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Friday, July 30, 2010

Five Ways to Get Your Career on Track and Keep it There

By : Leonard Kloeber

If you want to get promoted and achieve sustained success in your chosen career, you need to do more than just "a good job." Career success in any field is a combination of skill, sustained performance, and an ongoing personal marketing plan. Most people who succeed are focused on doing more than just showing up at work and doing a good job. They are self-promoters who know what they want and go after it. Self-promotion can be offensive to some, but it doesn't have to be that way. If you don't promote yourself, no one else will. So here are some basic tips on how to advance your career more quickly than simply showing up for work and hoping someone will notice you:

Be clear about your career objectives: Many people find themselves in jobs by some quirk of circumstances. They either took the job because it was the best available opportunity at the time, or someone referred them to their current employer. So if you find yourself in a job that is not exactly what you want to do for the rest of your career, then the first step to career success is to define exactly what you want to do. Only then can you define the next steps to advance your career in a new direction.

Find a mentor: A common myth is that many successful people are self-made. To the extent that they took responsibility for their career choices and pursued opportunities, then this is a true statement; however, most successful people also have support from a mentor or even several mentors who helped them along the way. A mentor who has "been there, done that" and who may be in a higher organizational position to make opportunities available is invaluable to career success. Most successful people have had at least one or more mentors to coach them and help them along, even if they won't admit it. So once you have decided on a definite career path, find someone who has already succeeded. See if they might be willing to be your mentor. If not, keep on looking until you find someone who is willing to help you.

Be an expert: Being an expert is about developing your "brand," you professional reputation. Ideally, you want to position yourself as the "go to" person in your field. How can you develop your brand? Do what all experts do: they write articles, speak at conventions, write blogs, and continually develop their expertise. Today there are many more ways that you can share your expertise by using web-enabled tools. Some simple things you can do are write and publish an article on a web based publishing site like EzineArticles.com or start you own blog to share your expertise with peers in your industry. You don't need to blog every day, but you do need to do it with consistency over time at regular intervals. A blog is not only a good way for you to share your own expertise, but to also learn from colleagues who comment on your posts. Whatever method you choose to use, you need to do some of these typical activities that will establish you as an expert in your field.

Network, Network, Network: Networking is another vital key to a successful career. The more people you know in your industry, and more importantly, the more people who know you, will determine whether opportunities come your way. Although technology has changed, human nature is still the same as it has been for years. One fundamental human tendency is that people like to avoid risk. They prefer to go with what is familiar. Thus, they look to people they already know when they need to hire someone new. If you have a strong network of industry colleagues who know you, you can count on being contacted when opportunities arise. Keeping track of your network is easier than ever using tools like "LinkedIn" to stay in touch. Start expanding your network now in advance of your need to find a new opportunity. It will pay a big dividend on your investment of time.

Keep looking at new opportunities: It takes some discipline to keep abreast of new opportunities, but by staying in tune with what is going on in your company and your industry, you will come across opportunities when you are not expecting it. This will allow you to choose the best opportunities rather than simply settle for what might be available.

These five simple strategies are fundamental to career success. They take time and discipline to implement them; however if you take a look at how successful people have advanced their careers, you will find that they have used most or all of these techniques. You can use them too, and they also pay off with promotions, enhanced compensation, and satisfying career positions. If you want to have your career take off, even when the economy is not, then decide which of these strategies will work best for you and get to work!

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