Ladders HQ

if so what led you to your decision to give up?

In this article I am presenting five proven strategies for career building which most of the really successful people are applying. You might find that it is just common sense, but I assure you that applying these strategies skyrocket your chances of developing successfully your career. These are the five strategies:

1. Define a Career Target.

The first step in the career building process is defining a concrete career target. What do you like to change in your career? Where do you want to be in two and in five years? Defining a career target can mean for some people trying to get to the next step on the career ladder, for other people it might signify doing something completely different. In any case, you should make a decision in order to actively develop your career instead of leaving your career development just to luck or the humor of your boss or other circumstances. By deciding first what you want, you can actively take part in this process and you will more rapidly and easily find opportunities that take you to the subsequent career level and a higher life quality.

2. Build up your Personal Network.

It is a reality that most of the job vacancies are never posted in journals, newspapers or on-line and you only find them using your personal or business contacts - your “Network”. This also sometimes is called the “hidden job market”. Building your personal network is a long-term process, so start as soon as possible with people within your own organization which are the most easy to reach and meet. Building up a network is not making hundreds of contacts in a record time but to concentrate on developing relationships. Find ways to build on your connections by setting up an informational interview, inviting them to another event you are attending or talking to them in a more personal atmosphere (e.g. during lunch time or coffee break). If you are following these advises you will open the most precious resource you have in finding the job you want.

3. Use new Online Social Network Tool

When you’re seeking employment, Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter are some of the most used social networks that you can use to build up your personal network. Many people for instance are using with success Twitter as networking tool. Used in conjunction with LinkedIn, job search engines, and other job sites, Twitter can help you make connections, find job listings, and build a personal brand that will help boost your career and speed up your job search. I recommend also using Facebook to build up your network. The fact that Facebook has more than 300 million active users is a good enough reason to use it as a job search and networking tool.  For active job searchers this network is probably beside Linkedin the most important communication platform as many recruiters are constantly scouring these two social networking sites to reach out to potential candidates. 

4. Maintain yourself Up-to-Date

Keep current on your job skills in technical and non-technical skills, like project management, language skills, leadership and conflict resolution, etc. You never should see your career as something static but as part of a continuous learning process. Most professions require training as routine part of their license requirements, while other professions might not; nevertheless, for all professions it is just common sense to keep track with new trends and technologies if they are serious about your career.

5.  Develop your Personal Brand

Your personal Reputation or your Personal Brand is a critical career issue and managing this intangible asset is vital for today’s forward-looking individuals and for your career development. As you advance in your career, more and more people know your skills and expertise and you become an expert on your field. You can accelerate and enhance this personal brand formation process by doing some public speaking at trade exhibitions, specialized conferences or other platforms where you can share your experience with people working in the same field. A very powerful technique is writing an article in your corporate newsletter or in a trade publication about your experience, industry branch or profession. The ideal situation is if you are over time considered as a real expert in your business, not only as information source, but also for new career opportunities when they come to pass.

Searching a Job is a short-term pursuit of a position that matches your financial and career goals. Career Planning and Building is much more than this. It is a long, progressive process of choosing education, training, and jobs that fit your interests and skills. Don’t do just your job, go the “extra mile” and think about what you really want in your career, build your personal network and develop your personal brand as expert in your field. If you wait until you are unemployed you’re going to loose too much time and finding a new job will be really hard work.

Many people join large successful organizations because they are searching out opportunities for learning, promotions, and stability in a career … especially at organizations that cherish employees and help them develop. Even people who think they might later want to own and operate businesses often value the opportunity to first learn from working at a well-run company. Many such companies encourage their employees to take courses, earn degrees, and prepare for enhanced careers in a variety of other ways.

Such career development can provide an unexpected bonus: The education you gain can help you prepare for a new career if you no longer want to climb the old career ladder … or find something you like a lot better. Carlos O. Laya had both experiences while studying at Rushmore University.

Mr. Laya started his career by enjoying a wonderful job as a laboratory technician at one of the world’s finest and most admired companies. But Mr. Laya longed to work instead with customers as a salesman for laboratory analytical instruments.

To prepare for that potential sales career, Mr. Laya took distance learning courses to master electronics. After that Mr. Laya received and accepted an offer to become a service engineer for a world-leading manufacturer of laboratory analytical instruments. During the next two years, he earned a degree in electro techniques that enabled him to be more effective in optimizing instrument performance for customers.

Mr. Laya was thrilled when his employer bought the international rights to sell, distribute, and maintain biotechnology instruments. He enthusiastically asked for and received the job of being the Swiss sales manager for these products. Now he was where he had aimed to be. Taking courses in selling and instrument applications, his confidence and effectiveness grew. Mr. Laya was thrilled to meet the many professors, Ph.D.s, and physicians who were his customers. Eight happy years of work followed.

A new opportunity arose when Mr. Laya was offered a position selling biotech products in Argentina for his company. Mr. Laya eagerly stepped up to the challenge.

