Grow in your career while in your present job

A widespread belief persists in the working world that career advancement entails changing jobs after every three or four years. There can be nothing more fabricated than this. A job change is not a prerequisite for career advancement at all. It is likely that different prospects and tests of your present job have remained unexploited. Therefore, if you shoulder new responsibilities in your present job, you will develop your headship attributes enlarge your knowledge-base. And when you achieve that, you give a tremendous boost to your USPs but sans the colossal effort that usually goes in a job search.

The secret to career and workplace success lies in looking for and undertaking projects that serve as learning experiences. Such assignments will invariably have some risk appended to them and hence keep you on your toes. You will thus engage yourself in tasks that are have a larger scope and extent than what you are habituated to. Even the number of people that is required to be managed by you could be several times more. It is all about taking on a ‘high stakes’ responsibility involving open performance, constant monitoring by seniors, meeting tight deadlines and having mammoth accountability. 

You can thus grow in your career while in your present job, provided you engage yourself in developmental assignments. It is necessary that you identify the ones that are apt for you and earmark some for discussion with your boss or mentor; and for overseeing the weight of your new responsibilities. You can do so if you are able to:

· Unearth what dares and defies you: It is essential that you be clear about your new charter, additional skills required to be developed by and alterations to your personality necessary to be affected. You should also discern fresh learning parameters for future use. All these call for an evaluation of your fortes and shortcomings; and an identification of specific areas for improvement.

· Look for chances to remodel your present responsibilities: This can be achieved in several ways. You could undertake a colleague’s work or willingly come forward to shoulder higher responsibilities. Volunteering to take on some of your boss’ workload will be appropriate in this context. You can also redesign your current charter on your own by according priorities to tasks that were hitherto fore not high on your agenda like mentoring others. The crux of your efforts is doing something that has not been done earlier and gain experience from doing such tasks well.

· Consider provisional projects beyond your specified charter: If you keep your wits about, you will get to know about new projects that require additional helping hands and which you are fit for. Getting involved in such assignments will widen your horizon; and help in acquiring skills and practical knowledge to manage them. Undertaking such projects will increase your employability too.

· Deal & cope with your seniors: You could have a dialogue with your boss and explain why you want to undertake challenging tasks. It is only if you are clear of the skills they involve, that you will be able to throw up ideas. You can jointly discuss some tasks that hold out great possibilities and mutual advantages; and have offer suggestions about your participation. If your boss is not amenable to your suggestions, you still have other alternatives. You can take on difficult tasks that do not require your boss’ acquiescence on your own; improving your productivity or taking on a charter both within and outside your company that nobody is willing to do shoulder are some options available to you. You could also request your mentor or other well-wishers to identify specific tasks that can be undertaken by you and make appropriate endorsements to your boss or management.

· Be pragmatic about the entire game-plan: Facing new challenges is a challenge by itself and entails additional workload; the exercise can be very formidable. You should remember that your intended objective is to gain fresh experiences concurrently with discharging all your present work obligations. How can you go about successfully accomplishing this? First and foremost, you must learn to work more professionally and competently. Right decision-making, equitable delegation of responsibilities and having a good framework for monitoring progress should be your focus areas. You should also plan for bringing about perceptible change – both in the immediate future and long-term. It is necessary that you weigh the time factor judiciously so that deadlines can be met and if required, help from other quarters is taken.

Remember that if you get on to the monumental task of learning, you will gain several experiences that will serve to boost your output in your present job. These practical acquaintances will definitely make you better poised for greater responsibilities in the offing.