Career Development Guide
Your career can mean anything to you. It may be important so that you may feel like a part of something bigger than you. Human beings are social creatures, and at one point in their lives, everyone wants to belong to a group of people and want to feel useful. That is why our careers are more than just resources for money.
Despite all that, our careers also mean money. They are our livelihoods and we need to advance in our careers if we want more things from our lives. Bigger homes, more frequent vacations and just higher standards, in general, requires advancement in your career.
Starting and developing a career used to be a natural process for everyone in the past. But now the competition is higher than ever and you always have to be one or sometimes even two steps ahead of your competition. But to do so is never easy or simple.
What you need to develop your career is willingness above. As long as you have the necessary drive, the next step would be building a strategy for your career development. Then depending on the strategy you built, you will need to develop the necessary hard skills and soft skills and then apply them in the workplace.
Career development is no easy task, but by disintegrating and segmenting your plan into little pieces under different tasks can lighten up your load significantly. If you manage to complete the planning stage with success then the rest will be much easier since then you will know what you want from your career and from your life. Another brilliant side of this planning stage is that you will have a ready and well-developed answer for the question “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” in job interviews.
Being Flexible Is the Key
Before you start planning your career development, one thing you should be keeping in your mind is that you have to be flexible. You might be a type-A person who plans every single step ahead and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve your goals but unfortunately, reality is far from that.
You have to accept the fact that you cannot control everything in life, especially regarding your career path. You may be the most hardworking and the most skilled person among your competitors but circumstances and even your personality can be the main thing between you and the promotion you yearn for.
You also need to accept that your wants and needs may change within years to come. You may want to become a CEO at a mid-scale company right now but working hard for long hours can tire you and you may find yourself wanting a career that is more peaceful and less tiring. If you set yourself concrete goals and try to achieve them no matter what you might accidentally make yourself unhappy.
It is best to accept that experience and your personal life can change your wishes and needs. The complete opposite is also possible. You might have chosen a sedentary and easy career path for you but once you find yourself married, with children or in debt you might have to work harder and find a better paying job.
Things can always develop out of your control. The best example for that is the latest Covid-19 pandemic. Tens of thousands of skilled employees found themselves out of jobs in the matter of just a few weeks, hundreds of small-scale companies and restaurants closed their doors, some of them permanently.
On the other hand, the pandemic became a blessing for other people. People who lived in small towns and had no access to big businesses finally found a chance to work for better companies remotely.
To summarize, it is a good thing to set goals but you should not stop being flexible because there will always be better options for you and you cannot control life from happening. If you are too rigid it will only hurt your chances in the end.
Things You Should Consider While Planning Your Career Path
There are certain things you need to consider while planning your career. Your wants and needs, your interests and personality, your financial situation, and even your marital situation are important subjects that will certainly come up during your career development.
Find The Perfect Career For Your Personality
Your personality is one of the things you definitely must regard before choosing your career path. If you are an introvert and find a job in human relations or any other role that would need you to be in contact with people all day you would be miserable and not very successful at all.
It is advised that you should be honest with yourself while evaluating your personality and desired career path. Are you being realistic? If you are someone who likes to sleep for long hours, maybe an ambitious career path is not the best for you. If you are too independent, corporate life might turn you cranky in no time and you will start resenting your job and the company you work at.
Think of your personality, interests and habits while deciding on a career path but do not forget to challenge yourself either. Maybe you can be personable and enjoy talking to people if you just force yourself. Maybe some jobs are worth waking up early and sacrificing your sleep. As long as you are realistic and intelligent you will be fine.
Your Financial Situation Is A Crucial Subject
No matter what every guru on LinkedIn says, money is your objective. You work to make money and support yourself and your family. Make sure that the career path you choose will allow you to earn enough to support your desired lifestyle.
