For many executives and professionals career management is at best a casual process and is often left until such time a redundancy or displacement occurs. The problem is that this is not career management; it is stressful crisis management and it is not the way to achieve long term career success.
Effective career management starts with knowing what you need to get out of your career and for how long, then it’s about taking real ownership over your career journey and in time creating and maintaining options. Your needs can change, who knows what they might be in 10-15 years from now.
Providing there is nothing fundamentally wrong with your current employment situation the right move now is to ensure that you are or become business critical to your employer, starting with maximising your contribution and key relationships.
Even with the prospect of 3+ years of career continuity in your current employer know what you need to be doing to enhance your external prospects. Understand what the next role, employer and industry might look like and proactively cultivate the expertise and networks required to support that move when the time comes.
Consider these questions to see how effective your current career management efforts are?
- Are you enjoying your profession, do you see that continuing for the next 3-5 years? Be sure to enjoy what you do and know what it leads to next.
- Do you know how much time do you have left with your current employer/industry? Just about every position we have in our career journey has a shelf life.
- Are you satisfied with your current work environment and employment conditions? Being aligned to or being able to influence the culture of your employer is vital.
- Do you worry about employment security and career continuity? Knowing your career options is key to protecting lifestyles and personal commitments.
- If your employment ended today, what would you do and how long would it take? Effective career management is also about always being prepared.
Answering “no” to just one of these questions should motivate you to start considering how to improve your career management efforts. If you are at a loss as to how to move forward email us at careers@millerleith.com.au
