Maintenance, hygiene, good habits, best practices. Whatever we call looking after our careers, the ongoing work of building our career success is our business as professionals.
Managing a career is an entrepreneurial endeavor. Once you cast yourself in the role of CEO of your own enterprise (your career), you start to see strategic career management in a new light. It’s not a chore that one has to do, like making the bed or doing laundry. It’s a fundamental driver for career success. It’s also the critical maintenance work that ultimately preserves the health of your career, creating sustainability and mitigating career disasters.
When it comes to career management and creating a career path, no one is going to step in and drive that for us. The truth is, while companies offer some help (or purport to help), we are really on our own. Most managers don’t have time to assist all that much, nor the skills. Carter Cast, a professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, quotes a Korn Ferry survey finding that managers rated “developing others” as their worst skill out of 67 managerial skills! (Harvard Business Review, Jan. 2018)
A lot of people experienced 2020 as a year on hold. 2021 is opening up. There’s a lot of runway for you to move your career forward. What you need now is a strategic plan to guide you through the year.
Career Plan 2021: To get you started, here are some elements you will need in your career project plan together with estimated times to complete and action items to kick-start big time progress.
Set a goal: Get a notebook; a spreadsheet, a Word doc, a pad of drawing paper – whatever you need for brainstorming. You need to have an actionable career target. Do you want to be promoted? Do you want to change jobs? Do you want to move into a new discipline?
Action item: Spend 15 minutes of dedicated time thinking about that, taking notes, drawing a flow chart—whatever works for you so you can envision your goal and start making a detailed project plan.
Gather data: Schedule a time to talk with your manager, a mentor, a wise friend. Seek their input and feedback on your goal. Think about the performance review data you got last year. What does that tell you about skill gaps or competencies that need to be developed to support your goal? Look at trends in your field.
Action item: Identify and write down the five to 10 skills or competencies that are required in your current position, required for a promotion or necessary for a successful job change. Rate yourself on your current skill level. Validate your rating with a trusted adviser.
Actively plan skill development with training: What are new skills, certifications, training that you should consider?
Action items: Gather information on training. Schedule a call or meeting with your manager to propose and plan your training. Schedule training and/or a certification exam.
Create an inventory of all your recent projects—a Project Journal: Record the who, what, when, how, duration, scope, tools, learnings and challenges identified. What was the value-added? Why did the project matter? What was the positive outcome? Who gave you kudos for this work? Getting all this down on paper will give you insights and perspective on your work and skills that you might not see when you are in the thick of getting stuff done.
Action item: Set aside 30 minutes to work on this and see if you can quickly record your work from 2020. Don’t agonize over the writing, just let it flow.
Career-accelerating action item: Once you have your 2020 work documented, start your 2021 Project Journal. You’ll be ahead of the game by capturing your work in the moment.
Update your resume: The most important real estate on your resume: Your current job. It is the framing of this job and the work you do that will help you land your next terrific opportunity within your current organization or at a new company. Tip: Use your Project Journal (above) to update your resume with your contributions, the value you have added the problems you have solved.
Action item: Revise one resume section (profile, job content, education and certification, community outreach) each evening over the course of five days. Work for 30 minutes and put it aside. Over the weekend, review and revise. Have a fresh set of eyes review for clarity and typos.
Refresh your LinkedIn page: Once you have updated your resume, take the critical updates (certifications, training, new title, new company, etc.) and align your LinkedIn profile with your resume.
Your LinkedIn page is NOT the place to replicate your resume. Your LinkedIn page is your digital business card. Include the critical data, and then use the “About” section to create a compelling profile about your professional experience. In the “Experience” section, include a few bullets for each job – but only the most interesting projects or accomplishments – not responsibilities or duties of that role.
Action item: Set aside 30 minutes for a first of your “About” section draft. Let it sit, and then revise if you need to. Plan 30 minutes to flesh out the bullets, 15 minutes for other updates and tidying up (removing outdated skills, adding new groups, following new people, and so forth).
Huge career-accelerating action item: Ask a former manager, mentor, colleague who knows your work for a recommendation on LinkedIn. Pay it forward and write one for the recommender or for someone else.
There it is! A plan you can put to immediate use. When you complete it, I guarantee you are going to like the new look of your career. And, seeing the road ahead, you’ll be able to take the best route toward your goals. Bottom-line: This tune-up will set you up for success all year long.
Let me know how you do!