When it comes to your career, it is easy to get so stuck in the day-to-day tasks that you end up keeping your head down and trudging along. Being in a pattern like this can make it challenging to find the right time to step away and have a good look at the trajectory your career is currently on.
There is certainly no shame whatsoever in staying where you are and continuing without disrupting the status quo. However, those who have more ambition to climb the ladder of industry might have envisioned that their careers would be moving along at a faster rate.
If you find yourself in the latter category, there is no need to settle for staying in your current position. There are several things you can do to help grow your career without sacrificing the position you now hold. Here are five ways that you can start seeing more growth in your career.
1. Be Honest With Your Goals
Being a part of the workforce for several years can cause you to lose sight of the goals that you set for yourself at the start of your career. Furthermore, with practical experience gained while on the job, your goals could have quite possibly entirely changed without you noticing them doing so.
If you currently feel that you would like to see your career move forward at a faster pace, then the first thing you need to do is have an honest discussion with yourself about what your specific career goals are. Try to establish if the goals you want to lay out for yourself are long-term or short-term ones.
2. Find a Mentor
Enlisting the help of someone who is farther along on the path you would like to be on can be an invaluable opportunity. If your superior at your current job is someone that you look up to as a mentor of sorts, see if they have some time to sit down with you and go over the realistic steps you need to take to achieve those goals. An excellent superior should be pleased that you are considering your future career options and will support you however they can.
Perhaps you have a friend or family member who works in the same industry as you but whose career is more advanced than yours at this time. Such a person might be able to offer you some insight as to what it takes to advance your career.
Whoever you have in mind should have these qualities of a good mentor:
- They have a positive attitude regarding their job
- They are also looking to continue growing in their own career
- They are willing to share their experience with you
- They can instruct others in a constructive way
3. Get the Necessary Education
Even if you have already earned a degree or two in your time, there is nothing wrong with evaluating the position that you hope to hold someday and seeing if continuing your education would help you along. While going back to school poses its own set of difficulties regarding the time and money that you will need to invest in doing so, it could be a move that would prove to be the catalyst that your career needs.
After some thought on the matter, if you do decide that going back to school is the right move for you, there are certainly options available that can lessen the financial and time commitments you would have to make in pursuit of your degree.
For example, one of the more popular degrees of choice for those in the business world would be a Masters of Learning degree. Online programs like the one found at https://leadership.deakin.edu.au/online-courses/master-leadership are not only incredibly flexible but can also be fast-tracked for students who plan to continue working while they complete their degree.
4. Utilize Your Time Away From Your Day Job
Many people who are looking to grow their careers might find the time commitment that this requires constraining. Keeping up with a full-time job while at the same time trying to acquire other skills that are necessary for the next level can be overwhelming at best.
The best thing you can do if you are in this scenario is to improve your time management skills. Not only will this help you in the long run as it is more than likely that the farther along you go in your career, the less downtime you will have, but honing your time management skills will also help you find some time that you didn’t know you had to dedicate to career advancement.
The key to successful time management is consistency. Create a standing appointment with yourself to sit down once a week to write out your schedule for the week. Roughly estimate how much time will need to be dedicated to the various tasks you must complete and find out where you will have natural gaps in between those times. This is when you will be able to work on those things that are solely geared towards your career advancement.
Lastly, successful time management might come down to making certain sacrifices to get what you want out of your career. For the time being, it might become necessary to give up your free time that would ordinarily be spent on non-work related activities. While this thought might not seem too appealing at the moment, the rewards that you stand to gain in the long run will be well worth it.
5. Request Feedback
Feedback on your current job performance can serve as the perfect gauge by which to fully understand what areas you excel at and where you need some improvement. Criticism can be hard to hear, but accepting your deficiencies is the only way to learn from them. Otherwise, you risk having made mistakes in your job that will only ever remain mistakes instead of turning them into the learning experiences that will help you grow in your career.