Career Management from Internship to Retirement

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Career Management

When should you start or end managing your career? Why not begin with your first work or internship experience and keep going until your retirement?

Whether you are self-employed, employed, or in transition, you need to manage your career and personal brand.

What exactly is career management? It is a deliberate life-long process of preparing, implementing, and evaluating your career plan and building a network of relationships.

Career management involves focused planning and active management of oneself, and one needs to be responsible for their career planning and development.

Focus on the seven areas below while considering what you want for work-life balance, personal fulfillment, financial security, and personal and professional achievements.

Assess

What are your ambitions, aptitudes, interests, learning modalities, motivations, personality, skills, strengths, talents, and values?

Research

What are your career options? Have you performed company research, culture fit, educational requirements, income levels, industry research, location research, marketability,  occupational research, professional growth, trends, and work environments?

Strategy Development

Are you engaged in action planning, career mapping, career counseling, decision making, goal setting [short (1 yr), medium (2-5 years), or long-term (5+years)], prioritizing, and reality-checking? How will you measure success?

Consider writing S.M.A.R.T. goals – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Education and Training

Have you explored apprenticeships, certification programs, internships, mentorships, skill development, technology enhancement, and other self-development resources?

Have you attended trade shows, classes, workshops, or industry functions? Have you read books, magazines, or journals? Have you volunteered in an area of your interest?

Execute

As a W-2 employee, have you updated your career documents (resume, cover letter, thank you note, LinkedIn profile, positioning statement, elevator pitch, and more), engaged in networking, defined and built your personal brand, determined your social media strategies, and work experiences?

As a self-employed professional, have you updated your business documents (LinkedIn profile, website, social media, marketing materials, etc.)

As a part-time W-2 employee with a business, have you reviewed all of the above? Do you have a plan for multiple streams of income?

Pivot, Reinvent, or Readjust

Are you reassessing where you are professionally to determine if you will continue down the same path or different paths and what it will take to get there?

Have you considered changes in technology, the economy, societal needs, the geopolitical climate, and more happening in our world that may affect your career?

The Key to Career Success

Whether you are a job seeker, client seeker, or career advancer, the key to your success is building relationships throughout your entire professional career, and LinkedIn is the perfect place to make those connections.

Remember that your network is your net worth, so always have a positive mindset when networking and never stop networking even if you land a job.

Make sure you build your LinkedIn connections to exceed 500 and be active on the platform by posting and commenting. You will reap what you sow.

Be a lifelong learner, mainly to keep current with career trends!

Missed last week’s article Need to Create Snazzy Graphics for LinkedIn or Social Media?

NEXT STEPS

  • Register on the events page for these upcoming online events noted below.
  • If you need a resume or LinkedIn profile to get you to your next step, book a call to chat!

____________________________________________________________

  • 5/20 Fri –  Interview Techniques
  • 5/20 Fri – Addressing DEI in the Workplace & Issues for the LGBTQ+ Community
  • 5/21 Sat – LinkedIn Part 3 of 3
  • 5/23 Mon – Stay Inspired & Resilient on the Emotional Rollercoaster of Job Search
  • 5/24 Tues – Taking dvantages of the Latest Changes on the LinkedIn latfomr
  • 5/24 Tues – Business Executives Networking Group (BENG)
  • 5/25 Wed –  PowerThinking: Resilience Building Call-In
  • 5/25 Wed – The Dos and Don’ts of Career Pivoting Mini Lunch & Learn
  • 5/26 Thurs – Career Success Group Job Search Accountability & Networking
  • 5/31 Tues – 15 Laws of Growth to Accomplish Your Career Goals

BIO

Lynne Williams is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit of over 7000 members providing career education and networking. Contact Lynne by phone at 484-393-2951, email at director@greatcareersphl.org, on social media @GreatCareersPHL and #GreatCareersPHL and connect on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/lynnewilliams Visit the website!

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