Job to Career – 8 Success Factors

Personal development

According to the Longman Dictionary, the word job is defined as the work that you do regularly to earn money, especially when you work for a company or public organization while a career is the type of work that you do or hope to do for most of your life.

Basically, a job is a means to an end and it is a short-term thing. For example, you take up a job during your school holiday to kill time or earn some pocket money. You may also provide tuition at the weekend to pay for your tertiary education.

Your career, even though it is also mean to an end, it occupies a very large portion of your life. It is, in fact, more than one-third of your daily life. It is very important that your career gives you meaning, growth, advancement, satisfaction, happiness and fulfillment, and of course monetary rewards.

Here are a few tips to help you attend success in your career:

1. Long term planning: It is not a one-off activity. As you go along you need to track your progress and make changes accordingly. For example, your lifestyle changes when you were a bachelor before and now that you are the father of three.

2. Happiness at work: As you spend a big chunk of your time at work it is crucial to develop a happiness habit at work. No matter how difficult or challenging, take every assignment with a smile. Do not complain about your job and don't think that the grass is always greener in another company.

3. Personal Development: Take the initiative to acquire more skills needed to make yourself more indispensable at the place of work.

4. Be prepared mentally for the worse: The business world is unpredictable, be resilient to downsizing or retrenchment when the economy is gloomy. Use the time to learn new skills and offer to take up voluntary work while hunting for another job. The other thing that you can do is to take on extra projects. So that you are more valued at the workplace and you'll be the last one to be considered for retrenchment.

5. Take the opportunity: When you are doing the same workday in day out, you should grab the opportunities that come along to enrich your career. You don’t want to be deadwood in the same company.

6. Give to others: Be a coach and assist the junior staff to develop their career in the company. Offer services in the community. By doing this you are doing networking in the market place and who knows when you need help it is there for your asking. Always remember the more you give the more you will receive in return.

7. Develop people skills: As you climb up the corporate ladder learn to get things done through others. Treat the staff fairly. Appreciate the work that they do. Create an environment to boost morale and productivity.

8. Stress and time management: Learn the skills to cope with stress which is inevitable at the workplace. Able to organize your time well is a major factor to reduce your stress. Develop a habit of writing a daily to-do list. As the saying goes: Plan your work and work your plan. When you manage your time well you move from task to task smoothly without stress.

Wish you lasting success in your career.