You have to have a vision of where you want to go and where you want to be at, and then lay out a plan and timeline so you can check your status periodically and measure your progress. this will also give you a sense of pride on your accomplishments.
Andrew,
and this really comes, I believe, in networking & talking to a wide variety of individuals to get the best ideas.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
walter,
it really does come down to effective & appropriate goal setting & monitoring those samem goals.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I think the most important step in my personal career management is knowing my strenghs and weaknesses, and being confident in what I know. The start of my career I always knew that I had great work ethics and the desire to exceed benchamrks, what i didnt always have was the confidence to know what i knew and handle situations in a professnal way. In th past 5 years, as my competence increased.. so did my confidence!!
Tammy ,
excellent point, a strong key to career management is that high-level of self-awareness.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I think the first step is knowing your passion, what excites and gives you the most personal satisfaction. I am a nurse and I am very passionate about nursing and health care so I looked at career change option that allowed me to use my transferable skills and work in an area associated with what I am passionate about. I have discovered that by looking at possible opportunities this way a wide range of career options opened for me.
The first most important step in personal career management is to know yourself and become aware of your interests and the type of rewards that reflect your goals. After the self awareness is completed then one can look at current skills that can transfer or how to achieve training for new ones.
Caryn,
yes, the more you know yourself & what you are good at & what you want, the more successful you will be.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
From my experience, and this may be absolutely wrong, and would love to hear other options, is that you have to be realistic about the culture of the job field. My personal example is this...I studied and trained very hard to be in a particular industry, top certifications, but I did not "look" the part. When I was hired, my photograph was accurate, but it was just a head shot. When I stepped out of my car to meet my new boss, a 2700 mile and $5000 move, he told me that I would not be there in six months. I could not fathom why. Over the course of the two days that he was with me he made all kinds of short jokes. As it turns out, he saw short as weak. He was able to cancel my contract (still felt like fired) in six weeks. The person who had to cancel my contract said that it was indeed the reason without saying "short" (I am 5 feet tall). I did not give up...another place told me that I had "no presence", so they would not hire me. I asked what that meant. The hiring manager pointed to someone and gestured from the floor up. I said. Tall. He said yes. These were government jobs. It just never occurred to me that hiring bias was something that I had to take into account for my career choice. This was 2 years ago, by the way. My height actually has no bearing on whatsoever on the work. So I have taught for the past two years, but don't want to throw away everything either. I guess I don't know the first step.
Heidi,
this is obviously a difficult situation & to me a case of discrimination. Regarding the "presence" issue, is there a way to develop this "presence" through other avenues, such as speaking skills, interpersonal skills, etc that will compensate for height if that is being connected to "presence?"
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
That is a really great idea. After posting this, I thought very hard about how I cannot let bias and discrimination stand in my way. Sure it may cause some hurdles, but that is the way it is for everyone. I wasn't allowed to do any kind of presentation or work for these two "opportunities". No desk, etc. What I should have done was walked out. If they cannot behave better than that, then that is a great early warning sign that these are not people that I want to work with.
Thanks for the tips to use when there is the possibility of proving oneself!
Knowing yourself well enough to understand your strengths and weaknesses and what will be best for you. This is important because if you don't understand yourself you may not be able to find something that will fit your needs.
The first step and one that I was reminded of in this course is to write out goals and what is important to you as an individual. Obviously compensation is important to most but many times that is not the most important item on one’s list. Once I wrote my list out I realized that time was most prized. Learning to discover more about myself through the eyes of others was also rather helpful because there were so many positive attributes I can transfer to another line of work I had not even noticed in myself.
The first step and one that I was reminded of in this course is to write out goals and what is important to you as an individual. Obviously compensation is important to most but many times that is not the most important item on one’s list. Once I wrote my list out I realized that time was most prized. Learning to discover more about myself through the eyes of others was also rather helpful because there were so many positive attributes I can transfer to another line of work I had not even noticed in myself.
Rose-Mary,
yes, one of the keys is to write out those things that are important to us as individuals. This is important to help us clarify our own direction.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I think the most important step in personal career management is identifying what part of your current job motivates and inspires you. Then move on to what aspects you wish you could implement into it. Sometimes we find ourselves in a rut and need to be challenged in areas we haven't thought of yet.
Farley,
this is great advice & taking the time to remember why I like the job is a great way to get reengaged.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
The most important step is to figure out what you enjoy about your career and try to head in that direction. I feel if you enjoy what you do, it doesn't feel like "work" and you have a desire to come in to work every day. You then don't have that "is it Friday yet" mentality of a job you dislike.
I feel the most important step in career management is to pinpoint what you enjoy about your job and focus on moving in that direction. If you enjoy what you do, it doesn't feel like "work" and you don't have that "Is it Friday yet?" mentality of a job you don't truly enjoy. You look forward to going to work.
jon,
this is very true & by knowing what I enjoy & like I can make sure to find those right fit careers.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
