Make 2022 your year to shine the brightest that you ever have before. The start of each year is filled with opportunities for renewable growth and improvement – both personally and at work. If you felt drained and exhausted by the end of last year, with no idea what to do with your future – you have landed in the perfect spot!
This article is all about helping you to identify new ways for you to improve your career in 2022. You have the opportunity to do great things; you might just need the tools to know how to go after them.
Here are ten ways for you to start improving your career today:
Get evaluated
Ask a co-worker or your boss to give you an objective evaluation. Most companies have this built into their annual employee reviews, but if they don’t then you can always make it a suggestion.
Evaluations are great for picking up problem areas that you maybe haven’t noticed yet – that will allow you to fix those things before they fester into larger problems.
Set goals regularly
Big goals are great, they are the ones that you sit down and map out every six months or so – but this is more about setting smaller goals for yourself. By setting smaller, easier goals you will be more likely to achieve all of them and boost your confidence levels.
You can break your bigger goals down into smaller, more attainable goals in the short term. That will help you to stay focused and motivated to keep moving towards your larger goals. Career goals don’t have to be all about promotions and raises, they can also be about learning new skills or gaining a fresh perspective.
Push yourself
No one ever achieved anything in their comfort zone. If you want to truly excel in 2022, you need to put yourself out there in a big way. Don’t be afraid to work longer hours (or shorter, depending on your goals) and get stuck into work this year.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that working overtime is anything other than gross mismanagement of time, this isn’t the 1950’s anymore, it isn’t cool to work yourself to death. Push, but push in the right places.
Review your work
This tip is particularly important if you are creative. It is vital to review your work annually, if not more frequently, to keep it updated and relevant. You can keep the history of your work as well, just not anywhere where you’ll send it out as part of your portfolio when job hunting.
It is important to see where you came from so you can recognize and appreciate the growth your work has experienced over the last few years, but don’t display it.
Keep your current portfolios relevant to the work you’ve been doing for the two to three years, anything further back than that will need to be super impressive.
Know your worth
Too often, employees are grossly undervalued and underpaid – it’s the curse of the corporate world. What many valuable employees don’t know is that they hold a certain amount of leverage, they just need to know how to use it.
Learn how to negotiate a salary increase or a promotion by knowing what you bring to the table. Do some online research with an income tax calculator in Quebec to work out what the take-home pay at your new job is.
This will help you to get a better idea of what you’re worth to your current company, or at least what you should be worth.
Read more
Reading is the fastest and most effective way to improve your career. Don’t believe me? Just think about it – how can reading and learning more about the trends and developments within your industry not be a brilliant plan?
With the advent of the internet, there is no excuse not to learn and read more about your career and place within the market.
Ask questions
If you’re unsure, ask. That was the basis for every college class you were ever part of. The same rules apply at work – if you’re wondering about something, then find someone in the know and ask them.
That can apply to a wide range of subjects and topics. Challenging old processes and thought patterns require you to ask questions. You’ve got to delve deep inside of your industry to know just what makes it tick.
Be bold and speak up; you’ll be so grateful that you did.
Be a networking master
Networking is getting to know people in your industry and related industries better. By building these new relationships, your work inner-circle will continue to grow – which can only lead to bigger and better things.
Search the web or ask on your social pages; every major city has several networking events each month. Just keep in mind to obey the COVID-19 regulations that your town or city has put in place – it is for your safety.
Write ideas down
Keep an ideas journal with you at all times; that will be the place where you jot down all of your many pearlers before they escape your mind and are gone for good. Try to not allow it to become a place where you write down your shopping lists – that would be such a waste.
Ideas journals are perfect for collaborative events where you need to share your ideas with the team. Buy one that is inspiring and gets you excited to fill it with some of your best thoughts.
Build relationships at work
You are not an island. Even if you are the most anti-social person on the planet, you will need a person at some stage. That also applies to work – we need human connection during the day to help keep us connected, focused, and driven.
People inspire other people all the time, and some of the best friendships have started in workplaces.
Spend some time gathering your thoughts, you need to have a solid career plan for 2022, and the points above can help you get there.
