Advancing Your Career in 3 Steps

Do you think about advancing your career? When? Odds are, if you are, it is coming to you during the workday or at the bookends of it. Considering your career strategy at 4 o’clock on a Tuesday is great, if you aren’t rushing home to make dinner at 5. If you’re anything like me, weeknights are a whirlwind. They are a mix of spending the little time I have with the kids, prepping as much as I’m mentally able for the next day, dinner, dishes, homework or reading, and bed. It all gets done, most nights, but there is very little time left over (or let’s be honest, mental capacity) to do any deep intentional work on any of my personal goals. Most nights I’m shot by the time I tuck them all in. Between looking at amazing artwork, discussing a specific grade or challenging school topic, and just truly enjoying my kids, not to mention all of the logistical evening stuff that I listed above, there just isn’t time. Don’t get me wrong I love it. That is some of the best time to truly connect to what is going on outside of our four walls because it is all fresh in their minds and weighing on their hearts. It’s just that, there is little time to be strategic with personal, or career, goals.

What does that mean for the progress I want to make for my life though? How does that play into the goals, career or otherwise, I’m trying to achieve? This might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t see motherhood as my whole life. Being a mom is an important part of my life, but just that, a part. I have health goals and financial goals. I have goals around my faith and my marriage. I have pretty lofty goals around my career and all of that requires time, time I don’t have on a Tuesday. Go for a run at some point after the children are home? Not unless it’s been worked into the schedule days or weeks in advance. If I want to become more financially literate, spend some quality quiet time, or connect with my husband, when? I’d need to do it after bedtime, I guess. On a schedule that might work but the reality is the exhaustion sets in and if we do have something left to give it’s just that, the leftovers. For me, I spend time in the wee hours of the morning working on some of my goals and when I need a bigger chunk of time, hello weekend.

Truly though, it doesn’t really matter when you do these things. The point is that you don’t need to be at work to do it. You need some time and some mental margin to think about what a great career strategy would be. Then, you’ll be able to build in activities while you’re at work to advance the ball. For example, you might need to be at work or in some social career setting to be building the connections you need, but you have to understand what type of connections you’re looking for first. You might need to be sitting with your boss to ask for a raise or negotiate a more flexible schedule, but you have to know what you’re asking for, why, and why you’ll get it first.  The margin you have to understand and build this strategy is critical to moving forward in your career. So let’s get to it already, what are the top five things you can do to advance your career, even on the weekend.

Physically write out what you want your career to look like.

I mean the whole thing. How much money do you want to make (like an actual amount)? How many hours do you want to work? Do you want to work in an office, from home, or a mix? Do you want an office? Who do you want to serve? How do you want to serve them? Do you want to work with a team or independently? Is understanding the full picture or having autonomy over how things happen more important? What culture do you want? Don’t get trapped on these (particularly that last one) and start writing what you don’t want. We’re here to focus on what we’re looking for.

You might go through this exercise knowing the type of work you want to do but not sure where you want to do it. Conversely, you might go through this knowing where you want to be but not sure what to do there. If different questions come to you and need to be answered based on what you’re looking for, jump to the next step. You can ‘try on’ different job descriptions to see if they fit. Just remember to come back and draw clear lines in what you are looking for.

Review job descriptions of your ideal job to help identify gaps and strengths.

Once you know what type of work you want and potentially the industry you’d like to be in, start learning what you bring to the table and what skills you may need to develop. Review multiple job descriptions from a variety of companies to help determine what skills and requirements are true for the role regardless of where it is and what are specific to a certain company. For example, you might find that knowledge of a certain system or software for the ideal position in one organization and a different system at another. This doesn’t mean that you need to become an expert in the ‘right’ system to get the job. Learn what the systems do, what they have in common, and what sets them apart. That way you can speak intelligently to intent of what the organization is looking to accomplish with the system. Beyond that, look at trends in the order of importance of certain skills. Is excellent written communication coming in at the top of every job description but ability to speak to groups is lower in the list? Then you know where to focus your efforts.

Create a killer resume.

Now that you have a good base of what you want in a position and what skills and abilities you have that they need you can build the resume to link them. Linking what you have to offer to what the hiring manager needs and why is critical. It gets your resume picked out of the pile they’ll receive. If you need a little assistance in pulling that all together, I totally have you covered with my proven resume template to help you stand out and get to the interview. Click here to get the free template and start filling in your information today.

Like I said, it matters much less when you do these steps just that you do them. Don’t jump to number three without thinking through the first two. Think of what a disadvantage that leaves you at. Not only do you make yourself less likely to standout from other candidates, but you also miss the opportunity to develop your own boundaries (if you truly want to work from home but somehow find yourself agreeing to telecommute or you agree to a salary far below what you’re looking for because you never took the time to figure out where you wanted to be). Further than that, you miss a chance to develop some great answers to interview questions based on research you’ve done. Interested in learning more about those interview questions? That’s too much for one weekend (take time to rest and recharge too). Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s post and reach out with how you’re working your career!