Have a core career toolkit

A fulfilling career is unlikely without firm foundation. Unfortunately, many take a ‘make it up as you go’ approach. A more robust way is to put in place fundamentals for a firm footing to go forward.

Concrete goals:

Make sure these goals are specific and work towards them. Have long term goals and shorter ones that feed into the longer terms. Develop a plan to enable you work systematically towards achieving the goals.

High value skills:

Not just any skills, but those that will take you where you want to go; ‘must have’ skills relevant to your goals; hard skills- the technical ones, but also evergreen and transferable ones such as leadership and problem solving. Having the right balance of skills gives you freedom to do more things that speak to your interests, allows you to take more risks and build a track record of success.

Strong personal brand:

This is important in terms of how people see you on your own merit and in relation to others. Your professional standing will suffer if you don’t consciously manage your brand. Know yourself, but discover how you appear through others’ eyes.

Self awareness:

This is an understanding of your personality, behaviour, and motivations. The more self aware you are, the better you manage your strengths and limitations as well as have a more realistic assessment of your own abilities.

Support system:

The more ambitious your career goals, the greater the challenges anticipated. A support system can comprise external support in form of mentors, coaches, sponsors, networks and self driven support.

Learning plan:

It takes constant learning and adopting a growth mindset to advance. Don’t assume you are ‘qualified for life’. The workplace is constantly changing and to remain competitive you must keep developing yourself and growing. Don’t get rusty or expect to build your professional future on past achievements; you’ll get into a rut.

Now take action:

Develop your career tool kit.