Tag Archives for " networking "

Apr 04

What is career development?

By ZoWun | Career development

What is career development? Typically speaking, we only really think about our career in terms of job seeking and while this is certainly a large part of it, it’s not the only part of it. That rush of panic when you find a job that you want to apply for and you realise that your résumé hasn’t been updated in 15 years and you have no idea how to respond to selection criteria (we’ve all been there!) is not a pleasant feeling! Effectively managing your career can help you prepare for these unexpected opportunities.

Career development is a lifelong process and it combines managing your education and training, your work experience and career progression, your network and community interaction together with your recreational activities to ensure that your life is balanced between work and home. It takes effort but once you are aware of the importance of consciously managing your career, the fog surrounding your future begins to lift and you are able to identify your opportunities in work, education and networking more clearly.

Statistics indicate that we spend up to 75% of our time in work related activities – travelling to work, attending work, talking about work, complaining about work, worrying about work. When it takes up so much of our time, it’s really important that we get this right, and yet many of us have a reactive approach to managing our careers.

In order to stay on top of our career development, we need to be proactive. Instead of waiting for an opportunity to arise and then panicking, we need to be prepared for it and if possible, seek and create it. Instead of dusting off the résumé and freaking out over having to update it quickly, we should maintain it as we progress through our career: every time we achieve something at work, we should document it so we aren’t left racking our brains when we are trying to demonstrate our skills and experience.

I can feel your eyes roll at the administrative perfection that proactive career development seemingly demands. Perhaps this is a plan for the perfect world as life can get so busy it is difficult to keep up with the immediate demands. However, it is worth it to keep your documents up to date with your current achievements in the long run, as this doesn’t only make our résumé current, it also allows us to build a strong, conscious awareness of our skills and capabilities which actually improves our work productivity and performance as our confidence grows. This in itself can lead to new opportunities!

Moreover, this conscious awareness of your experience and skill development is important because when you are aware of where you are at professionally speaking, it allows you to be more mindful of opportunities for training and development, for achieving experience, and for building networks with people who may be relevant to the direction in which you are heading.

Debriefing is an equally important part of career development and it is often overlooked. Talking to a career practitioner (or trusted third party) about what is going on at work can help you work through any issues or roadblocks, help you transition through promotions and manage success, as well as  identify areas for improvement and seek opportunities for growth and building visibility. All that complaining about work can actually be really beneficial to your career development! Who knew?! Career counselling isn’t just for managing outplacement and for high school kids looking to choose a course (although it’s great for that too): talking to someone else about your career goals, frustrations, successes and failures is really important as soundboarding your ideas and verbalising your experiences – both good and bad – can help you to clarify what you want to achieve and how you can achieve it.

Career development as a lifelong process might be daunting or seemingly eye rolling in tedium, but it isn’t a journey we take on our own and it can lead to achieving the goals that we set out to smash.

 

This article was first published in the Border Mail on April 17, 2017, and is republished here with permission from the Editor in Chief, Xavier Mardling.

Mar 27

Put on a brave face and start networking

By ZoWun | Career development

Networking. It’s a word the induces shudders of horror in many of us: we often imagine stuffy meetings with men and women in suits carrying briefcases and talking about economics and commerce and legislative changes. This image of networking can be quite daunting to anyone, and yet it is a tool that is vital to our career development. I am what I call a ‘false extrovert’ – I am really an introvert, shy and nervous about meeting new people, but I force myself to face the fear daily and ‘get out there’ in the world and meet people.  It is a challenge, and even now, almost nine years after I started Impressability, I still get an attack of the nerves before an event.

Many people believe that networking is only a skill required for the upper echelons of the career ladder, but in truth this is not the case. There is a widely held misconception that hirers will put a job advertisement up on seek.com as the first step to finding the person they are looking for to fill a vacancy, however, this is often the last step in their process. Most people looking to hire, initially look to their network to see if they know of anyone appropriate (or if someone they know, knows someone) – hiring from within their network is often considered to lower the hire risk because they come with a recommendation from a trusted contact. Hiring from seek.com can be a bit hit and miss – you never know who is going to apply and the risk of a poor hire is significantly greater. It really is who you know.

Most people looking to hire, initially look to their network to see if they know anyone appropriate.

Job seekers, on the other hand, generally keep their hunt for a new position a closely guarded fact; it’s not something they generally share amongst their network. If they are already hired, they often don’t want their current hirer to know that they are looking to move on for fear of being given the boot. How often has that happened to you: you have been quietly looking for another job, your boss has found out and told you to finish up at the end of shift? For a hirer, they can see this as a breach of trust and a lack of commitment to the job at hand despite your work output. For those experiencing unemployment, very few like to broadcast that fact. There is often a sense of shame attached to experiencing unemployment (although I must take a moment to acknowledge that there is no shame in the experience).  As such, job seekers often find themselves looking for work quietly with perhaps only their immediate circle knowing and with those few who do, sworn to secrecy!

I’m sure you can see the problem here – hirers and job seekers are coming at the issue of employment from opposite ends of the field.

However, networking does not have to mean stuffy business meetings. The skill can actually be applied anywhere. Essentially, the word itself means ‘to interact with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts.’ You can apply this skill to your local football club, to dancing classes, to the parent stand at your children’s sporting events and even your local pub. Anywhere that you are involved with a group of people on a regular or semi-regular basis can become an opportunity for networking. Step outside your usual circle and introduce yourself to the people around you. Get to know who they are and share who you are. You would be amazed by what can come from meeting and mingling with people just outside your normal circle of contacts.

For those who are skilled at using social media, this is another means of connecting with others, related to you or your industry. Using LinkedIn to meet new people and get involved in industry discussions in the various groups on the platform is a fantastic way to build your reputation as an expert in your field and to grow your opportunities.

Networking can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. I have managed to land several roles over the last few years due to my contacts within my network. Despite my own trepidation, I am the first to acknowledge just how important this skill is in finding new opportunities. There is a lot to be said for taking a deep breath and introducing yourself to someone new.

 

This article was first published in the Border Mail on March 27, 2017, and is republished here with permission from the Editor in Chief, Xavier Mardling.