Practical Career Development Tips

Career development is something that you work on throughout your lifetime. So long as you are still employed or have a business of your own, you need to understand that developing a career is something that you need to do over a long period of time. You have to be conscientious and consistent in your ways.

To help you out, here are some tips you can use when you are working towards career development:

1. Have a Plan and Track Your Progress

Most people enter into a job without any agenda in mind. For most new employed people, their only goal is to be out of the unemployment percentage and finally earn a regular paycheck. While this may be acceptable, the first 6 months should serve as your personal evaluation period.

Notice how most companies implement the 6-month probationary period? This is the time they will give you to adjust and also to cope with the changes happening in your work. After the 6-month period, that's the only time you will know if you will be a regular employee or not.

You can also use this probationary period to assess your fit for the position. Do you enjoy it? Do you see yourself still doing the same thing more than a year from now? Would you want to hold a managerial position in the same company? Are you satisfied with your job and the employer so far? The good thing about having your first ever job is that you still have plenty of years to spare to try other things-that is if you are also a fresh graduate.

2. Work With Your Mentors

The workplace is filled with all types of people-those who can either make you or break you. Yet mentors are always a constant part of the population but you just have to be smart enough to figure out who your mentors will be. Mentors are those who are interested in your personal and professional well-being.

Finding a mentor is a matter of instinct. You will immediately feel a certain inclination towards the person but make sure that this was based on his professional demeanor. A mentor may or may not be your direct supervisor, but he should be someone who inspires you to work hard and achieve what he probably has achieved as well. Overall, it's your mentor's hard work and work ethic that should inspire you to look up to him.

You would know that you have found a mentor if he constantly gives you advice how to make things better. Ultimately, this person is someone you can trust and would tell you upfront what you need to know without the need to sugarcoat things.

3. Organize Your Workspace

Most people take for granted what their side of the cubicle looks like. It's also not uncommon to find people scrambling to clean up their cubicle when audit season is just around the corner. But you should really strive to have your files organized so you can avoid losing important documents as well as losing track of your deadlines. Your workspace also becomes a reflection of who you are. You definitely wouldn't want to be judged by strewn papers and a table that looks so gray from dirt.