Job security is fading fast. In a constantly changing world it can feel almost impossible to keep up with the latest trends and digital expectations. So how do you manage your career – and your online reputation – when the goalposts are constantly moving? By investing a little time now in your career, you’ll be able to boost your employability for a long-term pay off.
To help get you started, I’d like to share five ideas with you. Today i offer you one…If you add it to your to-do list you will be one step ahead in managing your sustainable career!
- Improve Your Self-awareness: Reflection
Take time to reflect. Get away from doing and focus on thinking. Look back and meditate on your past career experiences. What skills have you developed throughout your career? What positions have you held? And how have you contributed to your employers and fellow employees? By answering these questions, you’ll raise your self-awareness, identify what you’re capable of, and perceive where you get your professional satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) from. You’ll also see what areas you’d like to work on. And where you can make the biggest contribution.
Let me give you a hint: Ask your colleagues, peers and friends for an outside perspective. Not for a recommendation: but for a reflection. They will help you gain a clearer picture.
This step is about defining your professional identity. Who are you? What makes you different from the others? What makes you belong? Define who you are. You might be an engineer, but that does not define you. What you have learnt, developed, contributed over the years in projects – that’s what defines you. That makes you unique. What makes you belong? If you’re an engineer then you need to identify what makes you be part of the in-group. Maybe you’re a process thinker – or a problem solver. You might be serious, responsible, and precise. And your online profile should reflect this.
Stay tuned… more ideas on how to mange a sustainable career will come soon!