How to jumpstart your career


One thing many of us share as human beings is the desire to have a successful career. From the financial benefits to the personal satisfaction of a job well done, we all can gain something constructive from jump starting our careers. Here are three simple steps to get us started.

Step one: Build your brand

Whether we are just entering the workforce fresh out of school or college, wanting to pivot our careers to grow in a new direction, or simply want to keep fanning the flame beneath our professional success – personal branding is a key ingredient in doing so.

How to jumpstart your career

Our personal brand can be boiled down to building an authentic reputation about who we are as professionals. There are many ways we can start this process, but the easiest step is to ask ourselves the following questions:

What makes the service (our skills as an employee) that we provide special?Why should people choose us to work with, rather than the many others that may be applying for the same job opportunities? How do we intend to fulfill this promise?
What do we want to achieve? What are our professional goals?

These questions will help us define our positioning statement. Once we know exactly what we offer as professionals, it will be easier to develop and maintain a digital presence. From regularly updated social media pages to our very own websites, we need to be visible online because how else can we expect to get noticed in the digital age?

Step two: Know how to network

Now that people can find you online, they may need a little push to come and look for you. That’s where networking comes in. This is the process of exchanging information in the hopes of building professional relationships, which may play a pivotal part in our career success.

We can network by attending professional events and work functions, sharing our business cards, or making connections with new people on professional platforms such as LinkedIn. Networking can also be done in the office by building healthy relationships with our coworkers.

From hunting for a job to expanding our own business startup, our professional network is a key ingredient in jumpstarting our careers. Just remember, professional relationships (like personal ones) need to be nurtured and reciprocated.

How to jumpstart your career

Step three: Learn baby, learn

Last, but certainly not least, is learning. The drive for a constant and evolving education is such an important step in jumpstarting our careers. By closing any skills and knowledge gaps we may have, we make ourselves more appealing and valuable to our employers while giving ourselves the confidence in our competence to succeed.

If there are some of us that may be a little unsure of what exactly they need to learn, a great place to start is knowing where we want to end up. Set goals and aspirations, develop our interests, and plan for the future so we may adapt as our respective industries evolve.

There are many routes we can take on the journey to education, such as:

-Taking short online courses.
-Specializing with honors, masters, or doctorates.
-Asking elders for advice (years of experience is invaluable!)
-Getting a mentor.

So now that we know these three steps to success, all that is left is for us to get up and go for it. Our careers will be jumpstarted in no time!

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