Essential Tips to Set Yourself Up for Success in Your Career

Set yourself apart & become a specialist

“Don’t be a jack of all trades, master of none” is the general advice you will often hear in your life. Rather, aim to become the “go-to” person for something specific. For example, let’s say you have a job in the real estate industry. Perhaps, you could become a specialist in organizing one’s calendar. Or, perhaps you become the specialist for a specific, underutilized feature, or function of your company’s product.

However, becoming a specialist can be challenging because knowledge has become so ubiquitous and collective. So, instead, consider focusing on something that no one else wants to do, or learn. Doing so will enable you to become that much more indispensable to the team.

Rick Orford, WSJ Best Selling Author & Personal Finance Expert

Put People First

Putting people first will improve your career tenfold because you will never have to worry about getting a bad reference. This is the simplest rule as well as the least followed. It goes as follows: be reliable and honest! Do not rip people off or cut corners in any circumstance. This seems simple but this rule cannot be stressed enough, because if you are an unreliable person then employers will assume that you can’t put in an honest day’s work for them. Relationships are the cornerstone of strong company culture and long-term success. Also, in order to be more reliable inculcate some of the common types of entrepreneurship traits in yourself.

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Use the right tools to automate your processes

There are hundreds of tools out there to help you automate the job search. From finding a job to sending an email there are a lot of platforms and tools to help you create processes and automate repetitive tasks. Building an automated process is not only a way to save time, but also a way to be consistent and specific. Also consider creating specific manuals that explain various tasks, so that you can easily outsource them, find a virtual assistant (VA) and get more done faster with a very low cost.

What is also important to notice is that the more processes you set up the easier it is to manage and measure important metrics for your workflow (from paying an invoice to publishing on social media). Setting up the right KPIs and processes come together to help you be more efficient and improve your way of working.

– George Avgenakis, CEO & founder of the first job search automation platform, Loopcv

Focus on Building a Network

“One of the most effective things you can do for your career is to build a strong professional network. This is a long-term goal and will take time to accomplish, but it’s worth starting right away. There are so many different ways that having a strong network will help you. Of course, it could ultimately lead to new opportunities or connections that help you to be more effective at your job. 

“It’s essential to remember that networking is a two-way street. You need to be able and willing to give as much value as you take. If you’re legitimately interested in growing mutually-beneficial relationships and you find ways to help the people you know, you’ll be well on your way to having a network that positively impacts your career.”

– Marc Andre, founder of VitalDollar.com

Build Up Your Technical Skills

“To stay ahead of the innovation wave, it’s important to continue to hone your technical skills for your career. During your free time, commit to spending a couple of hours practicing various skills that may be required of you at work, either through finding workshops online, watching training videos explaining concepts further, or reading up on topics related to those skills. Plus, you can learn new skills and tools through doing so which will help you be even more successful in your career.”

– Rich Rudzinski, technical strategist of Drivey.com and Oversight.co

Believe in the Work You Are Doing

“Passion” and “ambition” aren’t just good qualities to have on your resume. What really sets you up for success in your career is the desire to make things better than they currently are. One way you can show that you care about the work you are doing is to ask questions. For example, questions such as “why are things done this way?” or “How could we make things better?” demonstrate a can-do attitude that wants to see their company be even greater. When you care about your work you are more driven and more creative, which makes you more valuable to your team. Passion can be inspiring too! Caring about your work also means caring about the people you work with. When you have the drive to do better you are able to create more opportunities for yourself and for others. Using positive words of affirmation with yourself and with others can also contribute to this success. We tend to be more successful and even happier in our careers when we believe in the work we do.

– Gregg Dean, Co-founder and CEO of Layla Sleep

Stay Committed

To set yourself up for success, have a strong vision of your end goals. With this in mind, you can create a list of daily sustainable habits that will help you reach your goal. Be honest with yourself about what is distracting you and how you can implement more behaviors that will push you to success. By being consistent and staying focused, you’ll gain momentum to continue pushing forward. Whether you have health goals, or financial goals, creating a plan and taking one step towards that destination daily, will eventually land you there.

– Bill Lyons, CEO of Griffin Funding

Take Every Opportunity to Grow

One of the pieces of advice that I tell every recent graduate when they first venture off into their career is to seize every opportunity to grow. This can mean many different things. If your company offers you access to different training programs or seminars, you should jump at the opportunity, even if it’s not within the career space you originally set off on. It is never a bad idea to expand your knowledge in all facets of business so you can become a more well-rounded individual and teammate. You should also look to grow your circle within the office and gather new and enriching professional relationships. You can also consider reaching out to a business coach to help guide you through your career’s future.  Attend every company outing you can and challenge yourself to interact with people outside of your direct team.

– Joe Spector, Founder and CEO of Dutch

Shadow Work

Whether you have a career you knew you wanted to do as a kid or just discovered your last few months of college; you should consider doing shadow work before jumping into the field. Shadow work is where you watch or shadow someone in your intended field or job position. Most people are open to having someone shadow them, but it’s best to reach out in advance so they can schedule a day with you. You can shadow work at any stage of life. You can start in high school while you try and pick out your major or in college before you graduate. Either way, shadowing someone’s work will give you the most accurate depiction of what you want to do with your career. Also, you can shadow a multitude of careers if you aren’t concrete on a job study. Shadow work is fun and will open you up to a new field of opportunity, networking, and insights.

-Adrien Dissous, Global SVP of Marketing at Babo Botanicals

 

Make a Move Before Anyone Else Does

Learning to take initiative in your career will give you opportunities to further your career. Make the first move on any new projects that come through the door. Go to every meeting you can, do your best to meet every employee at the company, and be friends with them. Always be thinking of new ideas and try your best to speak your mind whenever you get the opportunity. Creating new opportunities for your company will not go unseen and will most definitely push your career further down the path you want it to go.  Another thing you can do is evaluate yourself before your boss does it. Do not wait until your boss has those regularly scheduled meetings where they talk about your performance. Have a meeting with yourself and try to improve.

-Himanshu Agarwal, SVP of Solutions at WorkBoard

8 thoughts on “Essential Tips to Set Yourself Up for Success in Your Career

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