Advance Your Career

If you are serious about your career, then you take great pride in the quality of work you do. You enjoy doing tasks assigned to you, even though it means arriving early and working late. You are eager to see your company succeed and  make your bosses proud of you.

Of course, you aren't sacrificing your time and energy for nothing. You want to see yourself succeed by climbing the corporate ladder at your company. You want recognition for the good work you have done. You want to take part in the company decision-making process. You want to be regarded as important and respectful among co-workers.

In this era of downsizing and rapid change, how do you stand out from the others? Considering the nature of the work you do, you should be able to figure out that long working hours without desirable results will not impress your bosses. Working hard is something essential, but working smart is much more rewarding for knowledge workers like you.

According to the experts, employees who want to advance their career must be motivated and enthusiastic - they must voluntarily ask for more responsibility, eager to learn on their own time and to be trained, keep up with new developments in their field, take on difficult projects, keep track of their results, have a strong will for self-improvement, willing to cooperate with others, know how to handle multiple jobs and yet specialize in one of them, know how to deal with different personality types, and they do a lot of networking for themselves as well as for their company.

Let us take a closer look at some of the criteria mentioned here.

1. Keep up with new developments in your field

Have you been reading or networking frequently to find out about the on-going changes in your field? Do you know enough about the current developments in your field that you could easily impress someone offering you a job? Are you confident to talk to experts in your field using the latest statistics, expert keywords and other updated information? Keep abreast of your field, as such knowledge will help you win respect and pride when the timing is right.

2. Learn on your own time

Employee who continually tries to enhance his or her skills through further education or training will certainly impress the employer. But an employer finds it even more desirable if you could take up courses or get training on your own time, rather than at the company's expense. This means you take up courses voluntarily without being required or sponsored by the company. For instance, if you wish to possess basic or the necessary computer skills to increase the chances of promotion, you should enroll yourself now or learn from others so that you are more ready to take up the computer-related tasks later.

3. Able to cope with different personality types

4. Continuous effort in networking

Both professional and personal networking is important if you want to fly high to achieve your career goal. As the old saying goes, "It's not what you know, it's who you know." If you are determined to advance your career, spending a not of time developing good networking will bear fruitful results. Networking can be done anywhere in and outside the company - the professional body you belong to, place of worship that you attend every week, volunteer organizations, NGOs, night classes, schoolmates' reunion, college functions etc. Do network whenever possible, build relationship everywhere you go and never overlook anyone. A person sitting next to you in a commuter could be someone who could offer help, that is, provided you give him or her a favorable impression.

If you have your eye on that next level-promotion, behave and dress as though you are already in that position. That does not mean you should now be bossy to others; it just means you need to develop your skills and personality traits better towards meeting your career goals. By thinking positively, the experts anticipate that you could actualize your dream earlier than expected. For the ambitious corporate ladder climbers, happy climbing and never give up if you accidentally fall.

Written by Ngeow Yoke Meng.