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It's Time To Advance Your Career
Whether you have a steady 9 to 5 job that you like or you’re building your own brand, improving your career prospects should always be one of your top priorities in life. Focusing on doing your job well is crucial if you want to be seen as a person with a strong work ethic. But keeping your professional development continuous is even more important for at least two reasons.
First, we can never predict how the economy will work, therefore having more options provides a guarantee for a financially stable future. And the second reason why you should give your career a boost is that “progress equals happiness”, more opportunities, more money, and more stability in life. And isn’t that what we all search for?
If you’re wondering whether 2021 is a good time to invest in your career boost, the answer is YES! And, if not now, when?
So, take a deep breath and get ready for some powerful tips on how to boost your career in 2021!
1. Update Your CV/LinkedIn Page
The first and most important thing to do when you’re trying to improve your career prospects is to update your CV. As simple as it seems, it’s exactly what you should be doing right now. Even if your CV that you wrote a couple of years ago is still relevant you should refresh it. Because you certainly learned new things, developed your skillset and read some industry-specific books. So why wouldn’t you include that in your resume? Well, you can and you should.
Whether you are an experienced professional with a great deal of expertise in your field or you are a recent graduate with little work experience related to the position you are applying for, your CV is your business card and passport to a better future. Thus, improving and refreshing your CV is exactly what you should be doing right now. So think about how you want to present yourself, choose the right software to design a neat resume and start writing. Need some help?
The Best Software To Design A Neat Resume/CV
Tips On How To Refresh Your Resume/CV
2. Take Online Courses On Career Development
When we talk about taking an online course, Skillshare is one of the best e-learning platforms. This online learning community offers more than 15,000 courses on
- Freelance & entrepreneurship
- Marketing
- Graphic Design, Logos & Branding
- Web Development
- Productivity
- Photography
- Fine Art
- and many more
NOW you can try Skillshare Premium for FREE for 14 days and watch for FREE all the courses you want on career development. You can learn more here
My Top 4 Recommended Online Courses On Career Development that you can take on Skillshare:
- Career Development: Creating an Action Plan with Design Thinking by Sarah Prevette, Entrepreneur & Speaker
- Discovering Success: 7 Exercises to Uncover Your Purpose, Passion & Path by Emma Gannon, Author, Broadcaster, Podcast Host
- Career Development: Practical steps to a new career by Emmy Petersson, Career and Transition Coach
- Make Creativity Your Career: Six Exercises to Create a Successful Side Project by Andy J. Pizza, Illustrator, Designer & Podcaster
3. Expand Your Professional Network
My next tip to help you boost your career in 2021 is to expand your professional network. Being a part of a connected community of professionals will help you tremendously in advancing your career, developing your skillset, broaden your field-related knowledge and of course, staying on top with the latest trends in your industry. Not to mention that expanding your professional networking gives you an incredible opportunity to get to know empowering and inspiring people. And we all know that inspiration is one of the two most important requirements for major success. The second one is hard work.
Networking has always been one of the most powerful tools for advancing one’s career. Because while having the right skills and years of experience in the field is crucial for achieving professional success, knowing the right people is the key that opens the doors to a whole new world of opportunities. Knowing prospective mentors, partners and clients along with your resume is the key to success in your chosen field.
We’re living in a high-tech world where technology offers endless possibilities for facilitating social connection. Thus, global health emergency, social distancing, lockdowns are not barriers for expanding your professional network. Furthermore, if you’re an introvert using professional networking platform instead of talking to someone you don’t know in person, is just so much easier. You can set up a virtual coffee morning using Zoom, expand your connections on LinkedIn or use Meetup to finding and build local communities. Don’t overthink, just connect!
4. Create A Clear Vision & Set SMART Goals
Every great achievement starts with the clarity of vision and well-defined life goals. And advancing your career is no different from that. Highly successful people know it very well so even when things don’t go as planned they don’t give up. Winners never quit even if they fail on their way to success. Instead, they embrace failure and use it to succeed. Those who, on the contrary, struggle to function after they have failed or even think to give up, most likely don’t have a clear vision of their future.
