You probably know someone with a flourishing career. He/she is probably entrusted with very interesting tasks, they wield powers not available to their colleagues, and are the first ones to be considered for promotions to top positions.
Accidental coincidence isn’t real. Luck appears only when opportunities correspond to readiness. A person with an enviable career is most likely actively working to move in the right direction. Here’s some advice from Orion about what to do and what direction to move to improve your career.
1. Find a Mentor
Find a mentor if you want to have a qualitative rise in your career. It can be your friend, the head of the neighboring department, or even your leader. Learn from them, ask them to point out your mistakes and show you new horizons. Ask them questions about management technologies since they are far more experienced than you.
Don’t assume that nobody will tell you anything: everyone is flattered when asked about work, what they are doing and how they came to this.
2. Build a Network of Contacts
You require a job that doesn’t interfere but directly requires building a network of contacts, discussing professional topics, and getting to know people. Developing a network of professional contacts is facilitated by participating in professional conferences, communities, commercial projects, seminars, in which many people are involved.
How many phone numbers of colleagues do you have that you can discuss professional issues with? You should ideally have over 150 for a start.
3. Read Self-Development Books
The leader needs to be the best among equals, an open individual capable of listening to and understanding subordinates, saying “no” on time, being able to multitask, and find a way out of various situations.
So, you need to read and to grow faster, read a lot – books on motivation, psychology, time planning, oratory, management, and influence. You should make it a point to read at least 25 to 30 books a year since it is quite doable.
A good addition to reading self-development books is receiving training on developing your leadership skills. It is particularly important to train with a practical program. You need to attend at least 2 to 3 training sessions per year, and you don’t even have to wait until they are offered to you.
4. Be Useful, But Replaceable
You need to do your job properly, but avoid closing yourself off. The best way to ensure that you stay in your job for so long is doing it so well that nobody even considers replacing you. If you want to have a successful career, however, you not only have to be useful but also replaceable easily.
You are more likely to be promoted in your organization if your duties and responsibilities can be easily transferred to your successor without any issues. Put yourself in the shoes of your superiors, would you promote a person that practically runs an entire department themselves? Management would be scared to imagine what would happen if such a person would leave their current position.
If you are easily replaceable, your superiors will be aware of the fact that you are psychologically prepared at any time to move to a different organization if you are offered a better proposal. You aren’t particularly concerned about your position. So, your bosses must think of ways to get you to stay and promote you, until you finally leave.
5. Change Your Place of Work on a Regular Basis
It is important to change your place of work regularly for the sake of your career. Obviously, you shouldn’t be a flier who is hired for a project, works for 3 months, and moves on to a different job without finishing the project. It is highly unlikely that such an approach would boost your reputation. However, if you are hired for a project, and then move on to a different one after successfully completing the first one is a great strategy.
Employers usually love the natural human reluctance to make changes in one’s life. To have a successful career, you should be ready for change. Promotion is the change that you seek. You should train yourself to move to a higher position regularly. If the organization you are working at provides such an opportunity, that’s fine. Otherwise, you need to look for such opportunities in a different organization.
You need to look for a new position if you are dismissed. Dismissal is an absolute basis for a job search. For a true careerist, the same unconditional basis for finding a job needs to be the backlog in promotion from the self-formulated goals.
