts from both the quality of your work and that of your future career plan.
“Don’t underestimate the power of change to drive motivation,” concludes Brett. “It’s what keeps life interesting. Change does much to refresh and revive tired attitudes to work, and will keep you smiling into your pension!”
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