The holiday season is not just the season to party and make merry, it is also the season to review how you spent your year and come up with some resolutions for the New Year. This is true even when it comes to your career. Even if your annual performance review is a few months away, you should spend at least a part of the holiday break on evaluating your career and make a list of things your learnt about yourself and your job in that year. This will help you become more focused on setting and achieving your career goals in the year to come.Here are a few things that people learnt about their career and their job search this year:
Job search
This year, a marketing professional found out that getting a new job does not mean getting a better job. As part of her job search, she interviewed with a few companies and was asked several questions regarding her current job and her expected salary. Although after one of the interviews, she was offered the job, it was at a lower pay than what she was receiving at her current job. This taught her that moving from one job to another each year does not necessarily mean moving to a better job, and she has now decided to stop the job search and stay put at her current job.
On the other hand, a project manager found out firsthand that networking with HR professionals is a better way to find a new job than sending out a resume blast to multiple companies and keeping your fingers crossed. Talking to various hiring coordinators about the open positions that they have is comparatively time-consuming but yields far better results according to Rose.
A junior executive agrees with the above and further states that it is not just the recruiters that you should reach out to. Just talking to people you know about wanting a job change and the type of role you are seeking may land you an interview. After all, you never know what opening people are aware of and can recommend you for.
Career
A frequent job hopper learnt a very important lesson during her personal end-of-year career review. She learnt that irrespective of how desperate you are for a job, it is not wise to take up the first opportunity that comes your way. It is important to take up a job that you will be happy doing and in which you will grow professionally.
A software engineer's lesson was that having a good boss makes a lot of difference to your career. If you are good at your job and have a boss who appreciates your efforts, he/she will be your best reference. In her case, she learnt that having a good unselfish boss who had her good interest at heart helped her get a promotion that she sought.
A sales person, on the other hand, learnt that you have to be your strongest advocate. Only if you sell yourself continuously by going beyond what is asked for and showing initiative will you stand out from the crowd and get noticed for better opportunities. After all, once you become the go-to person or a subject matter expert, your company would do its best to keep you happy and on the rolls.
In his yearly review, an investment banker learnt an important truth about today's volatile economy, where takeovers and mergers and acquisitions are quite normal. When his old company merged with his current organization He learnt that just because you leave a company and move on, you may not be able to escape it.
