Tips for Career Management While You Are Employed

I am Martin Buckland, a global executive career management practitioner. Today we’re going to talk about 7 tips for good career management while you are employed.

It is just as important to manage your career while you are employed, as it is while you are in your career transition.

1. Continue Networking. You don’t need to network as much as you do when you are in career transition. But my professional tip to you would be to attend one to two networking meetings per month plus attend conferences because you’re right in your own environment and you need to network with you in your own environment and build or continue to build that brand within your own industry. You can also seek speaking positions and that will get you a lot of clout, a lot of clarity and a good reputation within your industry. Conferences within your industry are always looking for speakers. Why don’t you volunteer? Also look up meetup.com.  It’s a website with thousands of meetings including networking meetings in every major city across the world. I’ve attended some and I benefited immensely from attending those meetup meetings.

2. Block Out Two to Three Hours Per Month for Career Planning. Maybe you have a career coach or maybe have somebody help you look at what could unfold in your career. What does your future look like? Where do you want to go? Document it and as you progress through your career you can chop and change it and of course in economic times when we go through bad times, you have to manage your career a lot more than you do when we’re in good times.

3. Update your Resume Quarterly. There is nothing worse than being asked by an executive recruiter for your resume? And you say, well, really, I don’t know. I haven’t got one. You need to have an up to date ATS, (applicant tracking system) friendly resume…it is very important. You never know when that next opportunity or offer might come…today, tomorrow or next week, so once every quarter update your resume.

4. Enhance Your Skills. We are always looking for highly skilled people and if you haven’t been to university, you haven’t been to college, you haven’t taken a designation for five years or more, that is a red flag against you. You need to have up-to-date education or updated skills in some shape or form. It may be a new designation. It may be a new skill which you learn at your local college or university or even online. There’s a whole wealth of resources online today. Why don’t you convince your employer? A lot of employers encourage skill development, so your employer, if you put the right business case to them, might be able to fund your next designation or adding onto your skills, because it’s going to bring value to them as well.

5. Be Active on LinkedIn. One would hope that you are really aggressive on LinkedIn when you are in career transition. But now you need to still be active. You don’t need to be as active as you were when you’re in a transition, but still share things. Still write content. Still make comments. We need to see that you are around. Don’t just drop off the face of the earth just because you’re gainfully employed.  That is a real mistake in your career management. Continue your online presence, but not as aggressively as it was when you were in career transition.

6. Maintain Relationships with Executive Recruiters. It takes a lot of energy to build a relationship with an executive recruiter so you don’t just want to drop that relationship when you get your next appointment because what are they going to say when you are laid off in three or four or five years’ time and you suddenly want them to help you manage your career or find you a job? So build and maintain those relationships and continue building relationships with executive recruiters within your industry who specialize in your particular skillset. So once every six months or so, send them an email and say, I’m having a great time at ABC company and send them a performance or success driven story. Tell them you’re still succeeding, but make them aware that you’re always looking out for that next opportunity.

7. Never Lose Sight of Managing Your Career. It’s a bad mistake. You are in control of your career just like you manage your finances and you go to see your financial planner and hand them over an amount of money every year for investments. You now need to make some time investment in your career because the more time you invest in your career, while you’re gainfully employed will reap rewards when you are going to need it most.

I am passionate about helping you reach your career goals. I have an offer for you; a free resume critique and LinkedIn audit. I will offer you a no-obligation, no sales pitch, LinkedIn audit and resume critique. However, I do warn you, I am realistic. I will say it as it is, I am tough because I want you to learn what I’m going to tell you and I will remove all the red flags for you so you have a complete bank of green flags, so it will be clear sailing if you have to go into career transition. Are you interested? If so, email me in the message section on LinkedIn. Or send me an email using the link posted below.