If you’re fed up in your current job or you’re struggling to find employment full stop, you might feel pessimistic about your career prospects.
The fact that the current jobs market is highly competitive isn’t likely to help either. However, there are a number of steps you can take to increase your chances of landing your dream job. Here are four suggestions to get you started.
1. Find ways to improve your skills
Enhancing your skill set is a sure fire way to raise your chances of achieving career success. One way to do this is to sign up to courses that are relevant to your field of interest. Although completing learning programmes takes time, effort and often financial investment, it can open up a range of possibilities in your career. Just make sure that you choose your courses wisely.
Another way to enhance your skills is to find a job that enables you to hone your abilities and build on your experience. In a blog post on its website, field marketing specialists http://www.appcogroup.co.uk/ identify sales roles as a good example. The company points out that working in face-to-face sales can enable people to develop their capabilities in a range of areas, including communication. Many different roles can provide you with transferrable skills that help to make you a more attractive candidate to prospective employers.
2. Set clear aims
Forming a ‘five-year plan’ might seem a bit clichéd, but it’s actually a great way to focus your attention on what you need to do to progress. By establishing where you would like to be at a certain point in your life, you can work backwards to determine the steps you need to take along the way. Setting clear targets within a timeframe like this should mean you find it easier to stay focussed and motivated in your approach to work.
3. Polish your professional profile
Building up your skills and experience is of course essential, but it’s not enough on its own. To woo potential employers and work your way up the career ladder, you’ll need to ensure you present yourself in the best possible light. This means having a fully up-to-date CV that showcases your talents. It also means ensuring your professional and social networking profiles do you justice. Employers are increasingly using these websites to research candidates, and so it’s vital that you portray yourself well on them. So, always use suitable privacy settings on social sites and make sure your profiles on networking resources like LinkedIn are as impressive as possible.
4. Make connections
Making connections with people in your industry is a must too. You could do this by attending local networking events and by reaching out to people through professional networking websites. This can help ensure you don’t miss any job opportunities and it can put you on the radar of influential individuals and organisations. You never know when a seemingly unimportant connection will lead to a life-changing career opportunity.
