Taking the time to manage your career progression is a must for any modern-worker. You will spend a lot of your life working in your chosen career, so you need to make sure it is headed where you want it to go. That will not happen by accident and is not something you can leave to other people such as you employer.
By taking the necessary steps to progress your career, you will not only develop new skills and personal attributes but also avoid stagnating professionally. Of course, this can take some time but there are ways to speed the process up a little.
Of course, career progression doesn’t mean leaving for a totally new job, although you may feel that is one option. It is usually best to try to make a solid career plan that first looks at how you can make changes in your current work situation.
What challenges are there to career progression?
When it comes to progressing your career, you would think that it would be a smooth process with lots of support from those around you. While this can happen, the below are some common issues that may stand in your way:
- Unsupportive boss – if you are trying to progress within your current organization, you may find that your boss is not supportive of your efforts. That can be seen in several ways, from not allowing you to access training to help you progress or refusing a job shadowing request for no good reason.
- Time – most modern workers are busy with their home and work life – you are probably the same. The problem here is that it can leave little time for making your career progression plans or putting them into action. If the one night that the business class you need to take is also the night you have to take little Johnny to football, it can be difficult.
- Lack of qualifications – to really move on with your career, you might reach a point where certain qualifications are essential. If you don’t have them, then it is hard to progress beyond that stage. This could include general things like a degree or some industry specific certification.
5 tips for speedy career progression
If you are wanting to find out how to kick-start your career fast, the below should help:
- Speak to HR – all companies will have a Human Resources department. They are the people who can tell you what training courses your company offers and about job shadowing opportunities. Both of these things will arm you with new skills to help you snare higher-level jobs to move up the career ladder more quickly. They can also tell you if your employer will help out with the cost of any degree certificate or external training fees.
- Get qualified – as noted above, lack of relevant qualifications is a big no-no for getting on quickly in your career. No matter how good you are it will hold you back for years if you let it! Weigh the pros and cons of getting qualifications like a degree certificate to see if it is what you need to move on. Many institutions now allow you to study around a busy schedule and offer a choice of qualifications, from degree certificate to associate degree. Develop your skills required in the field you are in. If you’re into software engineering, improve your programming knowledge on the specific language you are using as well as interpreting technical plans. Having a boost on your skill sets can make you reach the peak of a software engineer salary and will open opportunities on your career progression.
- Connect on a senior level – when thinking about boosting your career progression, it is worth trying to make connections with senior levels of management where you work. That obviously needs to be done in the correct manner but it can pay off. If the senior management can see you are ready to be working at a higher level, they will be more likely to consider you for future promotion.
- Become more visible – a great way to quickly enhance your career prospects is by volunteering to solve a company-wide problem you have spotted. This will give you extra skills along the way and make you visible to the people that matter as being a useful problem-solver. They will love the fact you are doing something extra to benefit the business and take note for the future.
- Make a plan – you will not progress as fast as you would like without a solid plan that is written down. Take the time to think about what role you want to progress to and how you can get there. Once you know what you want to do and what you need to do in order to be given the job, you can begin to take action.
Speedy career progression is achievable
For many people, moving on with their careers can seem a slow, almost impossible task. That does not need to the case though. If you make a solid plan on how you want your career to progress and take action to make it happen, you will soon find yourself rising through the ranks. You will be working for the majority of your life so making sure you are where you want to be is vital.
