5 Ways to Become “Career Ready” for the Next Step in Your Professional Life  

You work hard. You do a great job. But somehow, your effort just hasn’t translated into the career you expected. Why? The answer may be that you’re not “career ready.”

Research shows that people whose career seems to progress rapidly are actually doing very specific things.

Focus on Self-Awareness
Successful leaders are self-knowing. People who make strong career progress know their strengths and the weaknesses in their skills and behaviors. They are realistic about their performance. They know which roles and leaders help them perform at their best. They use this knowledge to help them make good career decisions. 

To become more self-knowing:

• Self-reflect. Take time to consider which jobs or projects you’ve loved the most, and which leaders (or teachers) brought out your best. The insights you gain will help you identify what work will best showcase your abilities and allow you to follow your passion. If you can do what you love, you will do it well. And that will get you noticed.
• Take a 360-degree assessment. The feedback you get from leaders, peers, and direct reports can help you discover the strengths you can leverage to support your career, as well as those things that will challenge you and potentially hold you back.

Know Your End Goals
Successful leaders are career visionaries. You can’t make good decisions if you don’t know your ultimate destination. People who have a clear view of their career goal and what is required to achieve it are able to stay laser focused on what they need to do to get there. They are purposeful about the roles they take, and they know what they want from each role.

To become a career visionary:

• If you have a broad idea about what you want to do, now is the time to get specific. Identify a “destination role” (don’t worry, you can always change your mind!) and learn everything you can about what knowledge, skills, experiences, and more you would need to be successful at it.
• If you are not sure about your destination, take steps to find out what it might be. Identify roles you think might be of interest, and invite someone who holds that job to coffee so you can learn more. Most people are happy to speak about the work that they do.

Commit to Learning & Experience
Successful leaders build experience. Those whose careers are on the fast track purposely build the experience they need to achieve their professional goals. They maximize opportunities in their current role or in the environment to broaden the experiences that support them most. They are open to any change that increases that experience.

To build experience:

• Start with a plan to acquire the one, critical skill or experience you need to prepare for your next step. Remember, we learn best by doing, so focus your plan on exploiting any opportunity to practice the skills you need.
• Don’t limit yourself to your day job to build experience. The things we do outside work help us build experience, as well. Are you a member of the Parent Teacher Association or a sports team? Review everything you do and ask, “What experience am I gaining now that is helpful in my career?”

Build an Impactful Network
Successful career seekers are positive networkers. We all benefit from knowing a network of people who can support us in achieving our goals; we can’t do it alone. But this network can’t be built on insincere relationships, where one person ingratiates herself with others to get ahead. A positive networker develops genuine relationships.

To become a positive networker:

• Find a mentor. The best mentors are committed to support you. If you have that sort of relationship with a colleague, ask to formalize it. If you don’t, ask someone who has a skill or experience you would like to have to consider being your mentor.
• Look to include those outside your company in your positive network. This will keep your skills up-to-date and increase the possibility of finding opportunities in the future. Does your function have a professional association or network? Is there an alumni group from courses you’ve attended? Once you have identified individuals who could be included in your positive network, remember that you need to give back to them, as well.

Seek New Opportunities
Successful leaders seek opportunities. If you are mobile, open to join a new company, or prepared to try another function within your current organization, you will have more opportunities to grow your career. It is simply a matter of numbers—it’s important to be open to as many opportunities as possible. We can’t all pack up tomorrow and relocate to a new city, but we can all consciously explore what we are prepared to do to be open to the next opportunity. Once defined, we can make sure we are looking in all the right places. 

To become a better opportunity seeker:

• Check out a job board. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t looking for a change just now. People who are career ready review opportunities to ascertain the market for their skills and to discover the companies they might like to work for in the future.
• Update your résumé and LinkedIn profile. The opportunity seeker knows these are her calling cards, and she is always ready to say, “Yes, let me send you my résumé today,” when asked!

Becoming a self-knowing career visionary who develops positive networks, builds experience, and seeks opportunities will help you be career ready and accelerate your career!