As 2010 came to a close, we predicted that 2011 would be "The Year of the Job." And in many ways that prediction is turning out to be true: the economy continues to improve (albeit slowly) as the unemployment rate shrinks.
But at the beginning of February 2011, Monster.com polled site users, asking, "So far, have you stuck to the career-related New Year's resolutions you made at the beginning of 2011?" And of the people who had made resolutions, only 42% said they'd kept their resolutions. Of the rest, 30% said they'd slipped at least a bit, and a whopping 28% said they hadn't kept their career-related resolutions at all.
Also interesting to note: in this February poll, 32% said that they hadn't made job-related resolutions. But when we asked site visitors in December, only 22% said they didn't plan to make such resolutions.
Clearly, there has been a little bit of backsliding--but, hey, that's only human. If you've fallen behind on (or abandoned) your job- or career-related resolutions, here are some tips:
1. Resolutions are not just for New Year's. You can resolve to change your work situation or to make career advancements at any time. If you've "failed" to stick to your New Year's resolution of, for instance, digitizing your massive collection of business cards, make it a Presidents Day or Arbor Day resolution instead.
2. Celebrate small steps. A career isn't built in a day. Say your resolution is to find a new job--well, there are lots of steps to finding a new job: revising your resume, reaching out to contacts, applying for jobs, working on your portfolio, and so on. Make sure you recognize, and pat yourself on the back for, the smaller achievements that will lead to achieving your resolution.
3. Set recurring resolutions. When it comes to advancing your career, some of us need to make resolutions into a routine. If you know you need to build your online presence, resolve to blog once a week. If you know you need to build your profile at work, resolve to speak to someone new every week (for instance, a great way to get noticed by higher-ups is to compliment a peer to his or her boss, via email).
Sometimes, inviting a colleague to lunch will do a lot more for your career than eating another sandwich at your desk, with one hand on your keyboard.
4. Look past the obvious. Resolutions like "Get a promotion" are great, but they're vague and thus easy to put aside. Try to think of specific ways to achieve career advancement. What if the answer to your career problems is "Become an expert on _____" or "Meet someone who _____"? If your goal is to get promoted, is there a way you can show leadership that's outside of your job duties--for instance, by spearheading your office's recycling program or organizing a volunteer event?
If you've lost site of your 2011 career resolutions, the fault might not be yours--the problem might be that you need better resolutions.
Share this post: Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515e7c69e2014e86183972970d
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Get Back on Track with Your Job Search:
that's great if that would really realize.
Posted by: ttv | Feb 15, 2011 11:25:49 PM
Preparation, preparation, preparation is key to a succesful interview. A good way to prepare for interviews is to write your stories of successful work accomplishments. Quantify your stories whenever possible, showing how you helped the companies save money, save time, eliminate waste, improve processes, business growth or keep the business open. Learn more:
http://employmentgenius.com/
Posted by: jobseeker | Feb 16, 2011 4:46:33 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment