My blog focuses on Career Discussions. Once you launch off into your career, the ideal situation is that you have some degree of job satisfaction. The following contributed post is entitled, 7 Great Ways to Improve Your Career & Have Better Job Satisfaction.
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Image Credit: Estée Janssens from Unsplash.
Everyone wants their career to be as great as possible. Regular promotions, decent raises, and more will all be a part of this. Despite peoples’ best efforts, they don’t always see these as much as they’d like. You could feel like that, no matter what your career is.
You could need to improve your career because of that. You mightn’t be sure where to start with it, though.
You’re already doing everything you can think of, but it’s not having as much of an impact. Thankfully, there are still a few extra steps you can take with this. Some of these could have more of an impact than you’d think.
Seven of these stand out because of the impact they can have on their career.
Improve Your Career: 7 Great Ways to Try
1. Ask for Regular Feedback
There could be multiple factors getting in the way of your career advancement. The trick is to overcome them so you can continue improving your career. How do you even start with that? By getting feedback from supervisors and employers, you’ll put yourself in the position to work on yourself.
While some of this feedback mightn’t be pleasant, it’s still worth getting. Any negative feedback should be worked on and improved to help improve your career. Once negatives have been overcome, you’re in a better position to advance your career. You’ve no reason not to put the effort into it.
2. Challenge Yourself
Nothing good ever comes without a challenge. That’s especially true when it comes to improving your career. You’ll need to put some time and effort into this in various ways. You can do this in multiple ways, like challenging yourself to learn something new related to your career. You can even work feedback into this.
While this often means getting outside of your comfort zone, it’ll be more than worth it going forward. Once you start putting the effort in, you could improve your career the way you wanted to. At a minimum, it’ll show superiors and potential employers that you’re willing and ready to go above and beyond.
3. Learn How to Negotiate
Negotiation is a greater part of a career than many people assume. In some careers, it can even be a vital part of seeing success. No matter what, it’s an area you should put some time and effort into. At a minimum, it’ll help you get better terms and pay when you’re applying for jobs.
Take the time to become a badass negotiator to help with this. Once you do, you could set yourself up for more and more success later on. You’ll put yourself in a position to get better compensation and other career benefits.
4. Be Curious About Your Industry
It’s always worth knowing as much as possible about your industry. That way, you’re in a much better position to spot opportunities to improve your career. Being curious lets you find out about any skills you’re lacking, while capitalizing on advancement opportunities. Put the time and effort into this.
Asking questions is great for this, as is the feedback mentioned above. By going out of your way to be curious, you’ll find more and more opportunities. While not all of these will be perfect for you, you should find more than a few of them that are.
5. Set Goals Regularly
When you think of improving your career, what does that mean to you? How, exactly, would you like it to improve? Set goals to help you clarify this. These can be both short- and long-term goals, and they give you something specific to work toward. Take the time to set them as early as possible.
That way, you’re in a much better position to start making changes. These should be realistic and achievable so you can actually work toward them. There are multiple career goals you can focus on with this, like earning a specific award, getting a raise, or even earning a promotion. Take the time to set them so you can work toward them.
6. Attend Workshops & Training Programs
There could be plenty of times where there are workshops and training programs related to your industry. Many of these could be set up by your company, and they could be related to the roles you want to have. At a minimum, they can get you one step closer to getting the promotions or roles you want.
Take the time to attend these whenever you can. While that could mean sacrificing some of your free time now, it’ll be more than worth it in the long-term. It’ll help you get everything you need to get closer and closer to your dream roles. It’ll even show current and potential employers that you have the drive to succeed, helping your career chances.
7. Talk to Your Network
Having a professional network is always recommended, and it boasts more than a few benefits. With a quality network, you’ll have access to industry leaders and other peers. That way, you can get any advice and mentorship you need to help improve your career. There’s more to it than that, though.
They could turn you onto potential advancement opportunities in your career. This might help you get better jobs later on. While that means spending some time building your network, it’ll be more than worth it. Seek out people who can help you with your career. Don’t be afraid to return the favor, either.
Improve Your Career: Wrapping Up
Unfortunately, it’s common for many people to be unhappy with their careers. They’re not getting the promotions they feel they deserve, and they haven’t seen a raise in years. You could be in this position and not be sure of what you should do.
You would’ve tried a few things already, but they mightn’t have as much of an effect as you’d want. By knowing how to improve your career, you could get through this. With the right strategies, you could have quite a long-term impact on your career.
