Set your bearings correct to advance in your career

Every single individual, irrespective of the organisation he or she works in, seeks growth and improvement. To be able to achieve this, you need to have objectives, possess appropriate skill-sets and be extremely go-getting to reach wherever you have aimed for.  

Career advancement is self-inflicted; you need to set your bearings correct to experience it. Here is what you should do:

· Be an innovative thinker: Your thinking need not be restrictive. On the contrary, you must think beyond parameters and search continually for something novel. You can create an impact on your boss and other senior people by offering constructive proposals; this will have positive fallouts. Today, no company can assure you of lifelong employment and hence you need to be a sort of a venturesome impresario so that you can remain focussed on your career direction.

· Be knowledgeable & proficient: Your adeptness and know-how at your work are a subject of regular evaluation; and they are invariably sought. Dexterity can be demonstrated through promptness, perseverance, fervour and honesty. You have stretch yourself beyond your perceived level of confidence and thus be able to greet new environments imperturbably and assertively.

· Show concern for your work: You need to execute all tasks with boundless eagerness and exhibit your yearning for more challenging tasks. In this way, you will be able to augment your individual value and also send correct signals to and create a positive impact on your boss.  

· Advance your interactive abilities:  Employees who possess powerful interactive capacity are invariably resilient hearers, acute scholars and excellent performers; they are actually organisational live-wires. If you have strong interactive abilities, your seniors will automatically turn their attention on to you; in fact they scout around for such people to share their load with; if you happen to strike their attention, windows of opportunities will lie ahead of you for evident reasons.   

· Indulge in self-promotion: You must know about your USPs and also make regular efforts to market your attainments. People care about what you have done and not what you are going to do. To that extent, while refraining to blow your own horn, you must talk about various programmes undertaken by you successfully so that others are invited to take notice of you. You earn the right to promote yourself only when you accomplish something of value. And when you disseminate to the outside world details of problems solved by you or a new initiative launched by you or contributions made by you, again windows of opportunities will open up for you.

· Make continual learning a habit: Learning is an eternal process and the more knowledge you acquire, the better your career advancement will be. Through your capability and deftness, you can usher in organisational prosperity. It is essential that you remain updated with latest drifts and advances, both in your field of work and outside it. The secret to mastery in any field is to forever be a student. To do well in your career, you have to learn something new every day and re-learn something old every day.

· Conduct yourself skilfully: You need to conduct and acquit yourself in a professional manner. Your communication skills matter a lot. Participation in professional events like workshops and seminars will also portray your professional approach. It is essential that you adhere to the laid down norms of behaviour – be they related to work-timings, dress code and teamwork, etc.

· Widen your contact base: Besides expanding your professional network, you also need to develop a greater social attitude. You stand better chances of success in your job search if the prospective workplace has somebody acquainted with you and also willing to help you. If you have a potent social network, you will get to know about new openings without much efforts; your job search gets easier.

· Eliminate full-stops: Your focus should be to work at a place that offers you prospects of growth. It is futile to waste your skills, qualifications and practical knowledge by working endlessly at one place. You need to take advice from your friends, philosophers and guides – they could be anybody and not necessarily your seniors or elders – on what you ought to be doing for your career advancement. Taking help from professionals can also do you immense good.

Your career advancement is your personal responsibility; it does not come packed to be purchased off the shelf. You cannot afford to laze around with your career. You must begin to act today so that you can make a difference tomorrow.