Could you use some tips for career management? Maybe you are starting your first job or are participating in an internship. It’s a great time to update your career documents to start your career management.

When should you start or end managing your career? Why not begin with your first job experience and keep going until you retire? These tips for career management will help you throughout your career as a working adult.

You need to manage your career and personal brand, whether you are self-employed, employed, underemployed, or unemployed as a working adult. 

What exactly is career management? It is a deliberate life-long process of preparing, implementing, and evaluating your career plan and building a network of relationships. 

Career management involves focused planning and active management of oneself, and one needs to be responsible for their career planning and development. 

Focus on the seven areas below while considering what you want for work-life balance, personal fulfillment, financial security, and personal and professional achievements. 

Assess

What are your ambitions, aptitudes, interests, learning modalities, motivations, personality, skills, strengths, talents, and values?

Research

What are your career options? Have you performed company research, culture fit, educational requirements, income levels, industry research, location research, marketability,  occupational research, professional growth, trends, and work environments? 

Strategy Development

Are you engaged in action planning, career mapping, career counseling, decision making, goal setting [short (1 yr), medium (2-5 years), or long-term (5+years)], prioritizing, and reality-checking? How will you measure success?

Consider writing S.M.A.R.T. goals – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. 

Education and Training

Have you explored apprenticeships, certification programs, internships, mentorships, skill development, technology enhancement, and other self-development resources?

Have you attended trade shows, classes, workshops, or industry functions? Have you read books, magazines, or journals? Have you volunteered in an area of your interest?

Execute

As a W-2 employee, have you updated your career documents (resume, cover letter, thank you note, LinkedIn profile, positioning statement, elevator pitch, and more), engaged in networking, defined and built your personal brand, determined your social media strategies, and work experiences?

As a self-employed professional, have you updated your business documents (LinkedIn profile, website, social media, marketing materials, etc.)

As a part-time W-2 employee with a business, have you reviewed all of the above? Do you have a plan for multiple streams of income?

Pivot, Reinvent, or Readjust

Are you reassessing where you are professionally to determine if you will continue down the same path or different paths and what it will take to get there?

Have you considered changes in technology, the economy, societal needs, the geopolitical climate, and more happening in our world that may affect your career?

The Key to Career Success

Whether you are a job seeker, client seeker, or career advancer, the key to your success is building relationships throughout your entire professional career, and LinkedIn is the perfect place to make those connections. 

Remember that your network is your net worth, so always have a positive mindset when networking and never stop networking even if you land a job. 

Make sure you build your LinkedIn connections to exceed 500 and be active on the platform by posting and commenting. You will reap what you sow.

Be a lifelong learner, mainly to keep current with career trends!

NEXT STEPS

• Subscribe to my newsletter on LinkedIn for bright ideas to manage your career.

• Join as a member at https://greatcareers.org/membership of the #1 business networking association on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Book of Lists two years in a row! 

• Register on the events page for upcoming online events.
• If you need a resume or LinkedIn profile to get you to your next step, book a call to chat!