It happens because, when you know when you’re headed and you have predefined goals, no temporary failure can defeat you or stop you from realizing your dreams. There is a reason why one of the most common job interview questions is: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
People who have a clear mental picture of who they want to be in the future work extremely hard to turn their vision into reality because they know that success is not obtained overnight. Real success is never a coincidence, but the result of hard work, self-discipline, continuous effort, enormous sacrifice, persistence, commitment to excellence and unwavering self-belief in one’s ability to achieve their life goals. So if you want to put yourself on the road to success you need to create a clear vision of your future, set smart goals, master self-discipline and work consistently to achieve what you want to achieve.
5. Improve Your Time-Management Skills
What separates successful people from everyone else? The level of education? The expertise they possess? The type of work they perform? Or maybe it’s all about the luck?
Well, you might be surprised but none of these answers is correct. Or more precisely, they are only partially correct.
The real difference between extremely successful and those who struggle to meet deadlines and produce intended results is that the successful learned to master the art of time management. Trivial as it may seem, controlling how they spend their time is what makes them successful.
Highly successful people know how to manipulate their time to reach their goals and accomplish their dreams within a specific timeframe. There is absolutely no coincidence with their actions. Every activity is well-planned, scheduled and properly organized. They understand that time is the most important resource that they have so they make every minute count.
Time is the most valuable resource that we have and thus it should be used wisely and effectively. So if you want to boost your career in 2021 you should focus on improving your time-management skills. Start tracking your time to increase your productivity levels and use time blocking methods such as the Pomodoro Technique to maximize your results. “Remember that time is money.”
Best Time-Blocking Apps & Tools Of 2021
Best Time Management Apps Of 2021
- Trello - project management app here
- Any.do - get seriously organized here
- Todoist - task management software here
- FocusList iOS / Android - productivity app that helps you get more DEEP work done
- Y Productive here
- TickTick: ToDo List Planner, Reminder & Calendar (Android / iOS)
- Hours - Time Tracking App Online here
- Toggl - Free Time Tracking Software here
- RescueTime: Fully Automated Time Tracking Software here
- Google Drive (My Absolutely Favourite!)
- Google Calendar
6. Gain Industry-Specific Knowledge
Another powerful way to boost your career in 2021 is to gain industry-specific business knowledge. Because even if you work in a specific field from years and you have a ton of experience industries change and you need to stay current.
Take advantage of the Informational Era we live in and start increasing your industry-specific knowledge without leaving your home the easy way, via the Internet. Read, listen, watch high-quality content related to your professional field and use this knowledge to advance your career. Learn from those who have already achieved what you aim for so that you can avoid common mistakes, skills the obstacles and advance your career faster.
Investing in your self-knowledge is the best investment you can make because your whole future depends on it. So if you want to live a meaningful, fulfilling and interesting life, make learning new skills your daily habit. Take advantage of the Information Age we live in and get smarter every day. And if you want to make learning fun, interesting and creative you should try online courses on Skillshare!
Now you can try Skillshare Premium for FREE for 14 days. This means that you can watch all these classes (and some more) for free. You will find more information here
Grab Your Free Printable Workbook
Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever
- How To Organize Mind For Maximum Productivity & Balance: 9 Powerful Tips HERE
- 11 Awesome Tools & Apps To Plan & Organize Your Life In 2021 + FREE printables! HERE
- 11 Simple Ways To Develop Self-Discipline & Have Fun Along The Way. HERE
- Maximize Your Productivity: 6-Step Method To Get More Things Done In Less Time. HERE
- Perfect Morning Routine to Reduce Stress & Anxiety HERE
- How To Organize Your Life For 2021: 7 Simple Steps HERE
- How To Set Goals For 2021 And Achieve Them HERE
- 8 Steps To Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever. HERE
- Powerful and smart ways to manage your time efficiently and effectively HERE
- 9 Best Financial Goals For 2021 & Powerful Tips To Actually Achieve Them
- 11 Powerful Habits That Will Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever. HERE
Stay positive, be mindful and boost your career in 2021!
xo Kate
