Now is a great time to pause and think about where you are professionally.
Consider these scenarios:
First: you like your job and the company you work for. You look forward to going to work each day. The job has its share of frustrating moments but overall, the work you do is fulfilling. You are a valued member of the team and feel confident in your future at this company.
Or: you’re bored or stressed almost every day at this job. Part of your workday includes looking for another job or being frustrated with your situation. You call off or take PTO just so you don’t have to deal.
Think about which of these situations you can relate to. Which one feels closest to your reality?
Regardless if it’s the first one where you’re mostly content or the second one where it’s time to update your resume, there’s something you need to be doing right now.
Something that determines what your next move will be. At this particular time, (like deacon says at church before the benediction), it’s time for you to do a check-up on your career.
I decided to make a video podcast answering career questions sent to my inbox. Click below to watch:
To do that, there’s 2 pivotal conversations that you must have: the first one is with yourself. The second one is with your manager and skip level manager.
If you’ve never done this before or you’re not sure where to start, that’s what I’m here for. Let’s start with YOU.
First, you must have a career check-in with yourself. I get it, the job’s going well and you’re happy, but unless you plan on being in that seat forever, you need to plan your next move.
For those who relate to the 2nd scenario more, you’re in a different space, which most likely feels like panic mode right now. You’ll do anything to be done with that job - and the disadvantage for you is that this mindset shows up in your work performance and productivity.
Start with looking at the good aspects of your job. There has to be at least 1 because you’re still there.
Next, deep dive into your job. What are you doing every day? Big or small, leave nothing out.
Take that a step further and expand on how you’ve added value in your role. Looking at what you do every day, which processes have you improved and how? What was the outcome of your contributions? What ideas do you have about improving other parts of your role, or things to make the team better?
You’ve done great things! It’s equally important to address your developmental areas. Think about feedback you’ve received (or not) and how you’ve improved. Think about what you think you need to work on without anyone telling you.
The key to development is not that you need it, because everybody does. It’s about what are you doing to get better? If you have a plan in place to do better, let that be the focus.
This exercise requires you to invest time in thinking through this. So, I’ll pause there and leave you with a link to my calendar in case you need to talk through this.
Come back for the second part of the career check in to prepare for the second pivotal conversation you need to have about your career.
The Smart 1:1s guide is a good resource to have as you work through your career check-ins and mid-year reviews.
Comments