Yahoo Finance Have You Managed Your Career Well?
How well you manage your career has an enormous impact on your day-to-day quality of life, your earning potential and your overall happiness when it comes to work. If you want control over how your professional life goes -- the jobs you get, the people you work with and the ability to leave bad situations quickly and easily -- being deliberate about how you manage your career can help put you in a position where you have options and are able to make decisions with confidence.
[See: Famous CEOs and Executives Share Their Best Career Advice.]
But how can you know if you're managing your career effectively? Here are six signs that will help you figure it out.
(First, though, a note of caution about all of these items: If you're reading this list in your 20s and blanching because you haven't achieved most of these things yet, don't worry. These are things that you build over the course of your career, not things you accrue in only a few years -- but they're a good road map for what you should work toward.)
If you were laid off tomorrow -- or simply decided you needed to move on -- you know who you'd call to talk about a job. This is one of the biggest reasons that your professional reputation matters: it means that when you need to find work, you'll have the security of knowing that you have a network of people who want to hire you or are at least excited to recommend you. Your reputation for doing excellent work (and for being reliable, professional and pleasant to work with) is a safety net built out of past managers and other colleagues who will go to bat for you and possibly even hire you.
You stay at your job because you want to, not because you feel that you don't have other options. Building up a strong professional reputation puts you in a powerful position with respect to your job and to your employer. A great reputation gives you options, which means that you're much less likely to get stuck in a bad job or with a bad boss just because you're afraid that you can't find anything better.
[See: 10 Ways to Perfect Your Personal Brand.]
You like what you do. Your work doesn't have to be your life's passion (in fact, there are plenty of reasons to avoid turning your passion into your day job), but if you've managed your career well, you'll have figured out what types of jobs make you reasonably content during the hours you spend at work. If you find yourself full of dread most Sunday nights at the thought of returning to work the next day, that's a sign that you might need to take another look at what's going on in your work life, and whether you need to make changes.
You get things done. You're able to point to concrete achievements in your past -- things that you made happen. In many jobs, this won't be quantifiable (like, "I increased our sales by 20 percent"), but you should be able to see what's better in your workplace as a result of you being there. For example, maybe you have a track record of soothing frustrated clients, or you keep a busy office running smoothly with a minimum of chaos or crises, or you regularly garner praise from co-workers about how processes you've implemented have made their lives easier. Whatever the specifics, being able to identify concrete achievements will help in everything from negotiating raises to finding your next step to how much satisfaction you derive from your work.
People seek out your input and take your opinions seriously. Beyond the obvious conclusion that this means that you have things to say that are worth listening to, this also means that you've been successful at making that visible. Too often, people with valuable contributions to make get overlooked because their colleagues don't know it -- because they haven't been skillful at speaking up at the right times, highlighting their own work or presenting their ideas in the right forums to the right people.
[See: 10 Job Resolutions to Revitalize Your Career in 2016.]
You have mentors who you respect and who you can turn to for guidance. Your mentors don't need to be formal ones, but it's hugely helpful to have people in your work life who can help you navigate tricky situations, be a sounding board when you need it or otherwise lend you their insights and professional wisdom. These mentors don't need to be current colleagues; they may be former bosses or co-workers, or even contacts you met through networking. If there isn't anyone in your circle who currently fills this role, it's worth identifying and cultivating people who might be able to help (and consider making yourself available to play that role for others, as well).
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