By: Camille G. Mason, Sr. Assistant Director
When I received my first job after pursuing my graduate degree a mentor of mine asked me “Congratulations! So where do you want to work next?”
I was so shocked by this I was speechless (which is rare for me), but I learned a valuable lesson about career planning that day. I learned that in order to achieve your career goals you must always have a 5 to 10-year vision plan for your future and with every career move think about the outcome and impact on your future goals. Being successful, getting promoted on the job and getting noticed for your accomplishments are critical to working towards your future career goals.
Promotions are not easy to achieve in the workplace so as a new graduate you have to create and manage your own career path in a new organization. So how do you create a promotions plan? By using these strategies listed below.
- Create a Board of Directors
A Board of Directors (BOD) for your career, are a group of people you consult regularly to get advice and feedback from. The people you elect will play different roles on your panel. Some of the professionals may be your boss or colleague(s) you admire. The people on your BOD should be a subject matter expert or know more then you about something, or offer different points of view.
- Gain New Knowledge and Skills
Once you start a new job, there will be new information that you have to learn to be successful at your job. As technology and other rapidly changing external forces happen, you need to gain new skills that help you stay marketable, but also help you to perform your job better. It is a good idea to stay current with industry news and events, but also to pay attention to trends and events outside of your industry.
- Gain Quantifiable Results
You are more likely to get promoted if you can show detailed information about your successes. Metrics are the most effective way to highlight t your big wins and attract the attention of your boss and colleagues. Check out this article about how to quantify information HERE.