A few months ago, my favorite FaceBook group, (second to mine… be sure to join if you haven’t!} Skimmbassadors, started an Ask the Career Experts series. It’s a great forum to provide additional support to job seekers and every week we jump on a live call to answer all the burning questions around new year career goals.
New Year Career Goals Tips – Career Experts Dish Top Tips
In this group, I chat alongside Amanda Oliver, job search strategist and Ashley Fry, an organizational and leadership strategist. In this video, we dished out our top tips to conquer your new year career goals by each sharing a top tip!
Here’s our tips broken down:
Sign up for something that you know you’re going to suck at.
Doing something that scares you allows you to gain humility. This is what helps you grow.
I truly believe that everyone should adopt a growth mindset as Carol Dweck explains in her must-read book, Mindset. This is where you welcome failure and don’t believe you’re as smart as you can be.
While mine are to improve my public speaking skills in 2019 and get comfortable with being in the spotlight (I signed up for my first improv class already!), not all of the skills you learn have to be work related. Ashley’s for instance is painting and Amanda’s is going to be fencing. All learning opportunities will help you develop into a more complete person. Also, you can build rapport in networking events and interview skills with hobbies and interests! Imagine meeting someone else who also wants to fence… you have commonality to instantly build off of!
Don’t confuse comfortable with complacent. Are you happy or just getting by? I completely agree with this. It’s really important to make sure you check in and ask if you’re still excited. As seasons change, so do our needs, interests, and values.
If you’re not sure what you want to do 100%, start small. Try something small like volunteering… just to get a sense of what it really might be like. This helps you gain awareness and make meaningful connections along the way! With inspired action, you will get clearer.The best time to network is when you don’t need a job. Never stop connecting with people.
The best time to ask for a job is when you don’t need a job. By creating and establishing relationships with people all year long (especially when you’re gainfully employed), you can activate a whole network when you are finally ready to make the switch. Better yet, people will remember you as top of mind when they hear of openings and present them to you instead!
Start small by reactivating your old connections to turn them warm. A simple, “Hello, I thought of you the other day and just want to check in to see how you’re doing” is great!
Continue keeping them warm by making it a point to touch base once a quarter. Invite them to events, say congratulations or happy birthday on social media, or simply wish them a happy holiday.
Women particularly feel quite self-conscious when networking because they worry about people thinking they are just using them for a job. When you can continue to put out feelers when you don’t need anything, you won’t have to worry about this.
At the end of the day, networking is building and maintaining friendships. It’s best when you don’t have an agenda and can be more natural.
Start small – how many people do you want to actively reach out to each month? Multiply that by 12 and that’s how many connections you can tap into whenever you’re job searching in a year!
Final Thoughts on New Year Career Goals
I am so happy Amanda reached out to connect with Ashley and I around this common goal of wanting to provide value to a community. Instead of competition, we are looking at each other for collaboration and beautiful things are emerging from that.
How can you collaborate and reach out to someone you want to partner with? Do something that scares you? Stretches you beyond your comfort zone?
Wishing you a beautiful new year and cheers to accomplishing all of your goals!
Emily
