It’s a new year and good intentions are swirling in the air like confetti. Fortunately, Angela from RedRocketResume is here to make your career development goals easy-peasy. This month, Angela shares 3 fast, easy, and meaningful tasks you can do to strengthen your career in 10 minutes or less.
Whether you’re actively job searching, considering a future change, or highly satisfied with your current job, taking care of your career should be part of your goals for 2016. But never fear, investing in your career development doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming.
Whether you have 10 minutes, 5 minutes, or just 2 minutes, here are 3 fast, easy, and meaningful things you can do today to strengthen your career.
Have 10 minutes?
Do a fantasy job search
You know how some people browse real estate listings just to fantasize about a new life and more square footage? It’s a great idea to do the same with jobs.
Click to your job board of choice (Indeed, LinkedIn, CareerBuilder) and search for jobs similar to yours—or a step or two up from your current job. Spend a few minutes reading through posts that catch your eye. This will sharpen your understanding of the job market and sought-after qualifications.
Have 5 minutes?
Tweak Your LinkedIn profile
How long has it been since you looked at your LinkedIn profile? Often, we set it up, then let it gather dust. Right now, take a few minutes to log into your LinkedIn account, click on Edit Profile, and make at least 2 changes.
It doesn’t matter what you change. Update your headline. Add a bullet point about recent accomplishments. Tweak a job title. Add a skill.
Chances are, once you’re logged in, you’ll see an item or two that needs a little freshening up.
Secret Bonus: Many job seekers find themselves somewhat ham-strung when it’s time to job search. Their outdated profile needs work, but giving it an overhaul would alert current colleagues that they’re jumping ship. Proactively solve this problem by making smaller, regular updates over time.
Have 2 minutes?
Create your Professional Hit Parade
This is one of the most powerful pieces of career development advice—and it couldn’t be easier.
Open a new document in Word, type “2015 Q4”, then write a few lines about your recent workplace accomplishments. Took a training class? Finished a project? Got a complimentary email from a manager? Jot it down.
Name the document “Professional Hit Parade” and save it somewhere prominent, perhaps even right on your desktop.
Every month or two, open this document and take 2 minutes to brainstorm a quick update to this running list. Then next time you’re updating your resume, completing a performance review, or compiling a case for a pay rise, you’ll have plenty of data to draw from.
That’s it! Now pat yourself on the back for a job well done. 2016 is going to be awesome.