Career Marketing

Make a Plan

A concise, well-organised, written plan lets you focus your time and energy in one direction, thereby increasing your effectiveness.

Define what you offer, to whom, and through what methods.

Describe your present career situation, opportunities, problems. Establish specific and realistic career goals. Include specific action steps needed to accomplish those goals.

Make a one-sentence definition of what you have or want to offer

e.g. "I'm a computer systems analyst, team leader and programmer with many years' experience of responsibility for small and medium projects, aiming to lead larger teams and projects."

Set goals: make a career list

List all the things you want in your career (e.g. success, money, popularity), and all the things you don't. Relax and let your imagination go wild. Picture your ideal job. Your picture will develop with practice. Then select the most important goals. Challenging but reasonable goals are preferable to unrealistic ones, which can cause frustration or burn-out.

Set milestones

e.g. to be published in the next newsletter; to be promoted within 3 months; to become an expert on CASE in 2 years; to publish a book in 3 years.

Commit yourself

Keep your chosen goals in mind, and work towards them. If you hit day-to-day problems, just bring your positive visualisation to mind. Don't wait; do something now! Success rarely comes overnight. You owe it to yourself to make the effort.

Make an achievements list

Does familiarity make you blind to your own achievements?. To achieve more, first recognise your achievements so far (make a list), which will encourage you, then build from there. People are motivated by achievement, affiliation, and power in varying degrees. The achievement motive can be taught, making you more self-confident, enthusiastic, and able to take carefully calculated risks.

Keep a running list of your achievements. This will enable you to keep a perspective, and spot gaps and problems as well as successes. Write down milestones aimed for and achieved for each month. This helps you to gauge your progress, give your boss reasons why you should be promoted. Make a list for the future, too. Be realistic, but not ultra conservative. It should keep you on track, and spur you on.

Goal setting is the first and most important step you can take on your career marketing path. Monitoring your achievements is also important.