Give Your Career a Regular Tune-Up | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog

[Tuesday, October 06, 2009 | View Comments ]

Rate yourself from poor to excellent. Give yourself a 1 if your answer is a definitive no. Give yourself a 5 if you can’t imagine doing any better than you are now. How well do you score on the following:

I have a job where I love what I am doing
I am in an industry I care about
I am based in the location where I want to be
I am confident that I am paid at or above my market value
I have a career plan including defined goals for the next 6-12 months
I have balance between my personal and professional goals

We get our cars inspected. We get annual physicals. But how many of us give our careers a regular tune-up? Many people manage their careers in crisis mode: they watch for opportunities when they want to change jobs; they plot out promotion strategy when the performance review gets scheduled. This is reactive, and you will play catch up at best. Instead, check your career regularly for satisfaction, growth and joy.

The above quiz is a start. Those questions are the first of 100 questions I ask my clients to rate themselves on, so we have a shared sense of where they are now in their careers and lives. To move towards proactive career management you need a sense of where to start. Do you like what you are doing – the job, the industry, the location? Are you compensated for your market value? This is not about making lots of money, especially if that’s not customary for your market, but you want to know that you are paid what is equitable for your specific sector. Are you moving forward? Do you have a life?

If on this basic scale you rate poorly, use this as a wake-up call for adding career management activities to your regular schedule. Proactive career management is not about looking for a job, though that may be a part of the strategy if you decide to move from where you are. Proactive career management means that you are deliberate about your brand and reputation, you expand and maintain a network of professional contacts, and you invest in your personal R&D.

Keep an updated resume and online profile. This is good job search practice obviously, but even if you don’t plan on moving, updating your resume is a good audit of your career to date. Do you have anything new to add in the last few months?

Use your lunch hours to see people. Remember to include people outside your department, functional area, and company. Having a mix of contacts enables you to maintain a broad perspective about your sector. Do people know the great work that you are doing?

Read your trade publications. I know too many people who do their work but don’t know anything about their competitors or industry at large. Become an expert in your field, not just your day-to-day job. You will contribute more to your employer and raise your individual professional profile. Can you talk about your industry as deeply as you can talk about your job?

These are just some tips to get started on proactive career management. As a former recruiter, the candidates that I “hunted” were the ones that established their credibility in their field. You need to put yourself out there, to have contacts, and to be expert in your field to get on the recruiter radar. This doesn’t mean that you need to be in 24/7 job search mode; it means you need to practice proactive career management. Being on the recruiter radar gives you access to opportunities – you can always choose to say no (or yes). Regular career tune-ups have its advantages.

Guest Expert:

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career coach, writer, speaker, Gen Y expert and co-founder of SixFigureStart (http://sixfigurestart.wordpress.com/), a career coaching firm comprised of former Fortune 500 recruiters. Formerly in corporate HR and retained search, Caroline most recently headed University Relations for Time Inc and has also recruited for Accenture, Citibank, Disney ABC, and others. Caroline teaches Professional Development at Columbia University and writes for CNBC.com, Vault.com, Wetfeet.com, and formerly Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com. Her career advice has been quoted in CBS Moneywatch, BusinessWeek, Christian Science Monitor, Forbes.com, NPR, the Associated Press and other leading media outlets. Visit http://sixfigurestart.wordpress.com/ for the latest calendar of upcoming SixFigureStart events and offerings.

Rate yourself from poor to excellent. Give yourself a 1 if your answer is a definitive no. Give yourself a 5 if you can’t imagine doing any better than you are now. How well do you score on the following:

I have a job where I love what I am doing
I am in an industry I care about
I am based in the location where I want to be
I am confident that I am paid at or above my market value
I have a career plan including defined goals for the next 6-12 months
I have balance between my personal and professional goals

We get our cars inspected. We get annual physicals. But how many of us give our careers a regular tune-up? Many people manage their careers in crisis mode: they watch for opportunities when they want to change jobs; they plot out promotion strategy when the performance review gets scheduled. This is reactive, and you will play catch up at best. Instead, check your career regularly for satisfaction, growth and joy.

The above quiz is a start. Those questions are the first of 100 questions I ask my clients to rate themselves on, so we have a shared sense of where they are now in their careers and lives. To move towards proactive career management you need a sense of where to start. Do you like what you are doing – the job, the industry, the location? Are you compensated for your market value? This is not about making lots of money, especially if that’s not customary for your market, but you want to know that you are paid what is equitable for your specific sector. Are you moving forward? Do you have a life?

If on this basic scale you rate poorly, use this as a wake-up call for adding career management activities to your regular schedule. Proactive career management is not about looking for a job, though that may be a part of the strategy if you decide to move from where you are. Proactive career management means that you are deliberate about your brand and reputation, you expand and maintain a network of professional contacts, and you invest in your personal R&D.

Keep an updated resume and online profile. This is good job search practice obviously, but even if you don’t plan on moving, updating your resume is a good audit of your career to date. Do you have anything new to add in the last few months?

Use your lunch hours to see people. Remember to include people outside your department, functional area, and company. Having a mix of contacts enables you to maintain a broad perspective about your sector. Do people know the great work that you are doing?

Read your trade publications. I know too many people who do their work but don’t know anything about their competitors or industry at large. Become an expert in your field, not just your day-to-day job. You will contribute more to your employer and raise your individual professional profile. Can you talk about your industry as deeply as you can talk about your job?

These are just some tips to get started on proactive career management. As a former recruiter, the candidates that I “hunted” were the ones that established their credibility in their field. You need to put yourself out there, to have contacts, and to be expert in your field to get on the recruiter radar. This doesn’t mean that you need to be in 24/7 job search mode; it means you need to practice proactive career management. Being on the recruiter radar gives you access to opportunities – you can always choose to say no (or yes). Regular career tune-ups have its advantages.

Guest Expert:

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career coach, writer, speaker, Gen Y expert and co-founder of SixFigureStart (http://sixfigurestart.wordpress.com/), a career coaching firm comprised of former Fortune 500 recruiters. Formerly in corporate HR and retained search, Caroline most recently headed University Relations for Time Inc and has also recruited for Accenture, Citibank, Disney ABC, and others. Caroline teaches Professional Development at Columbia University and writes for CNBC.com, Vault.com, Wetfeet.com, and formerly Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com. Her career advice has been quoted in CBS Moneywatch, BusinessWeek, Christian Science Monitor, Forbes.com, NPR, the Associated Press and other leading media outlets. Visit http://sixfigurestart.wordpress.com/ for the latest calendar of upcoming SixFigureStart events and offerings.

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