words Al Woods
The average person will spend about thirty percent of their life at work. If you take into account things like sleep and traffic, this means that you’ll spend more time at work then you will with your friends, family members or just enjoying the hobbies that you love. This is why it’s important that your career is both rewarding and fulfilling. If it seems like a slog and it’s dragging you down, then that’s going to be a massive drain on your life as a whole.
Unfortunately, recent reports suggest that employee satisfaction is at an all time low. It’s not surprising to see a labour movement right now because people are ready and eager to demand more from the places where they work. So, let’s look at some of the steps you should take if you want to get more from your chosen career and ensure that it does deliver the experience that you need in your life.
Use A Professional Agency
First, you should think about getting a little extra help finding the options that are available to you on the market. The job market is incredibly competitive and in many ways this is something of an understatement. For the most sought after roles and positions, you’ll be facing off against thousands of other potential candidates. That’s why you need to make sure that you are giving yourself as many legs up as possible.
One of the ways that you can do this is by using the services of a professional recruitment agency that uses recruiting software. A recruitment agency can act as gatekeepers on the job market. Business owners work with them to fill critical roles in their company. Candidates work with them to be put forward for those same roles. While an agency like this may charge money for their services, this can ultimately be a price worth paying.
Do be aware that there are specialist recruitment agencies for different sectors and industries. For instance, if you want to get a great role in the legal sector, you should explore working with an agency like Origin Legal.
Switch Up Your CV Or Resume
Of course, an agency like this will only be able to help you if you already have the right building blocks in place to push your career forward yourself. One of the ways that you can do this is by making sure that you do have the right resume. On average, it’s believed that recruitment managers will spend about sixty seconds looking over your CV. If you think this means that you don’t have much time to impress them, you’re absolutely right. Your resume needs to be to the point, hard hitting and say exactly what it should. Anything longer than two pages is probably pushing it and you can play around with the structure or style to help it stand out. However, above all else, it needs to be easy to read. If you make things too complicated or difficult for an employer, then you’re giving them a reason to pass you by.
Do be aware that there are professional services that can help you sharpen up your CV and ensure that it is ticking all the right boxes. Other competitors will absolutely be using this option so you should too.
Think Outside The Box
It’s possible that you have decided it’s time for a complete change in your career. There’s nothing wrong in exploring a possibility like this. But you shouldn’t settle for the standard options that exist on the market. Instead you need to go further than this and make sure that you dive into possibilities that you have never considered before.
For instance, you might want to explore a career that allows you to travel or to move around. There are lots of careers that will allow you to tick off this box. One example would be working as a journalist. Journalists get to travel all over the place and this can be incredibly rewarding for some people.
Do be aware that if you want a completely fresh path in your career, you may need to gain some more qualifications and experience. However, with online learning options, these days that’s easier than ever.
Start Freelancing
If you want to gain more freedom in your career, then you should consider freelancing. The clue is in the name here. Through freelancing, you will be able to make sure that you can work the hours you want in the environment you want on the projects you want. While it does have some downsides – there’s very little job security – it’s the ultimate freedom in terms of setting your own career path.
To be successful freelancing, you just need to make sure that you understand how to promote and market yourself as a commodity or asset. The best way to do this is to make sure that you have active providers across various social media networks.
Pursue That Promotion
If you want to continue to work for businesses for the additional level of stability, then you could instead choose to pursue a promotion. Pursuing a promotion can be rewarding because it will provide you with more responsibilities and allow you to explore new avenues in your career.
So, how can you ensure that you are more likely to gain a promotion in your career? You need to ensure that you are focused on upskilling. By learning new skills, you are always going to be a more valuable asset for any company that you are working for or with.
Find The Right Employer
Finally, if you are choosing to continue to work for a business rather than go out on your own, then it’s important to make sure that you are choosing the right company and the right employer. Essentially, you need to think about demanding more from the people who you are working for.
One example would be your office environment. If you are working in an office, it’s important that it’s comfortable and that it isn’t going to negatively impact your physical or mental health. One of the leading health issues in the office today is RSI. That’s why you need to make sure that you are choosing a business that has ergonomic furniture. The right furniture can significantly reduce the chances of you developing pain or discomfort in your upper limbs.
Of course, a healthy environment is arguably the bare minimum that you should expect when you are choosing where to work. You need to go further than this and think about whether your employer is going to provide the right incentives to you. Think beyond higher levels of pay and consider elements like flexibility. Working from a company that is more flexible in terms of how you work and where you work will always be a more rewarding experience.
We hope this helps you understand some of the key points that you should consider when you are trying to escape from the rut that you might have found yourself in when managing your career. If you are worried about this, make sure that you do think about what you want from your career path. Everyone is going to have unique goals here and it’s important to ensure that you are focusing on the things that do matter most to you. The last point to think about is that you should always be working to live, not living to work. This is a trap that a lot of people do fall into at some point during their career.
