Great working environments - Develop ME Inc series.

In this series, we are going to look at how you can develop yourself.

Great working environments - we are looking for ways on how you can develop yourself in your career.

Below are a few tips that you may find useful in developing yourself in your career.   

1.  Get the “admin” out the way. Check your CV – is it up to date? Is it using the latest and best ways that you can represent yourself? Call in the professionals if you have to. Have someone to read it (other than your mom) and provide you with some feedback on the look and feel. Make sure that all your documents required for any potential applications you might or might not do is ready in the wing. This include certified copies of qualifications, neatly scanned in and saved in a secure cloud storage. Same for identifications documents, previous employment letters, achievements that make you stand out.

2.   Even if you are not in the job market looking for a job, it will be worth your effort to discreetly look at what jobs are available internationally in your field. Give yourself a ballpark of at least 10 jobs with your current title (or future title if you're looking to move up the corporate ladder) in different industries and different locations. Pay attention to the key responsibilities and qualifications and skills required and create a “global view” of what is currently here and now required. Then have a look at your own CV and do a quick comparison. What is blatantly missing? What is repeated as requirements? Do you have all those skills and or qualifications? If not immediately enrol yourself in any formal qualifications that you do not have (even if it is just one subject for that formal qualification that is missing – it looks much better if Mr so and so is currently busy studying towards a degree/certificate than not having it listed at all. Later articles discuss this in detail).

3.  Decide on how much time you really have that you can invest in developing skills that might fall into a non-formal qualification category from your global skills view you did in number 2.  These skills are normally soft skills – think things like “negotiation” / “problem solving” etc. Choose at least 3 you can work on within a 12 month period.  It might also include some technical skills that can be learned without necessarily having to go for formal classes. Always wanted to know how to create amazing pivot tables in Excel? Include that in the list. Now create for yourself a realistic “curriculum” and by all means stick to it. Make it fun, and above all just do it!

4.  Use (and abuse) your previous performance discussions you might have had with your line manager and think about what might have been missing in your own development.  Get those skills that will make you a star performer. Don’t be shy to ask (for people you trust) on what they think you might need to work on.

5.  Use your companies in-house learning programs on offer.  If they don’t search out opportunities within your company – do they have a bursary scheme? Do they co-pay for certain skills? Read the fine print.

6.  Understand that whilst you are in your current company that operates in a specific industry it will be worth your while to allocate weekly reading up and really understanding the company itself (which departments does what), and also reading up and understanding the industry that the company operates in. A lot of time employees (especially being in a company for a while) tapers off on trying to understand the company and industry. A lot of people work as support staff (in one way or the other) but being in the know will assist you to make better decisions, allow you to contribute to discussions and decision making.

7.  Look towards the future and research what skills will be required in your field in the next couple of years, but also look at generic understandings. For example, Big data – not all industries work directly with this, but you need to understand the basics and how this might influence you. This is just one example there are countless others.

8.  Know that up-skilling and development take on many ways and many forms. Reading, researching, listening to PODcasts, watching youtube video’s – they all make up the legion of possibilities to become an expert in the skills that you identified you need up-skilling on.

9.  Seek out and build a professional network of people in your field, outside your organization. Ask people on coffee dates with the main purpose of understanding how they do things. No other intention but understanding. You might be surprised at how easy this is. Reach out on social media, even after hours or over weekends. I promise your professional world will grow.

10.   Make use of free – most cases world-class – education online, you don’t have to finish a course or get the certification, your goal is to increase your value. Below is a list of current resources:

Guides.co  – Search the largest collection of online guides.

Highbrow  – Get bite-sized daily courses to your inbox.

lynda.com  – Learn technology, creative and business skills.

Khan Academy  – Access an extensive library of interactive content.

Learnist  – Learn from an expertly curated web, print, and video content.

Squareknot  – Browse step-by-step guides.

TED-Ed  – Find carefully curated educational videos

United for Wildlife – Learn about the key issues in conservation.

Alison – A wide range of free courses.

edX  - Take online courses from the world’s best universities.

Coursera - Take the world’s best courses, online, for free.

Curious  – Grow your skills with online video lessons.

CreativeLive  – Take free creative classes from the world’s top experts.

FutureLearn – Courses from universities and specialist organizations.

OpenLearn – Offers a wide range of free courses.

Skillshare  – Online classes and projects that unlock your creativity.

Udemy – Learn real-world skills online.

Have fun developing yourself and your career!