This time meaningful progress eluded him. The value of the Argentine currency plummeted and the office was unprofitable for his employer. Rather than take these losses as a failure, Mr. Laya proposed starting a company to represent his employer’s products in Argentina. But that approach faltered when the economy grew worse in Argentina, and his employer pulled out of the country.

After that experience, Mr. Laya returned to Switzerland and worked as an international pharmaceutical products sales manager.

In 2003, he decided that the time had come to earn an MBA to complement his diplomas in international trade and marketing. He saw the MBA as the key to being promoted into senior management at his current employer.

Having enjoyed his distance learning experiences, Mr. Laya sought a university that could provide a flexible schedule for an MBA so he could study part time while continuing his sales management job. When he discovered Rushmore University, he knew he had found the ideal school for him: Rushmore would allow him to focus courses solely on his planned career development. He also liked the idea of working individually with professors using the Oxford tutorial method to study what he wanted to learn rather than a preset curriculum.

Here’s what Mr. Laya has to say about his experiences with Rushmore:

“With my previous distance learning experience, accustomed to learning at my own pace, anywhere and anytime, I was searching for a university that could suit my continuing education needs. When I visited the Rushmore University Web site for the first time, I was convinced that Rushmore was the right choice … The most important argument that caught my attention was the flexibility it offers you to create your own program and to focus your learning on subjects that will add value to your own personal situation. The faculty consists of selected and well-recognized business people with substantial experience in writing business books, but what is most relevant for business professionals is that the professors have a broad knowledge of the real business world. The learning method — reading books and papers and writing a report or paper to apply your findings — is a highly effective way to learn and understand a course.”

While studying for his MBA in 2005, Mr. Laya lost his international sales management job. After a six-month search, he gained another international sales management job representing products used by environmental companies. This was a new experience for him and made him aware of the many important environmental problems for which solutions are needed.

This new job led Mr. Laya to take two courses related to environmental issues, and he developed a desire to become an environmental consultant. From there, he changed his curriculum to focus on how to establish such a consultancy.

Through those Rushmore courses, Mr. Laya was able to identify what knowledge, skills, and experience he lacked to make such a consultancy successful. As part of his MBA capstone paper summarizing what he learned at Rushmore, Mr. Laya developed a plan to fill in those gaps and to move into such a consultancy within a few years.

As a recent graduate, it’s too soon to report on how that development is going. Perhaps Mr. Laya will follow his plan. Or perhaps in following that plan he will find even more appealing work, as he has done before in his successful career. In either case, his grounding in business management will serve him well … as will his understanding of what it takes for an enterprise to succeed, one of his knowledge bases as a new MBA from Rushmore.

Mr. Laya has shown a great talent for spotting opportunities he would enjoy better than his current work. With his MBA and ability to find distance learning opportunities that fit him and his goals well, Mr. Laya should make rapid progress from here in building on his sound foundation in career planning.

Copyright (c) 2008 Atiyah Wazir

So you’ve been slogging your guts out for the last five years, and you’re great at what you do but your achievements are yet to be noticed? You know how to do the work of your bosses and are often called upon to help. In return you get a nice bonus every now and then, but what you really want is a promotion. So what should you be doing to help get that promotion that you deserve?

It’s simple; you need to find the gap between what you do today and what needs to be done to get you on the next step of the career ladder.

“There’s nothing stopping you from getting a promotion apart from yourself. It is really important to challenge yourself on a daily basis so that you don’t just deliver, you over-deliver. Believe in yourself and your abilities and the rest will come naturally. You could be a natural leader; you just might not know it yet”

Top 10 Tips On How to Get That Promotion That You Deserve

1. Be politically correct – know what to say, when to say it and who to – get this right and the corporate ladder will be open.

2. Get a mentor for yourself (a mentor must have clout and stature in your organisation).He or she is committed to your success and promotion.

3. Really understand what your boss and other senior managers are concerned about and ensure that you are addressing these in the way you conduct your own job. This is very different from “sucking up to them”. It is authentically convincing them that you appreciate and are focussed on the bigger picture and not just satisfied with doing a good job in your own “little” pool.

4. Stay in communication with the senior management – don’t wait for them to contact you!

5. Not only deliver but where possible over-deliver – consistently meet targets and show the bosses what you really can do.

6. Go beyond the call of duty – bosses looking for those are not only do a good job but also who take the initiative.

7. Adapt to your situation – be flexible as to your career and the development it will take – this will make your chances of promotion much higher.

8. Don’t be afraid – bosses promote natural leaders mainly as leadership means having strong opinions and knowing how to express them regardless of who you step on along the way.

9. Learn new skills wherever and whenever you can – ask to work with clients who are doing the most innovative projects and request extra training to expand your skill set.

10. Believe in yourself – believe you’re good at what you’re telling people you’re good at – by selling yourself people will have more belief in you as a leader