With the slow economy, companies are making drastic cuts…layoffs, pay reductions, and increased medical premiums. How can employees position themselves to not only avoid being terminated but to continue career growth, merit increases, etc.?
If you can demonstrate ways that you provide real value to your company, the better your chances for keeping a job and progress in your career path, even during difficult times.
One thing that is very attractive to management is an employee that has a plan, a career path, and real goals. If you notice in interviews, hiring managers now ask about your short and long-term career goals.
Career Cougar’s mission is for people to find work that truly calls to them; however, if you’re already in a position that you enjoy or you just don’t want to rock the boat and stay with what you’ve got (and what you’re comfortable with)…you can always make yourself more valuable to the organization. Becoming more valuable to your company never hurts. With this being said, do you have a current career plan?
For businesses, experts suggest that business plans, which list the overall strategy, mission, and tactical information about a business, should be consistently updated. The same idea goes for employees. Based on economics, organizational, technological, and personnel changes, employees who strive for success must consistently monitor their environments and make adjustments as necessary to stay ahead (or these days, stay employed).
This is the context for the next few articles for the Career Cougar Blog – exploring the overall process for career development (assessment, gaps, goals, training & development, plans & execution). The first subject we will discuss is the assessment process:
1. Assess prior & current positions for attributes that you liked the most. Next, assess what you liked least about these same positions. Keep a notepad handy in your pocket or purse in case additional thoughts pop up.
2. Ask for feedback from a boss/mentor about your strengths, weaknesses or opportunities for growth. This could also be explored at your annual review period.
If you don’t like your boss or do not want his input, here’s a great piece of advice. I once interviewed my company president, and he stated, “Even if you’ve got a bad boss, you can learn from him on how to not manage people”. The point is, you can always learn something from your boss’ input as they work with you more closely than an outside mentor.
3. Ask for feedback from co-workers about your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and for growth. This step is optional; however, keep in mind people can see things about you that you don’t notice.
4. Assess yourself for what areas in which you think you perform well and areas you feel you could improve.
Stay tuned for the next article on the next step in your career development process…I look forward to hearing your input.
Daphne Robinson
www.careercougar.com
Filed under: Jobs/Positions, Your Career | Tagged: annual review, assessment, bad boss, career, career cougar, career development, career growth, career path, career plan, development, gaps, goals, improve, inteviews, layoffs, managment, mentor, pay reductions, strengths, weaknesses
