Have you made the same old resolutions this year? Usually it’s lose weight, exercise and save more money. Why not focus on rebranding yourself for the next step in your career ladder? How?
- Define your strengths/weaknesses
- Assess your ultimate career goal against where you are now
- Develop the skills and experiences needed to move up to the next level
- Design your strategy and evaluate your chances to make it. Modify to fit reality.
- Take the first step after you check out the marketplace
Once you check out what’s available in the marketplace, then compare the opportunities that are available against the following criteria:
MUST HAVE’S – These are the items you absolutely have to have in your next job in order to consider a change. It could be responsibilities, title, pay, level, or location to name a few.
NICE TO HAVE – These are the items that cumulatively would help sway your decision: Benefits, incentives, relocation expenses, signing bonus, and so on
CONSIDERATIONS– These items would need to be considered: Quality of local schools, commuting distance, travel requirements, opportunity for further promotion, and so on
AVOIDS – These items are “knockouts”: Items like a company being acquired, a depressed industry, a potential boss you can’t work with, impossible job objectives, starved resources
Once you have developed your plan and assessed the marketplace, then compare your current job and potential opportunities against the possibilities in the marketplace. Why go through these steps? If you don’t develop your career plan someone else will develop it for you. Without a career map, any direction will take you somewhere, but not necessarily where you want to go. What questions do you need to ask yourself?
Step 1: Look back over the past 3 years. What have you accomplished? What skill set is highly marketable? What can you do better than most everyone?
Step 2: What industries or companies need what you have to offer?
Step 3: What is the ideal function for your next step?
Step 5: What are the goals for you in 2014?
Step 6: What are your action steps for the first 6 months?
My suggestion is for you to take these steps very seriously because we are talking about charting a new course for your career. if not changing your life. If you want it bad enough you’ll make it happen.
If you don’t have the time, inclination or believe you will succeed, it won’t happen.
Contact Bill Kaufmann as a coach. Send questions or your resume for a free evaluation to: mygreenerfuture1@cox.net Check Bill’s e-book: http://www.createspace.com/3884487