Moving up in the corporate ladder to assume greater responsibilities? Expecting a promotion? What ? No company support to develop you professionally?
Are you prepared? Ready?
Are you prepared? Ready?
What are you going to do? Read on...this article just might be exactly what the doctor ordered...hmmm?
It's easy to get complacent about
professional development when you're employed. If you already have a
job, why should you go above and beyond to improve your skills,
especially if it's not required by your company?
But making an
effort to help yourself grow professionally will help you succeed, both
in the short term and in the long term. And if you don't learn new
skills and acquire new knowledge and experience, you're likely to fall
behind your peers, which could be detrimental when you look to change
positions.
"If you don't [focus on professional development], you won't be marketable in your field in five years," Alexandra Levit, author of New Job, New You: A Guide to Reinventing Yourself in a Bright New Career,
wrote in an email. "In this [employment] climate, you always have to be
looking ahead to what is going to be required in your potential next
role."
Levit
recommends focusing on transferable skills that are relevant across a
variety of industries and positions. That way, even if you can't use
them now, they'll likely come in handy later.
Taking charge of
your professional development has become even more important since the
recession, because some companies no longer have the funds to help
employees grow beyond their basic duties. And since employees tend to
have shorter stays with companies than they did years ago, companies may
not see the value in training an employee they could lose. Of course,
employee-retention experts say that's exactly why companies should offer professional development: because it helps them keep and cultivate their best talent.
"Companies
have less resources to do professional development because as they've
cut back, everybody's down to muscle and bone," says Rusty Rueff, career
and workplace expert at Glassdoor.com,
a website that offers insight into careers and companies. "You have to
take control of your own development ... and find ways to make it
happen."
Here are 10 ways to help yourself grow professionally even without the support of your company:
1. Take a class.
Just because you're no longer in school doesn't mean the classroom is
off-limits. Plenty of universities offer classes for adults, often in
the evening so you can attend around your job schedule. Online classes
are another convenient option. Take a class on a topic that's relevant
for your job, or learn about something that's totally unrelated for a
change of pace. Either way, you're growing, which is the over-arching
goal.
2. Teach yourself a skill. You don't always need
structure or a class to learn something new. Pinpoint skills that are
desirable in your line of work, and start practicing. Website-building
or social-media skills are a perfect example, and they're desirable
across the board. Jump into a project, and learn the ropes as you go.
3. Volunteer.
"Because [nonprofit] organizations are so hungry for hands," Levit
says, "you'll get the opportunity to master leadership skills you might
not have the chance to practice otherwise." And, she adds, "you'll be
doing it in a real-world environment, which makes the experience better
than if you, for example, took coursework or training seminars."
4. Master an online tool. Even those of us who organize our lives via digital tools
don't always make the most of them. The Web is full of free video
tutorials on how to use networks like LinkedIn and Google+, as well as
tips on organizing your Gmail life. Think about how you can increase
your efficiency, and scour the Internet for resources to help you
accomplish that.
5. Seek out people who are on the career path you aspire to.
Ask them how they got to where they are. With a little effort on social
media, Rueff says, you can easily find out who holds a certain
position--or who used to hold it--and reach out to them. Especially if
you stroke their ego a bit, people are often happy to talk about the
path they took in their career, as well as what worked and what didn't.
Learn from their successes and mistakes.
6. Shadow a colleague. Find
workers within your company who do something you want to learn, and
stop by their office occasionally to ask questions, Rueff suggests. You
don't need an official shadowing program to accomplish this, just your
own initiative. "You will learn a lot by listening and watching, and a
little bit by osmosis," he says.
7. Find a mentor. Take
that find-a-successful-person goal one step further and identify someone
who's willing to give you guidance and advice. Even if you don't feel
comfortable calling that person a mentor, having someone to run ideas by
who has more experience than you can go a long way toward helping you
make the right decisions. The key here is that they have to have an
interest in helping you.
8. Read. Devour
books and articles and blogs within your niche, but also pick reads
that are outside of your normal professional box, Rueff says. "Read
things that are outside of your own industry and experience, and then
stop and think about, how can I relate that and apply it to my
business?" he says.
9. Attend a conference. Figure out
which conference is most worthwhile for people who work in your target
industry and go, even if it means using vacation time. Not only will you
learn new skills, you'll also make new contacts. Emily Bennington,
who helps new college graduates transition from the classroom to the
workplace, advises researching who's going and connecting with those
people on social media before the event, so you can arrange an in-person
meeting and facilitate a stronger connection.
10. Don't neglect your "soft skills."
Most of us know our weaknesses, whether we need to be more organized or
do a better job of meeting deadlines or simply prioritizing in a
smarter way. Putting effort into improving those skills will make you
more marketable no matter what field you're in, says Joseph Grenny, an organizational-development expert and co-author of Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success.
"Don't do it for your boss," Grenny says. "You're doing this for you."
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