Manage your job & career concurrently

“The past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.”

-  Marilyn Ferguson

It is a known fact that when we are in a job, we get so engrossed in it that we relegate our career to the backbench. You have to manage your job and career concomitantly. And if you do so, you engineer your own success; however, you have to be daring and special.

If you think that by doing well at your job, your career interests are totally protected, you are sadly mistaken. The dexterity required for good career management is different and so are the undertakings involved. Given below are eight prime methods that will ensure excellent career management without diluting your efforts to manage your job likewise:

·   Display your rising graph:  Have you ever wondered how people – your colleagues and seniors – portray you to others? If the picture they paint is anything but extraordinary, you need to introspect and change yourself. In all your dealings, you have to be innovative and accept additional responsibilities willingly. Remember that your appearance and demeanour also have a role to play, so pay attention to them. And more importantly, never ever let your aspirations, goals and sensitivities remain confined to you; making them known to your seniors will always help.  

·   Be prepared & organized: If you do not possess the requisite criterion or expertise for your subsequent appointment, do not sit quiet. It could well be that you need to improve upon your communication skills, social attitude or formal qualifications; you should work hard on acquiring them. You should also research on different jobs that you aspire for and look within to see how you can gear yourself up for them, starting today of course.   

·   Reinforce your networking:  You would recollect how your contacts helped you find your maiden job. Now that you are into one, have you lost out on them? Networking is important and you should never let it drop. If there is a special occasion coming, find out who are the luminaries who would be there. When you encounter them, you must have specific discussion points on your agenda. Subsequently you could disseminate to the environment the highlights of your conversation. 

·   Volunteer for showmanship:  You should strive to be in the limelight on both professional and social fronts. This will manifest your knowledge, gregariousness and amiableness. But you should do your homework really well and be adept at facing people, addressing audiences and responding to queries. Also activities like authoring articles for professional journals or writing a blog will bestow on you the desired fame.  

·   Cultivate prospective backers:  You could have a number of people who you can bank upon for advice, but many may not be willing to actually show you the way. You need to nurture associations with people who will without fail, serve as major references and not simply dole out words of counseling. You have to make deliberate attempts to foster such people – people who can be relied upon – and when the time comes, you should not be reluctant to seek their assistance.     

·   Add two & two and be calculative:  In most arenas, you need to attain a particular level if you want to be successful and grow up. If you realize this and set your sights accordingly, you will remain focused and plan out things appropriately. 

·   Rap & milk your covetousness: You may be content doing whatever you are doing. But when somebody else does something better, do you feel green with envy? If that happens, it should be taken as a warning. Your feelings of jealousy or even resentment manifest a time to switch over to something else.

·   Take an opportune plunge: If an opportunity comes knocking, you must grasp it with all the strength, seriousness and fierceness at your command. You should make it known that you can acquit yourself better than others. Make a dash and clutch it, even if it amounts to causing inconvenience to yourself walking the extra mile.

Remember that you will never succeed in a line of endeavor which you do not like. You will have to do hammer, chisel, scrape and polish yourself to succeed in your job and career alike.