Many people go to work contentedly enough day after day. Thoughts of change come only after a bomb drops in the form of a bad review or layoff, or boredom or frustration saps all the fun from your job.
Don’t let this happen. We should all have a career fitness plan. Making a fitness plan should be a quarterly discipline, and it doesn’t have to be a daunting chore. What works best isn’t trying to draw a 20-year road map. A better approach is taking a series of small steps and pilot projects to keep expanding your skills and network. Here are some signs your career plan needs a workout:
Christina Coons knew it was time for a change when her mind began wandering while she was teaching her middle-school class. “It was an a-ha moment: One day I was teaching a grammar lesson and planning out my menu for the week at the same time,” she says.
When friends in a nonprofit group suggested Ms. Coons volunteer to head its marketing efforts, “I thought it would be a great hobby,” she says. She enjoyed the work so much that it began distracting her from grading stacks of students’ papers.
She tried a pilot project by seeking freelance marketing jobs on TaskRabbit, and completed several successfully. With help from Chicago career coach Jody Michael, she began setting up interviews and soon landed a job as a marketing specialist at a Chicago agency.
Set aside time quarterly to reflect on whether your work matches your evolving needs and interests, says Pamela Slim, a Mesa, Ariz., author and business coach. She advises getting away for a few hours or more to pinpoint which parts of your job are working and which aren’t. What threats do you see, such as reduced support from a boss? What new skills do you need?
Many people leave touting their accomplishments to others. The resulting inertia is “the great saboteur,” fostering anxiety and hopelessness, Ms. Michael says.
Jenelle Francois of Chicago felt she had hit a dead end in a previous job selling office tile. She worked hard and her sales were rising.
She assumed she’d be recognized for it. But she wasn’t getting much support or useful feedback from her supervisor.
With coaching from Ms. Michael, she polished her communication skills so she could describe her achievements with confidence. Then she mounted a job search. She landed her dream job last year selling designer office upholstery.
People often become known for certain skills or roles early in their careers, Ms. Slim says. “They continue to fall back on a tired, easy-to-understand description of who they are—I’m an engineer, or I’m in accounting.” This keeps others from knowing about new skills or achievements, she says.
Brand updates can be brief and casual, Ms. Slim says. Ask co-workers what they’re working on, then share your latest projects. Take colleagues from a different department to lunch to learn about their work and discuss yours.
Ms. Michael recommends keeping a career journal—a log of projects you’re working on, updated objectives and new certifications, skills and abilities you’re building. Collect stories that highlight your strengths, leadership and teamwork.
Rob Kurtz, a senior manager for a St. Louis tech company, recently looked back at his achievements and identified strengths he has shown repeatedly in various jobs. That includes his ability to facilitate discussions and set up processes for building strong teams. Working with David Hults, an executive coach and executive director of Job Shapers, a career-development group in St. Louis, he’s preparing to describe those strengths clearly to others whenever he asks for advice about next steps.
Many people dread networking and see it as shameless self-promotion. But effective networking actually builds lasting relationships that open you up to giving and receiving new ideas, opportunities and help.
Solutions to career problems “typically aren’t found within your own little cluster” of colleagues and friends, Mr. Hults says.
Brad Fuller, another client of Mr. Hults’s, worked in creative jobs in advertising for years, then discovered he also loved researching brand strategies for clients. He didn’t know whether he was qualified to work for firms that specialized in strategy, however, and he hadn’t networked widely enough to find out.
“I was locked in the place where I was making a lot of money, and it was very seductive for me to stay there,” Mr. Fuller says of his job running a St. Louis ad agency.
He began dreading Monday mornings. Only after he left the agency after five years as managing director and resumed networking did he learn that he was qualified to do the work he loved. He landed a vice presidency with a firm specializing in brand strategies.
Q: Loved your article on humor in the workplace. Do you have any advice for a 28-year-old man trying to raise his status in a new job? Maybe some one-liners?—N.R.
A: If you’re nervous about telling jokes or unaccustomed to doing so, the office isn’t a good place to start. If you’re used to joking around and feel sure you’re reading your colleagues’ attitudes and the office culture clearly, however, it’s probably safe to make self-deprecating jokes or use humor to calm others under stress. Finding humor in the moment works better than rattling off canned one-liners. And avoid divisive racist, ethnic, sexist and other off-color jokes—or any that might embarrass you if they showed up on Twitter or Facebook.
As predictable as it sounds, the most fail-safe way to start building status at the office is to find out your boss’s goals, work hard toward helping meet them, help your colleagues whenever you can, ask for feedback and communicate openly with your supervisor and co-workers. If your company is well-run, your status will rise. If it isn’t, none of those steps can hurt.
Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com
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