If you don’t take an active role in your career, you may just find that it starts to stagnate. Very rarely will opportunities and advancement come all on their own. You have to work for it, have to push for it, and have to keep going forward if you want to see your goals through, earn higher wages, and direct your career to a field that you are passionate about.
How you go about pushing your career forward will depend entirely on your career, your personality, and even the work environment. In some cases, it’s easy to get further training and push for new roles because all it takes is showing initiative. In other cases, shadowing and on-the-job training is limited, and changing up your role is going to be hampered.
Regardless of what your career currently looks like, there are options. If you invest in yourself and your skills and look at your career path strategically, you’ll find ways forward. It may take time and even require some big, scary steps (like changing jobs or even your career track), but the only way up is forward. Even steps back are considered progress because it means going in a better direction.
Start with this guide if you aren’t sure yet how to take charge of your career. Adapt it to suit your goals, and remember to stay committed. You deserve to have a career that feels fulfilling.
Understand What You Want Out of Your Career
It can be hard to move forward and up if you don’t know where you want to go. Don’t assume that the only way to direct your career is to have a dream job, either. While wanting one specific role is a great way to stay focused, it isn’t the only thing that matters. The work/life balance that you want, the impact you have, and even where you work all play a massive role in job satisfaction.
At the end of the day, a dream role means nothing without everything else lining up around it. You can be in your dream job but hate it because the work environment and culture are so opposite to who you are. Similarly, you may find a job you love in a role you never even considered for yourself initially just because it helps you do what you want to do in an environment that supports you.
There are instances where you may want to tough it out. If you get compensated exceptionally well, for example, many are happy to put up with excess stress and demanding conditions. On the flip side, some workers are happy to work for an average wage if everything else is perfect.
Your values and needs will dictate what you want out of your career. These values may even change. What you want and are happy to do when you’re young will likely shift as you get older, especially if you have kids.
Always stay true to what you want out of your career so that you can take it in the direction you need.
Stay Updated on Current Role Standards
No matter your job role, you must stay updated on the latest role standards. If you don’t know what the market value of your job is, you can easily be taken advantage of. You need to push to get standard pay, if not better than standard. Not only is wage a big reason to keep up-to-date on the market average, but it’s also how you can make sure that you aren’t being taken advantage of role-wise.
If you do more than the average employee in your role does, chances are you’ve been given a shadow promotion. What this means is that you are effectively working as someone higher up the corporate ladder but don’t have the same title and same wage as them.
What Your Role Should Include
There are a few ways to ensure that you are only doing the work covered by your role. While it’s great to show initiative, there will come a point where taking on whole new tasks should warrant a promotion. If you are technically an assistant producer, for example, but you’re the only producer on the floor when you work, and you don’t have the support of a full producer, then you aren’t actually working as an assistant at all. Your employers, instead, are taking advantage of the fact that they can pay you less for your step-down role, despite the fact that you are working in a step-up capacity.
That’s why it is important to know what your role should include and when the tasks and responsibilities you take on exceed that role. If you realize you do far more than what others in your position do and that you’ve actually started working unofficially in a different role, you need to talk to your employers and push for a promotion. If they refuse, despite the fact that you can clearly outline why a promotion isn’t a matter of rewarding you but recognizing what you currently do, then it is time to leave. Use what you’ve done to help you get a job where your work is accurately reflected in your job title.
Average Wage for Your Role (Based on Location and Experience)
Just as you can be shadow promoted, or, in other words, given more responsibilities with none of the recognition, you can also be paid less than what your role demands. There is no legal requirement that an employer has to pay you anything above minimum wage, which means it’s all down to market value and what the employee will accept. Though you might have been paid a good wage for your role when you first started, if it’s been years since you saw a salary increase, you may no longer be making what you should.
That’s why it’s also important that you stay informed on what the average salary is for your role. Do keep in mind that salary averages will vary based on years of experience and location. Even with those set to match you, the individual employer will differ. There are a lot of factors to keep in mind, but starting with the average is essential. It will help you understand the market rate and what you could potentially be getting if you were to change jobs and negotiate your salary from the start.
