Your professional development is hugely important, and if you’re career-driven and focused, then making your way through the ranks and reaching the top spots is going to be firmly on your mind. Your career is central to how you live your life, and job satisfaction can have an enormous impact on your overall general wellbeing, health, happiness, and positivity.
Progressing forward and upward within your career can open up many doors to you, and one that can include boosting your income significantly. Everyone strives to be financially comfortable, recognized as being adept and skilled in their particular field, and to enjoy a sense of pride and respectability in their position. In order to advance your career, you need to engage and apply yourself, work tirelessly, make sacrifices, and know exactly what it is that you want so that you can begin cultivating a path towards success and achievement as quickly as possible.
Consider Furthering Your Education
Sometimes, in order to make the progress you seek, you will have to undertake some kind of formal training, registration, and accreditation to even chase after the experience you want within the relevant field. These types of roles are often high-powered and fast-moving that require you to have an in-depth understanding of processes, potential challenges, diagnoses, and technical acumen.
There are some roles that you will need to have built up an understanding of on a very specific level, and ones that can’t simply be learned on the job. In other words, you will have to study to get to where you want to be, and sometimes this will require you working hard over the course of many years. Some professions call for you to be highly educated before entering the role, and these include the likes of medicine, law, engineering, and education.
Always be sure to thoroughly research entry requirements for courses so that you can acquire what you need to step up from one level to the next, and then onto the one after that. Consider the likes of an electrical and computer engineering masters degree if you wish to develop your career in software design and hardware engineering, and work to gain further knowledge of technology and fundamental science.
For additional learning, make sure that you attend regular conferences and online discussions that will afford you the opportunity to network, and learn about what will be expected of you as you advance your career and broaden your horizons.
Tell Your Boss About Your Goals
If you’re currently working within a company, and you wish to rise through the ranks, then be sure to inform those higher than you of your intentions. Managers are far more likely to consider you for promotion if you show interest, drive, and engagement. Go above and beyond to show those who manage you just how passionate you are, and why you deserve the promotion, the extra training, and the investment.
Don’t waste your free time procrastinating, and instead look to further your knowledge as a way of keeping busy and up-to-date on the state of your particular market, advances in technology, and developing your understanding of the career you’re passionate to begin. Ask how you can assist in managerial duties, and without stepping on toes, be sure to ask to shadow them, ask questions, and request to be delegated tasks.
Figure Out What It Is You Want
Try and get to grips with exactly what you desire from your job role and title. It’s all very well and good to seek prestige and a high wage, but unless you know what role is going to take you there, then you’ll find that you’ll stall in the process. To start, make a very simple list of all of the requirements you seek from a career, and to help you figure this out try and answer the helpful questions (as truthfully as you’re able) to follow below:
- Am I willing to work long hours, and give up my social life in pursuit of this job?
- Will this job pay me enough money?
- How many years of training, if at all, am I going to have to do?
- When could I be fully trained?
- Can I afford to start studying now?
- What do I value most in life, and how will my job impact upon this?
- Will I realistically be able to dedicate my time for this job?
- Am I being realistic?
- Can I handle the disappointment should I fail?
- What is my backup plan just in case things don’t work out?
Determine What You’re Willing to Sacrifice
Much like the above list, you will have to come to terms with the fact that you may have to sacrifice certain elements in your life in favor of furthering of your career. This could entail spending less time with your family, having less money while you study, and moving to a different part of the country entirely. Determine what you’re willing to sacrifice early, as the sooner you accept that you can’t have everything you desire, the earlier you can begin adjusting and getting used to the idea. With this said, you need to be realistic about what’s important to you, and what will become more important to you as you grow older. You should value your career advancement, of course, but your family life and health shouldn’t be jeopardized in the process.
Put a Five Year Plan into Action
Curate a five year plan that you will aim to stick to as closely as possible. In this plan, allow for setbacks, but be focused on the goal ahead. Set small and achievable targets that will, again, provide you with the leverage to go from strength to strength and aim towards the principal objective. Make your plan attainable and ensure that you are well informed before crafting it as otherwise you’ll be disappointed when things don’t turn out the way you hoped or anticipated. Time your goals, and be motivated to succeed from the start – this is your life and your career, and the hard work, fastidiousness, and willing has to come from you above all else.
