Guest post by Patricia Sadar (learn more about Patricia at the end of this post).
You may consider yourself a superwoman when it comes to juggling your calendar, work schedule, friends, and loved ones.
Take a moment to answer the following questions to see how committed you are:
Do you have a solid career plan with time lines?
Do you know what your next career step is?
Are you grooming your skills today for the position of the future?
If you answered yes to the above questions, you are one of the lucky few. Women who have decided on a definite career path, know why it is important to them, and are accomplishing what they have aimed for…that is SUCCESS!
Often even the most driven women spend more time on clothes shopping, vacation planning, and hair styling. One of the persons who I recently coached made this comment…”If I had only spent the same amount of time on my career as I did on my hair I would be as successful as Oprah.”
My advice is this, you are the driver of your career so take the wheel and do the following:
1. Identify what your long-term career goal is?
Decide how you will measure success and progress. Can you picture what you will achieve when you retire from your career?
Will you be supervising others? Describe the type of industry and organization you envision.
2. Map out the career ladder steps that are consistent with your long-term career goals.
3. Begin grooming yourself today for the target job that is the next step up in your career plan.
Search on the internet and identify three positions that are currently available that meet your target job criteria. Review each job posting, including summary, experience and competencies. Do a gap assessment to surface any gaps between the job experience, certifications, and technical skills you have and what the positions are requiring.
Once you have completed the gap assessment, create an action plan to fill the gaps and set realist goals. If you do this you have decided to be the driver in your career and are committed towards landing the job of your dreams!
Patricia Sadar wants you to reach your career potential and land the job of your dreams! Patricia has guided thousands of employees and executives in the right direction. As an adjunct professor at Florida International University School of Hospitality Management and University of Phoenix she extends her knowledge and advice to assist women of all ages look within to discover their own potential and eagerly work towards their career goals with confidence. Patricia is President & CEO of People2Strategy®, a Strategic HR Consulting Firm and is a successful speaker, consultant, career coach, and author of Congratulations …You Aced the Interview and Congratulations … You’re Hired (http://www.congratsbooks.com).
Hilary Brooks
Hilary Brooks is President, CEO of A Virtual Edge, a full-service virtual assistant company, and Owner of freelance web design company Small Biz Web Whiz. Hilary and her team offer a wide variety of services to busy entrepreneurs, speakers, coaches, and bloggers, providing the office and creative support they need to succeed without all the hassles of hiring a traditional employee.
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Great article. Good reminder that it is our career, we own it. No one will be our advocate but us. I am one of the lucky few with a plan mapped out, but there is always room for improvement. Thank you for the reminders!
Love the idea of gap assessment. Really helpful. Thank you!
Thanks for the information. It always comes down to goals and having an idea of where we are wanting to end up doesn’t it?
I have finally started developing my own road map and have been surprised by the increase in creativity and motivation that comes from knowing what your exact next step should be.
Thank you for your comments, I agree with all of you! We have to take the wheel back and own our careers. The gap assessment is one simply way to figure out the top three areas to focus on.
Deciding what and where you want to be is the first and most important step. While ideas are fantastic, we have to take progressive and continuous movement towards our goals.
Once you have that roadmap — keep it always on your radar. Look at every day and commit towards taking action every week.
No matter how difficult the path is…stay on course and be persistent!
All the best,
Patricia