5 easy tips to help you ace your career

We are three months into 2024. Chances are that on New Year’s Eve, you made some career resolutions or goals that you intended to achieve this year. Perhaps, advancing in your present career is part of your goals. Even if you feel like you have lost track of time, you can still achieve your career goals. Here are few tips.

1. Have purpose
Career advisors say it is essential to have a purpose in your career. Purpose is what will give you focus and direction to meeting that career objective. To know if you're moving in the right direction, ask yourself some questions like: What would I like to achieve a few months from now, is it a promotion or a pay raise? When you have an answer, find out what it takes. You may ask for a work appraisal if the organisation doesn't do periodical reviews on individual employees. And if you're struggling in your career, you can begin to plan, prepare, and position yourself for a game changing opportunity, perhaps by advancing or diversifying your skills.

2. Networking matters
A good network of persons sharing similar work ideals as yours will be a career boost. Networking is good as your network sources can recommend you to an employer if an opportunity arises. The reason you're stuck in the same job position could be because there are fewer chances to advance to another level in that organisation, country or industry. Your contacts can share how they handle similar challenges at work, and give you tips that can help you get noticed for a promotion.

3. Be focused
Make good out of every bad situation. Your career may not be rewarding, or the work environment may be demotivating. You can still excel by staying focused on achieving success. With your determination and work ethic, you may end up mentoring others and they may adopt your approach to work.

4. Develop yourself
You may have planned to take a new course, but a clash of schedules or other personal commitments end up derailing you. You can still take that course and advance in your career by invest in evening classes or online and correspondence studies. Ensure there are no conflicting interests in your schedules. Academic and professional advancements would greatly boost your career and personal growth.

5. Embrace technology
That job you've coveted could be less glamorous before the end of this decade as technology becomes the market disruptor, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence. All is not lost, though. Knowing which direction the wind of technology is blowing and aligning yourself to that direction will help you stay marketable. Find out which new courses you can invest in so that when disruptions happen, you can quickly adapt and be retained even if your organisation is laying off staff.

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