Many believe that a job and a career are the same but in fact, they are not. A job is simply a means for earning money while a career is your path towards long-term success and growth. In your job, you aim to work hard to standout, earn more money, and get a higher raise or bonus while in building your career, things work differently and the investments you make are at a different level and the benefits are intangible short term that will translate into monetary tangible benefits long term.
Below are a few tips that will help individuals build a solid career and stand out from the competition:
- Professional Development: Knowledge is power and when combined with experience, it is a recipe for long-term success. The knowledge you gain from practical experience is limited to that specific experience but that’s not enough, you need to go above and beyond the ordinary. To achieve this, put an annual professional plan for professional development to fill in any gaps knowledge that you might have, learn something new, get up to date with new technologies, frameworks or methodologies and you can do this in so many ways (Online Courses, Conferences, Webinars and so on).
- Certifications: Pursue some certifications relevant to your line of business. Most organizations offer self-paced study plans and certifications. Industry specific certifications will help you stand out from the crowd.
- Networking: Be it In-Person or Virtual Networking, your network is your net worth. However, networking alone doesn’t help, one should always aim to build genuine relationships with people and learn from them. This can help you grow in so many ways.
- LinkedIn Profile: Refine and keep your profile up to date. Let’s be real, we are in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital transformation and online platforms are very powerful is used properly of which LinkedIn comes on top of the list.
- Self-Reflection: Reflect on your current job and re-evaluate your goals. You need to ensure that what you do contributes to your long terms goals. Unlike finding a job, building a career doesn’t happen over night. It is an accumulation of years of hard work and experience.
Having a job is important because we all have to pay our bills but while you are busy working, make sure to also concentrate on building a career, because this is what will help you on the long run. It will make you stand out of the competition and will pave the road for you to be your own boss and run your own business in a career that you are passionate about in the future should you opt to do so.