10 New Years Resolutions For Your Career - Walrath Recruiting, Inc.

10 New Years Resolutions For Your Career - Walrath Recruiting, Inc. As the year draws to a close, many people make resolutions to improve their lives in the New Year. With that in mind, weve come up with 10 New Years resolutions for your career. Each of these resolutions will benefit your career in some way, and bring you success! 1. Pursue growth and self-development. A great way to start the new year is by seeking out opportunities to continue to grow in your career. For some careers, this may mean pursuing a certification. Put in some time studying, and then take that exam! For others, it may mean pursuing further education. The great part about pursuing opportunities like this is that you grow and learn more as a professional, which many companies will reward with a pay increase. This also leads us to our next point. 2. Negotiate the salary you are worth. Its time to finally ask for what youre worth. Have you been working day in and day out working for a wage, knowing you deserve more? Now is the time to ask. If youve been putting off having the conversation about a raise, its time to have it! Just make sure you approach it correctly. Before you actually sit down with your manager, make sure you go in prepared with evidence to backup your value. Asking for a raise without any reasoning is almost guaranteed to fail. A good time to do this would be your 1st quarterly review, if you have one. Just make sure you knock it out of the park before! 3. Grow your network. While a formal application process is always in place, a high number of new hires are sourced from referrals. People trust other people, and within companies, opinions are highly valued. For this reason, its smart to always be growing your network and meeting new people. If you decide to leave your current role, you may find out that you know someone at a company you are interested in.   Having a connection will greatly help your chances. 4. Have an open mind. A new year means a new budget, and many companies will use that to bring new talent on board. You never know what is out there, and being open to new opportunities in your career is always healthy. Keeping a constant eye on the job market will ensure that you dont let your dream job pass by without at least sending in an application. 5. Take on new responsibilities. As the new year begins, there is plenty to do. Its a great opportunity to take on new responsibilities, and become a more valuable asset to your company. If you are able to handle all of your current duties, consider approaching your manager to see if there are any upcoming projects or tasks you can assist them with. It will certainly be appreciated, and its the type of behavior that encourages promotions down the line. 6. Update your resume. Whatever the situation, waiting to update your resume is usually not the wisest decision. Even if you arent currently looking for a job, updating your resume is much easier to do as you go, instead of all at once. As you complete projects, close deals, and generate profit for your company, continually update your resume with all of that information. You can always trim it down later. Having the information from constant updates is much easier than trying to recount it all at once from memory. 7. Update your LinkedIn profile. If youre going to be updating your resume, the same should go for your LinkedIn profile. In this case as well updating it constantly is a smart choice, but for a different reason. If you decide to start your job search, and begin to update your LinkedIn profile,  your current manager may notice it. However, if you are always active and constantly updating your profile, a manager would be hard pressed to guess when you are actually beginning your search. Better yet, recruiters and hiring managers are more likely to reach out since your profile is current. 8. Write an article on LinkedIn. If you want your LinkedIn profile to gain more traction, a great way to accomplish that is by writing a LinkedIn article. A few years ago, LinkedIn released their own publishing platform called LinkedIn Pulse. It had its own phone app, and was used by many professionals to stay current on industry trends, news, and developments. Eventually Pulse was integrated with LinkedIn overall interface, and can be accessed from the status bar. Native articles on LinkedIn receive preferential treatment on the platform, and many professionals read them. If you want to receive more engagement on a post, and perhaps more attention to your profile, write an article about something in your field. 9. Get to know someone new at work. If you work remotely, you may be out of luck on this one. However, if you work with others, consider making it your mission to get to know someone on the team youre not very familiar with. Oddly enough many professionals fail to realize that networking can occur in their current place of work as well. Also you never know who will get promoted, or who will be a valuable contact down the road. Whatever the reason, getting to know others in your workplace is always worthwhile. 10. Become a mentor/find a mentor. If youre ever uncertain if youre making the right steps in your career, having a mentor can be infinitely valuable. Whether youre playing the role of mentor or mentee, seek out any opportunity. Acting as a mentor can be very rewarding, knowing that you are helping someone else find their path. Alternatively, finding a mentor can help you better understand what options you have in your career, and receive some guidance. LinkedIn also recently released a tool to make it easier for mentors and mentees to find each other. To access it, navigate to your profile, and then click on Career Advice Hub in your dashboard. Whether its through LinkedIn or not, a mentorship opportunity is definitely worth seek out. Thats the end of our New Years career resolutions! Many people use the New Year to better themselves, so why not do that and focus on your career? If you think about how much of 2018 you will spend in your career, it certainly seems like the wise choice. We wish you the best of luck with your career in 2018!