High paying jobs usually expect a recompensation from you. That might be your educational background, your impressive experience or your willingness to work for long hours. But the thing you have to consider is your future. The job you are thinking of may be paying well for now but will it help you learn new subjects in your field and improve your skills? If it will not, your beginner salary will be high but will not get any higher in the future.
When you think about money, you have to think strategically. If you have big plans for the future and do not immediately opt for the high paying job since it might leave you high and dry in the future.
But here too, flexibility is very important. Today’s high paying jobs may not pay as well in the future years. The rise in remote working led a lot of tech companies to seek a workforce in the countries where salaries are much lower, thus the salaries for programmers and coders are not that impressive anymore.
Unique skills are always appreciated by companies. If you want a high-paying job, try to combine two or more talents. For example, if you studied genetics and maybe learn about marketing, then you will have a unique talent and will be sought after. Do your research and make sure to consider the future also. Some jobs, like cyber security specialist jobs are going to be even more sought-after in a decade, it is best to keep that in mind.
Your Life In General
Are you married? Do you have kids? If your answer is no to these questions, do you plan on getting married and having kids? Do you want to buy a house? Or do you want to have adventures, traveling the world and not be limited by borders and a house?
These are all questions you need to ask yourself before starting your career development. Because not all those things are directly about your income, they are the basis of your lifestyle. If you want kids, you will need more money, but also more time to spend with them. So your career needs to be paying well while not taking your whole time and leaving you tired and spent at the end of the day. Maternity and paternity leaves, paid leaves and vacation days are also important features you need to reconsider.
If you have hobbies and do not want to forgo them once you start working, again your working hours and vacation days as well as the paid leaves are among things you need to consider. Some companies now offer flexible working hours and do not care when you work as long as you get the work done. Those jobs can be valuable opportunities for you to both develop your career and take the necessary time to indulge in your hobbies.
After You Get The Job
Let’s say you asked yourself the questions above and found yourself a cushy job in a field you love, with a good salary and great work and life balance. Now you have a career and career development starts here. But don’t worry! Career development can start at any age and any time. You can always draw a new career path yourself if you find yourself unsatisfied with your current situation.
Once you start working at a company or as a freelancer, there are some things you should be doing. Some of them should be done as quickly as possible and some of them require more time. One thing you have to know is that while career development can start at any time, it also never ends and is a continuous process.
Build Strong Relationships
Networking is an extremely important thing to do, no matter what your field is. People always say “It’s who you know.” but in reality it is more about who knows about your talents. You might be friends with everyone in the company and people who work in your field, but friendship alone will get you nowhere.
Networking is a two way street. Before you ask for things from people, you need to be able to provide things. And at the beginning of your career, unfortunately, there are very few things you can offer. The least you can do is to be kind and helpful but never be a doormat and let people use you.
Do not let rivalry and competition go straight to your head and make people think that you are the enemy. But don’t hide your talents either. If you are good at something, make sure that people are witnessing it. Never let your credit go to someone else but don’t overdo it.
It might be difficult to find a balance but after some time you will get the hang of it. In the meantime, try to learn how to operate social media platforms like LinkedIn in an efficient way. They are great tools to find new connections and build better work relationships.
Find A Mentor
A mentor is a very valuable person to have in your life but finding one is one of the greatest challenges you will embark on. The first thing you should accept is the fact that you cannot force anyone to be your mentor. You might be finding your supervisor very smart, intelligent and the perfect mentor material but if they do not want to take on this job do not resent them. Being a mentor is hard work. Just try to learn from them as much as possible and do not pester them. You do not want to be seen as someone annoying and bothersome in the workplace.
This step, too, requires you to show off your talents, skills and hard work so that people will want to be your mentor. You may be wanting your CEO or the other chief-level executives to become your mentor but at this point you need to be realistic.
Be flexible with your mentor seeking process. Your mentor does not even need to be working in the same department as you. With the right mentor you will be more confident with your career development steps and path. They can guide you to improve your skills and find a balance between work and life.
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