Five ways to boost your career prospects
As you spend the majority of your waking hours at work, it’s important that you ensure you’re engaged in a job that you enjoy doing.
Beyond just earning a stable income, it’s also about having a sense of fulfillment that you’re doing something that makes you happy. You wouldn’t want to stay with a job where you feel as if you’re trapped, would you?
Eventually, you’re going to want to experience growth and career development. This means improving your career prospects, so that you can continue to realize your full potential. This can give you greater satisfaction and confidence, knowing that you’re maximizing your knowledge and skills.
Here are five proven ways to improve your career prospects so you can also start to reach your career-related goals.
1) Enroll in a new course
Taking a new course is one of the most effective ways to boost your career. You’ve got to equip yourself with more knowledge, especially if it’s been years since you last did so. There may be certain strategies that you once thought were effective but are now obsolete because of changes and developments in technology.
Fortunately, technology has also made it easier to take a new course. For instance, you no longer have to be limited by the constraints of your schedule. When you eventually start to reap the benefits of the efforts you put into studying a new course, you’ll find that doing so was, in fact, worth it.
Going through this MBA vs EMBA salary comparison should provide you with enough convincing insights that your salary and career potential also increase after you’ve completed sufficient courses to earn either of these degrees.
2) Strengthen your communication skills
Among all the other skills that are necessary across all types of professions, your communication skills will always rank as one of the most important. You can’t be an effective representative of the company as a working professional or a team player when you don’t know how to write and send out business communications professionally.
So, if you know that you’re struggling in this regard, then it doesn’t hurt to work towards improving your communication skills. Here are some tips to help you do so:
- Simplify your messages by avoiding lengthy and unnecessary explanations. That way, you can get your message across right away.
- Take the time to respond, which means going through each response as thoroughly as possible. Drafting your thoughts in your head or using a document so you avoid saying anything that might affect business transactions negatively.
- Develop good listening skills, since a good communicator is someone who isn’t only good at talking but is also able to listen well.
3) Ask for an evaluation from your HR head
Your human resource (HR) head will have the best insights on how you’re performing as an employee. In your pursuit of improving your career prospects, you may want to take the bold move of asking for an evaluation.
Asking for an evaluation doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to let go of your current position immediately or apply for other companies. If this isn’t in your mind yet, you can use that evaluation to have a professional view of your strengths and weaknesses as an employee.
With this, you can improve on your weaknesses and use your strengths as an advantage. This can help you work better and contribute more to the organization you’re working for. When they see your improvements, you might just make yourself eligible for promotions or more career opportunities.
4) Improve your networking skills
In your pursuit to widen your career horizon, you should avoid limiting yourself to what you’re doing right now. Rather, it’s best to improve your networking skills so that you get to know more people. In the competitive employment market and business industry, it matters who you know.
Many networking skills can be picked up by learning from corporate training programs. With the introduction of technology and new digital frameworks, networking has progressed beyond the confines of a platform like LinkedIn and cold email outreach. Many leading professionals suggest opting for corporate training in Singapore to become proficient with the leading networking skills that are required in the industry. These focussed training programs are great for corporate professionals that are looking to fine tune their networking.
So, explore beyond the network that you have now. As you improve your communication skills, you should also make it a goal to improve your networking skills. This means building good relationships with other professionals within the industry that you’re working for. That way, you’re always up-to-date with whatever developments are in place for you to position yourself more competitively than others.
Another way to improve your current professional network is to work within an agency. Not only will this put you within like minded individuals at the company, you will likely work with a variety of different clientele week in week out, this gives you plenty of opportunities to meet with people who require your services and begin to understand what it is they all commonly want from you.
This can be a great way to explore new opportunities and most importantly gets you working in the industry of your choice, so you can get that private chef job in London you’ve always dreamed about for example. Cooking for clients might open a door for you to become a permanent staff member for one of them if you impress with your high quality service.
One of the best ways to improve your network is to take up an MBA. You’ll have experts in the industry as your professors who’ll continue to be part of your new network of connections once you finish your degree.
Apart from taking an MBA, here are other tips on how you can improve your networking skills:
- Set specific goals towards building a bigger network and focus your energy towards achieving these goals;
- Design a personal map or game plan on how you’re going to achieve a broader network;
- Learn how to foster genuine connections with others by being emphatic and a good listener.
5) Fix your procrastination tendencies
You can’t do well if you consistently procrastinate. It’s a bad habit that’ll only hamper your career growth, as surely, no one wants to take in a procrastinator as a member of their organization.
If this resonates with you, then it’s time to fix this counterproductive tendency. There’s no justification for procrastination; doing so will only hamper your work quality. And, in your pursuit of improving your career prospects, it’s a false move to deliver inferior results.
You can cure this starting today with easy remedies or changes in your habits, including the following:
- Break big responsibilities into smaller tasks so that they don’t seem as daunting for you to complete;
- Plot out specific deadlines so that you can prioritize urgent tasks and finish these before anything else;
- Hang out with the right people, or those who also motivate and inspire you to work hard;
- Simplify complicated processes by using technology to your advantage, such as automating what would’ve otherwise been manual tasks.
How can you move your career forward?
Being content with your career doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t seek growth opportunities. Every professional should always strive to maximize their full potential. This also means discovering more of what you can do and accomplish.
With the actionable tips above, you can finish strong this year by improving your career prospects. Not only will this result in greater happiness and fulfillment but you may also see yourself earning more.
