With increasing number of people looking for new careers and the ever evolving job market, we cannot afford to make mistakes which may lead to losing jobs.
If you want to fast track your career, then you need to think and act differently. Since what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow being adaptable is vital.
In 2020 we made all the big plans and visions that we sought to accomplish. This was however cut short by the breakout of the Covid-19 Disease.
Covid-19 has taught us one thing that the future of work is here and it’s here to stay. A new normal was created with people having to adjusts and work from home.
With the pandemic still ongoing in 2021, these are different times and these require different approaches to make it career wise.
Therefore these career pitfalls have to be avoided:
Lack of a career brand
Covid-19 has affected the economy leaving many businesses in shambles and while others are recovering others may never recover from this pandemic.
With businesses deteriorating and people losing their jobs, the pandemic has taught as that we need to make ourselves be known. We need to stand out in our careers and work in order to thrive.
People have to build their own brands beyond just their names by focusing on what makes them different online and even offline.
This is a requirement to thrive in this fast changing world. Every type of business has to embrace the internet and make itself known to the world for it to thrive.
To create one’s own personal brand, people have to ask themselves these questions:
- What would people that know you say about you and what would you generally say or want to be known for?
- Are you a people person, do people come to you when they need solutions to their problems?
- When you are googled what comes up and are you happy with the results in you have in your bio?
- Would employees and decision markers know what you could do for them and be able to find you?
- Can people find you on the internet? Are you available on relevant websites like LinkedIn?
Neglect of online presence or activity
People use social media tools especially LinkedIn to look for jobs. Then once they find one their social media presence stops.
However, people have to maintain their online presence. This is done by engaging with posts if others on social media. Learn to comment and share relevant posts to your field. Also learn to share posts that you find interesting and publish your own work there.
Online work provides different opportunities and flexibility. Therefore people can work from anywhere and makes it much desirable to many people.
This makes the market highly competitive. To stand out from this competition, your personality has to shine through.
Personality shines through when people are mindful of what their online profile says and they have to keep on updating it in line with current trends.
People also have to engage themselves in other social media tools such as podcasts talks and content creation. This will increase visibility and ability to connect with you through your online presence.
Having only one career or source of income
The pandemic has been an eye opener for many of us that we need to have more than one source of income to escape poverty. The goal is to have options for sustainability.
People have to merge different careers so as to have multiple sources of income. For example if you are lawyer, you can merge it by online writing or holding legal workshops and earning from both.
Having done this enables diversification, gaining new skills and experience and building on career networks. This helps in building a career portfolio.
To build a portfolio career one needs to:
- Identify the skills you have and the new skills to achieve.
- Get advice from people who have their portfolio in check and people working more than one job
- Start with small projects as you progress and commit to a certain period to test whether it is working for you.
Poor career networking
Sometimes people with office jobs sometimes they forget to forge relationships with their colleagues and only focus on their job.
This leads to professionals who work together and not necessarily knowing each other. What happens if one wants to change their career and can’t even get a recommendation from a fellow colleague ?
Majority of jobs nowadays are filled through networking. So the chances are higher to get a job from people you know and if they know you back.
People therefore have to create online networks and also try in whatever environment they are in to create more networks.
To get started in networking, people can do the following:
- Engage with groups on social media tools such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook among others.
- Attend conferences or summits whether online or physical
- Be proactive and make the initial step in reaching out to your colleagues and creating that relationship.
- In case of events, join and be active.
Poor investment in new career skills
Traditional education does not equip young professionals with the necessary tools to handle the constant change.By the time they are ready to join the workforce, they find out that what they learned is already outdated.
Therefore, young professionals have to be up to date with what is current. This learning helps to put the theory one has accumulated in school to practice.
According to Forbes, people have to be willing to take refresher courses and expand their knowledge beyond what is taught in a classroom. This is turn helps to advance their careers further.
They can do this by:
- Having mentors and coaches in their fields who ascertain their growth.
- Attending workshops and conferences with other young people to engage and share information.
- Listening to Podcasts, audio books or even learning from YouTube concerning their careers and absorbing all the relevant information they need to know.
These are some of the mistakes you should avoid if you hope to advance your career. Do you know others we have left out? Is there anything you feel we should expound on? Let us know in the comments below and we will be glad to receive your feedback.
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