Millions of people found that the pandemic, which has disrupted normal life for over two years, was a stopper in their careers. University leavers were left without an opportunity to find a job, while early-career workers found their progress stall and their confidence drop. Even those who had been working for several years lost a little momentum and motivation. This guide is about turning around that trend in your career, giving you some ideas and options that could well see you making great progress in your career come 2023.
Contents
Review
Let’s start by thinking through where you are in your current employment, which key skills you’re proud of, and what your employment opportunities look like at present. This will give you an idea of your self-worth, showing you that you’re a valuable worker with plenty to offer a company.
It will also give you an idea of the types of jobs that are currently on the market and the wages that they’re offering. That’s important, as you’ll gain an understanding of whether it’s worth you changing companies or even careers in the near future.
Options
Next, it;’s time to consider your options for your career. There are three main options if you’re looking to change your career. You could go back to school, college, or university in order to gain a new qualification that’ll help you access better jobs. You could quit your current role and start a career in something completely different. Or you could choose to double down on your current career, finding ways to achieve promotions and seniority as quickly as possible.
All of these options will help you to progress your career and arrive at where you want to be as an individual. Choosing between them is entirely down to you and what you believe would make you happiest. Consider where your skills might be best used, what you’d most like to be doing in the future, and how senior you’d like to reach in your career. By thinking this through, you’ll arrive at a decision.
Education
One of the options for those looking to switch into a new gear in their career is to begin earning a degree or qualification. These degrees are useful in their own right – the piece of paper or certification that you receive is like a passport into better-paid and more rewarding jobs. But it’s also the case that education will help you pick up new skills that you’ll use throughout your career, as well as introduce you to senior academics and other ambitious business professionals in your classes.
The obvious option for those who are looking to achieve promotions in their career is to find a degree or course that helps build business skills. Among these, the online MBA business intelligence course is one of the most popular, given that it helps tool students up on some of the fundamental skills needed in most large companies and corporate structures. Search for your degree program online and apply today in order to make this path work for you.
Quitting
Quitting your job is a huge step and one that many are reluctant to take. That’s understandable, given that your job forms your routine and gives you the salary off which you live. If you’ve not got a great deal of cash in savings, and you’re unsure how you’d support yourself in the months to come, then quitting your job is certainly only wise if you have a new job lined up that you’ll soon move into.
If you feel that you are able to quit your job, though, then that’s something that can lead you to fresh horizons, new career paths, and more interesting experiences. During the pandemic, thousands of people made the decision to quit their job rather than keep going in an uninspiring and difficult career. If you join them, you should hop straight onto the job market to see which other opportunities are available for someone with your skills and experience.
Refocusing
Then there’s the option to simply refocus on your current career in order to break out of any run that you may feel you’ve fallen into. Plenty of people have found it difficult to concentrate in the past few months, as the pandemic continues to rage and work-from-home options continue to feel suboptimal. But it only takes one decision for you to commit to making the most of your career – and that can be a life-changing decision.
Refocusing on your career means picking through the parts of it that you’re doing well in and the tasks you tend to perform poorly in. From here, it’s about continually improving, bringing a fresh attitude into work in order to impress your managers and to gradually increase your productivity. With this propelling you in your career, it’ll not take long for your superiors to take notice and offer you a promotion in recognition of your hard work and your reapplication to the job at hand.
Contacts
Your contacts may be personal, or they may be purely professional, but all of them could hold the key to your career progression in 2022. That’s because you simply never know if someone you used to work for has a vacancy they urgently want to be filled or whether an ex-colleague is working in a startup that needs people to join. Opening yourself up to your contacts is a brilliant way of checking whether anyone has an opportunity that you might be able to take advantage of.
Even if they don’t, you may still benefit from the advice and support of your network, especially if you’re at a loss as to how to change your career. The extra factor to remember is that your contacts themselves have contacts, and if you’re in need of some work experience, it’s likely that they’ll be able to link you up with someone who will grant you that opportunity.
Resume and Cover Letter
One element that’s often overlooked when it comes to career progression is the resume. This document is the most important piece of paper you’ll hand over to prospective employers, as it details exactly why they should jump at hiring you. If there are any errors or omissions on your resume, you’ll be limiting your chances of impressing managers. In turn, this could result in you being serially rejected from job opportunities that you are in fact qualified for and capable of performing.
The same goes for the cover letter, which you’ll use to describe, in your own words, why you’re a great candidate for the job you’re applying for. These letters benefit from a little background research on the company you’re sending the letter to and a little time spent pondering the best possible way to sell yourself and introduce your capabilities to hiring managers. Brush up on your resume and cover letter, and you may find yourself being accepted for an interview at more and more high-value jobs.
Interviews
If you are getting through to the interview stage of many job applications only to be rejected at the final hurdle, it may be a sign that you ought to change your approach to interviews. Perhaps you’re not preparing for questions well enough, or maybe you’re finding that you’re stuck for words at the vital moment. There is a solution for these problems, and it’s interview preparation. You can even hire someone to help you prepare for interviews – something that’ll quickly pay for itself if you do end up securing your next job.
Careers can take interesting turns as a result of job offers and rejections. Being rejected often will naturally force people to accept an offer that does one day come their way. If you’re getting regularly offered jobs, then you have more control over where your career will take you. You’ll get that empowerment by nailing your resume and cover letter, and delivering excellent, impressive interviews every time you sit in the hot seat.
Positivity
It’s difficult to maintain a positive mindset if you’re worried about where your career might be leading you. Plenty of people finds that a dead-end career, or a period of joblessness, can cause anxiety and mental health issues. While these may well be affecting you if you’re at a loss about where to go with your career, it’s important to remain positive about your prospects. You can never know what opportunity might cross your path in the coming months. Some of them might end up defining the direction of your career.
A positive mindset will also give you the extra energy and motivation you need to push yourself out there, making yourself available for opportunities. You’ll network at more work events and attend more classes online to brush up on your skills. You’ll be friendly and positive at work, and you’ll practice self-care when you get home. You’ll prepare yourself for the inevitable moment that your career takes off and your life is carried upwards with it.
Making changes to your career is daunting and stressful – but it’s a brave decision that can lead to far more exciting opportunities in the future. The tips here are aimed at those who are looking to improve their career prospects – giving advice and inspiration to help you end the year in a better place than you began it.
