The Best Career Advice I Have to Offer
When you think of career advice and career trajectories, you think of job titles. You start as an entry level busy bee, then move onto some junior level projects, eventually being rewarded as a senior with some managerial responsibilities, which then translate to upper management opportunities. But there’s more than one way to slice the onion called “career”. What if your career is defined by the niche talents and unique situations you’ve faced while working? What if your career is defined by the software and tools you used to accomplish the job rather than the schooling and certificates you complete?
In a time when it’s become more lucrative to leave your job, positioning yourself for the next opportunity at a different company should be incredibly important to you. But instead of always looking at additional schooling or certificates, there are responsibilities, lingo, even software/tools at your current job that can prove valuable to another company or maybe even another department. You may be developing an entirely new skill-set that translates well to the next opportunity, and allows you to get your foot in the door with jobs, companies, or places you never thought possible before.
There are three of the many ways I have found to leverage the time you spend during the work day to add to your resume in a meaningful way. They are 1) Never stop learning, 2) Always ask for more, and 3) Take pride in your work.
Never stop learning.
“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” ―John Wooden
I start with this, because every job offers something to learn. Maybe it’s industry nomenclature. Maybe it’s the software solution that the company uses. Maybe it’s as simple as the use of Excel to manipulate data and produce reports. No job is truly devoid of tools and skills that can be transferrable to a different job or opportunity. Learn until there is nothing more you can learn. Even if it’s considered outside of your role, a short conversation with a friend from another department or looking in shared company drives for tutorials or SOPs documents (as long as you’re free to browse those resources!) are just a few ways you can learn as much as possible in your current position. The key, however, is to find a skill or knowledge-set that is niche or specialized.
It’s not hard to find a skill or knowledge-set that is niche or specialized. Consider a data analyst role where you’re reviewing distribution/sales data of large pharmaceutical companies. What you may realize is that the distribution/sales data is actually provided to you through electronic files called Electronic Data Interchange, which has decades of standardization and formats. And further self-study shows EDI is actually an important vehicle for end-to-end ordering for a large majority of major retailers and distributors. Or maybe it’s understanding the B2B supply-chain from a practical, operational standpoint. Understanding how purchase orders are triggered, what other windows and forms are tied to purchase orders as they are shipped and ultimately the purchase orders are used to fulfill downstream customer orders could lead to opportunities at retail headquarters, where they need people familiar with the B2B side of things operationally to then leverage current or new software solutions that will optimize the B2B and B2C order fulfillment processes. Both examples here are ways where keeping an open mind about what a niche skill or knowledge-set is, and how maintaining an open mind when discovering what your niche skill or knowledge-set could be.
It seems obvious, but there are enough people I know who distance themselves from learning something new. They would rather concentrate on what’s in front of them, and not reach for new knowledge or new skills. That’s great for someone in a field where your growth is fixed and scales consistently as you gain seniority or attend additional schooling. But a willingness to learn on the job could lead to the discovery of a niche skill that could be exponentially valuable to the next company. There’s always more than one path to the career, company, or industry you want to be a part of. The more you learn and absorb from each job you take, the greater the potential of finding a talent or know-how that could prove beneficial to any company you want to be a part of. You have to keep your mind and your eyes open for learning opportunities.
Always ask for more.
“In dreams begin responsibilities” — W.B. Yeats
This one is not meant for those who are just looking to just cruise in their current job. It’s not meant for people who seem to complain no matter how much work they have. Whether it’s more work, more accounts, or more responsibilities, don’t shy away from it. Ask for more responsibility till there’s nothing more to take on. Ask for more work till you’re the only one completing an essential task for the company. Bring on accounts others are afraid to take on because they are seen as “difficult” or “needy”. Your willingness to tackle more work and greater responsibility may not necessarily be seen by your current employer, but will always be seen by a potential one.
Being afraid to take on more work because of the potential strain on you may be holding you back from growing as a professional. If you can show on your resume that you tirelessly took on jobs and responsibilities that may have often been outside the scope of your job, it will never hurt you. The key here is being well organized, productive, and accomplished. And on those days when it seems like everything is going wrong, and you can’t catch a break this week, having a consistent de-stressing routine and healthy habits (i.e. good diet and scheduled exercise) will carry you through even the most difficult weeks.
There’s a tiresome monotony to work if you’re not being challenged each day. Asking for more also creates additional opportunities where you’ll be asked to solve different problems. Working through various scenarios and being asked to solve a diverse range of issues could expose you to novel solutions, new optimizations, or simply expand your knowledge of the system or job.
Take pride in your work.
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” — George Lorimer
As a child, having your work on the fridge brought a sense of pride in what you accomplished, and motivated you to produce better work. Your next watercolor painting, dried pasta art, or coloring page needed to be even better than the next.
No matter how small or how large of a project, put in “on the fridge” effort. Whether it’s a call to a customer to explain an issue, or an email to a co-worker asking for help with an assignment, or building a report and finetuning the look of the graphics, if you don’t come out thinking “I can add this to my resume”, you may need to reassess your mental approach to the work you do. Work you can’t confidently talk about or proudly parade in meetings, reviews, or interviews gets lost in the abyss of the work week, and won’t add value to your resume.
As self-explanatory as this one is, it’s one we often glaze over. Practice celebrating your accomplishments in any sort of meaningful way. Allow yourself to say “Good job” when you do something right or complete a task without error. Most importantly, review lessons learned, and figure out how to accomplish the same task in a better way for the next time. Sometimes being proud in the work we’ve done is as simple as privately rewarding ourselves for finishing the work that has to be done, like putting up your finished product on the fridge for all to admire.
Don’t become complacent. Take hold of your work day and position yourself for the next great opportunity, because even luck is just preparation meeting opportunity.
