We’ve all heard of asset management and even anger management, but what about career management? The fact is, if you want to truly reach your full career potential, managing your career is the key.
Let’s face it, even if you have a position and a career that are relatively stable, and your next few career steps have been planned out, things can change and change quickly. Taking steps to avoid huge financial problems when these changes occur Is necessary, and it’s the focus of today’s blog. Enjoy.
Career Mistake #1: Not continuing to Network. Complacency is a huge mistake that many employees make, especially if they’ve been with the same company for a few years. Knowing the people in your company that can help you and make things happen is good, but having contacts outside of that company is definitely a good idea, just in case changes suddenly occur that leave you on the outside looking in.
Career Mistake #2: Keeping to yourself. In larger organizations there are many ways to make a contribution outside of your particular department or expertise. For example, review committees are a great way to meet people that might, in the future, open the door to bigger and better opportunities. If you stick to exactly what you’re supposed to do you might not make waves but you certainly won’t be able to catch one either.
Career Mistake #3: Not letting your superiors know what you’ve been doing for them over and above your assigned duties. It happens every day; a lesser talented colleague progresses faster than you because, when it comes to letting that boss you know how great they are, they excel. They might not actually do a better job than you (and in most cases, they don’t) but since you haven’t been letting people know the great job you’re doing, you get skipped over.
Career Mistake #4: Not knowing when to ask for raise. Women seem to have this problem more than men, specifically that they don’t know their true worth and don’t ask to be paid up to their level. It’s been calculated that, over the course of a career, $1.5 million dollars are left on the table in lost lifetime earnings simply because someone wasn’t able to effectively negotiate their salary.
Career Mistake #5: Negativity. While it’s true that finding the perfect workplace is almost impossible, complaining constantly to your colleagues will almost always come back to bite you in the end. Even worse is the employee who loses their control in an argument and lashes out at a colleague or, even worse, at their boss. If there’s one thing that can bring a career to a screeching halt, it’s telling your boss your true feelings. In short, even if you’re really unhappy where you are, keep cool, calm and quiet until you at least find better employment somewhere else.
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