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Are you keeping your career development on track?

Posted: Feb 2021
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A global pandemic coupled with a national lockdown may not seem best time to be thinking about career progression, but it’s essential to make sure your skillset is growing – not only for you to stay on top of your professional game, but also for your own satisfaction in your career.

We share our top five tips for keeping your career development on track

1. Set your goals regularly

An obvious but important place to start. Identify what you want to achieve in your career, including a realistic timeframe, and what skills, experience, mentorship and training will help you to get there. Ask advice from your peers as they may have some ideas you hadn’t considered. Research industry options such as the CIPR and PRCA and have a conversation with their teams. Also, discuss your career so far with a specialist search firm in the industry to gain bespoke advice just for you.

2. What formal training is there?

Don’t put career progression conversations on hold…What training options does your employer offer? Is there a structured plan in place? Set up a discussion with the relevant person and find out what options you have. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Your employer will only be impressed with you for wanting to develop and grow your skillset.

3. Be consistent

Keeping up a continuous flow of training and skills development is a vital part of your employability. If professional development is important to you and your employer isn’t adding a string to your professional bow, it might be time to consider another avenue – whether finding an organisation that supports your needs, or seeking out options independently.

4. Get proactive

Make sure you’re improving your knowledge and skills by taking a proactive role in your own career progression. Ask your peers or seniors for ideas and recommendations. Not only should you be keeping up to date with current news, trends and industry knowledge, but you should be considering wider ideas too – and also don’t forget your specialist skills interests, whether that’s mentorship, management training or something else. Don’t forget to show off your knowledge whenever you can! This reminds employers of your value.

5. Make time

One of the biggest challenges with lockdown is getting the time to review development and achievements, evaluating your training and how you’ve developed in a given timeframe, and furthermore to set the goals for your future. But it’s important that you make the time for this on a regular basis in order to achieve the outcome you ultimately want in your career path.

The Works Search is a search consultancy specialising in PR and corporate communications. We have unrivalled matching abilities and known for finding the top 5% performers in the industry - the ones who deliver and make your reputation great. For more advice or market insights, do get in touch with us on 0207 903 9291 or email sarah@the-works.co.uk

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