It’s an unsettling fact: we are in one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression. Layoffs are being felt across the board. Indicators suggest that more are yet to come before a turn-around begins.
Better to face reality than to hide our heads in the sand expecting a miracle. Now’s the time to focus on recession-proofing your job so as to move forward on your career path
One school of thought holds that it is better to keep a low profile with the hope that you’ll be overlooked when the man with the axe comes around. That’s bad career coaching. Truth is, if you aren’t making a noticeable contribution to the success of your employer and getting proper credit for your accomplishments, you will be an easy target.
Laying off someone who is quiet is much easier than pink-slipping the person who works hard and has earned visibility and creditability.
Ten-Step Action Plan For Career Success
Here are 10 steps you can take, beginning now, to protect and advance toward your career goals in these tough times.
1. Know what’s going on with your job, your department, your employer. Stay in the loop, but avoid the fear-mongers. Lunch and take coffee breaks with associates. Carefully study memos from the boss. Read trade journals.
2. Learn new skills that are in demand in the emerging world of work.
3. Perform above and beyond expectations. Work hard and be seen as working hard.
4. Work to make your boss look good.
5. Don’t complain when you are asked to come in early and stay late. Be ready to take on extra work. Volunteer for special assignments. Suggest ways to improve your performance and that of your department.
6. Document your accomplishments. Make sure your employer is aware of your good work.
7. Associates yourself with your associates who bring an up-beat, can-do attitude to work.
8. Be prepared to make a move if you are laid off. Keep up your contacts inside your organization and in your field of work. Learn new skills. Update your resume.
9. Maintain a healthy, positive life style at home and at work.
10. Hang in there. Despite the dark clouds, these trying times will pass. In the meantime, keep your eye on the career path that will lead you to success.
About Author
For free career coaching click here: http://www.commonsenseatwork.com. You’ll receive The Career Accelerator, Ramon Greenwood’s semi-monthly newsletter. You can also visit his Your Blog For Career Advice via this route. Greenwood’s coaching comes from a world of experience, including serving as Senior Vice President of American Express, an entrepreneur, professional director, career coach and author.
thanks.
As an engineer you get to work with finance. It might take you a while to learn and progress in your career, but now is a great time to be an engineer! There are so many jobs for engineers, they do not have enough people to do all the work that is available.
How long have you been working as an engineer? How long ago did you graduate?
If you only graduated a little while ago, you need to think about that any career that you begin will not seem very interesting at first because you have to start from the very beginning of your profession. You have to learn about the business and how things work, you might have to do less interesting work as you learn about your job.
But take heart, engineering will offer you opportunities to progress into even financial roles within an engineering company if that is where you want to go. Engineering projects require people with great skill in finance and engineering – managing the risks of building multimillion dollar projects. If these are your interests and skills, you would do well as an engineer.
My advice to you, would probably be to stick with it. Engineers are in high demand at the moment. If you are really unhappy in your job, why don't you look for a job somewhere else? There are so many fields of engineering that you could maybe find one you like better? Also, if you are in a very large company as a fresh graduate, you may not find you get to see very much of the whole process of the projects, maybe if you were in a smaller company you might find it more interesting because you usually get to see more of the process involved in a whole project.