Don’t just stop there, however. It’s important to know what your coworkers are making as well. Keeping quiet about wages benefits no one except your employer. Understanding what everyone earns allows you to keep everyone on your team paid appropriately.
The reason why it’s important to talk to your coworkers is that there can be massive pay inequalities. Someone you are in charge of could be earning more than you are simply because they negotiated a higher wage when they were hired. This doesn’t mean they should have been paid less, but it does keep you informed of when your own salary needs to increase to meet demand.
Just as is the case of an employer refusing to recognize your contributions by promoting you, if your employer refuses to even talk about salary increases or frequently blows you off despite many good arguments as to why you should see a boost to your salary, know it’s likely time to leave.
You’ll have the most negotiating power at the start of a new position. It’s this reason why those who seemingly jump jobs every two to three years make far more than those who stick with the same employer for years on end. Frequently changing jobs increases your base rate and can help you earn a wage that is higher than the market average. Employers know that they are unlikely to hire their top choices if they offer less than what you were making before. Regularly looking for new work also expands your experience and your network, so there are a lot of reasons to keep your career moving in this way.
Advancing Your Skills: A Lifelong Commitment to Learning
If you want to push your career forward, then you need to constantly be evolving yourself. You don’t get paid more or promoted for doing the exact same thing. You get promoted because you do more or you’re better at what you do.
Everything moves quickly. Trends, societal perceptions, values, economics – all of these factors are in constant flux. If you want to be at the top of your field and have options (job, salary, and otherwise), you’ll need to invest regularly in your skillset and knowledge.
There are so many ways to do this, with these options being the most popular:
Earn a Degree
If you think that you’re done with schooling, think again. You can earn a degree at any time now, thanks to the arrival of quality online degrees. Working professionals don’t need to up and quit their job and move to a new area just to go back to school, and they also don’t need to limit themselves to night school providers. With online degrees, you can now find more degree options from top institutions.
Many of these top degrees don’t require specialization, either. If you want to become a thriving business manager and work your way up into an executive-level role, for example, you may want to consider adding data analytics to your repertoire.
In the past, data analytics may have been solely available to those who had a background in math or statistics. Today you can earn an online MSBA from any background. This is because the program is designed to establish a foundation that will help students understand the statistics, programming, and analysis necessary in a business setting.
Students will be taught how to collect, maintain, and analyze large datasets and extract meaningful information. As it’s designed for those without a background in statistics, it’s available for everyone. In business, you can work in any role and still benefit from being able to analyze and understand data.
This is just one example, of course. There are many courses out there designed to help you either expand your skillset or further specialize it. As a professional, you’ll have a clearer understanding of what skills will benefit your career, so you can make the right choice for your future without any regrets.
Stay Updated with News, Articles, and Reports
Never underestimate how useful it can be to simply read. Invest in industry-specific publications and make a point to read them so that you can stay updated on the latest innovations, stories, and ideas that will direct your industry in the years to come. You’ll also want to invest in reports and academic articles, as these can help you understand more in-depth trends and even the whys behind them.
Being an expert in your field means you need to understand your field, not just the part of it that involves you.
Conferences, Talks, and Events
Go to events. These can be in the form of conferences, talks, or workshops. Not only can you learn something new or engage more in current debates relating to your industry, but you can also meet other professionals in your field. Attending these events regularly is great for every person’s career, and not just because it’s a good networking opportunity.
Understanding your options is the best way to make smart decisions for your future. By going to events, you’ll learn about the future of your industry and how you could potentially fit in it. You may decide that working in the research and consulting area of your industry suits you better. You may want to use what you learn to push into a leadership position. You may even be inspired and develop a winning business idea.
Attending events means confronting your existing assumptions and developing a more nuanced understanding of your industry and all the mechanisms that make it tick.
Don’t Be Afraid to Start Again
These tips will help every professional, but if you don’t like your options moving forward, know it’s okay to go back. Starting again in a new career can be daunting, but you aren’t doing it from scratch. You’ll have transferable skills that you can use, and you can also look into establishing an essential foundation with an open master’s degree that helps you expand your skill set rather than go back and earn another BA or BSc.