This is really important if you intend on progressing in your career. I don’t necessarily mean “up the corporate ladder”, but also to the role that you desire. There is an extremely small chance, that you come out of your studies at whatever stage you decide to finish, and then land your dream role. By dream role I mean the one you stay in the long term. So, I am at the early stages of my career and here is what I have learnt so far to get yourself noticed and guided to your long term career.
What’s my long-term career?
I don’t know just yet, but I know that where I am now is not where I intend to stay in the near future. And that’s perfectly fine. You don’t just take a role and have to stay there, because you took it. You stay there because you find the experience valuable and enjoyable. The ’and’ is important, as some people justify staying in an unfulfilling role because they think it’s valuable experience. But I find you can tolerate something for a limited amount of time, before you stop getting value from the experience. And at that point both you and the company are wasting time, resources and energy, which defeats the point.
Your long-term career, is whatever you decide it to be. And you don’t need to know what it is right now. With more opportunities and experience, the ideal career path becomes clear. But you have to get noticed first, to then be given those opportunities. So how do you get noticed in your career?
Take career diverting opportunities!
Like I said, it’s unlikely that the first job you land will be in your long term career job role. And if you have never worked before, you might not know what that is. Or you think you have landed in your dream role, and then it’s not as great and it doesn’t work for you. What do you do now? Take career diverting opportunities.
These are important as they put you in different environments away from your team, normal job role and give you an insight into something else. Experiencing something different, allows you to make a decision on if you want to pursue that “something different” or not. Making that decision changes your career trajectory, even if you don’t notice that. Knowing what you don’t want to do in your career, is just as valuable as knowing what you want. It means when you’re given opportunities that you know you won’t like, you won’t waste your time doing them. Then you can use that free time to find something you like.
My experience
I am a chemistry graduate. Thanks to my degree, I am on the career ladder. But I want to be in some kind of leadership role, but I can’t jump from student to director without experience. So, my chemistry skill set made me employable. However, to get in leadership, you need experience of leading, and I knew I couldn’t get that experience in my company, but I could get that by being a project manager somewhere else. All I needed was a good reference and a company willing to take the risk of having someone with no experience.
I found that company, and they are eternally grateful for my presence. Yes, I didn’t have project management experience or qualifications beforehand, but I do have the natural characteristics of a leader. And being in that role exposed me to so many senior delegates in my industry and beyond. I managed large groups of people, complex projects, and collaborated with not only stakeholders in my industry, but also government.
An example is that I recently hosted the UK’s first mentoring workshop with the Nuclear Energy Agency, and met the Director-General William D. Magwood IV, who founded the workshop. And I shook his hand, as he expressed gratitude for my work in ensuring we successfully hosted this workshop. This event focussed on encouraging nearly 30, 6th form students to continue pursuing their STEM subjects and careers, and educating them on the nuclear sector.
As a chemist in her early career, I had no business being there. But as a budding project manager I had a place at the table. I took the career diverting opportunity, and I have become exposed to so many people. And have manged to make a substantial mark on them.
Be part of an initiative
Like how schools and university convince you to be a part of a society or sports group, you still should do something similar in your career. Employers encourage the creation of groups to ensure their employees are well supported by similar people throughout their careers. There are sports groups, creative groups and equality and diversity groups.
My experience
I’m sure you have noticed that I do tend to wear a bright red jumper that has some letters on the front. This is my Women in STEM jumper. It’s not an initiative at work, however, I do take part in groups that encourage the diversity and inclusion within the workforce. Like the event I mentioned above, that was to inspire our future female leaders in industry.
I wear this jumper very frequently, and have received a lot of compliments for it. I created the design on it, and hoping to make it more accessible to others who would like on.
One day at my secondment, I wore this jumper and a woman in the office noticed it. She was a visiting board member and she loved my jumper. Who happened to be a huge advocate for encouraging female diversity in STEM and she gave me her contact details (which I was not expecting). She was one of the chief leaders in a large pharmaceutical chain. I don’t work in the pharmaceutical industry, but there is someone who knows me now, based on our similar values. And that is getting noticed in your career.
Anything can happen with my career trajectory, but I’m grateful to have a contact in a different industry. Because the longer you stay working, the more your progression is reliant on who you know. I think that’s due to how, once you have experience and skills, those things are transferable. But somebody knowing you is based on trust which can be built anywhere not just in the workplace.
Being part of an initiative can get you noticed, as regardless of position, we are all human and share similarities. So who knows who you might meet there, and how big of an influence they can have on your trajectory.
Make a business card
I have not done this yet, but I recently networked with people and watched someone give away their business card. Since networking is busy, you won’t always have time to log on to Linkedin or write down their email. But if they or you have a business card. That’s automatic. They can leave the network session and go through the business cards they collected, and connect with you at a later date. Making it harder to forget you.
They are simple to make on Canva, at the normal size of 85 mm x 55 mm. Then you can get them printed from an online printing service, for less than £20 for up to 200 cards, depending on your source. I find Instantprint, Printed and 123Print quite affordable (Not affiliated), and you can upload your own design or choose from their templates.
There are plenty of other ways to get noticed, such as posting on LinkedIn frequently, making a blog or social media or knowing the right person. The key is to put yourself out there. If you don’t how are people supposed to notice you and your potential, when you stay hidden behind your door?
Moral of my story:
- You can move if you’re not enjoying it and not finding any value from it- It can easily become dead-end if these two points aren’t fulfilled.
- Put yourself out there- If you don’t, no one will notice you. You can do that by doing the following:
- Try new opportunities- These can give you some guidance on what you like and what you don’t like. Also you can gain more skills outside of what you’re job can do, which makes you more employable in the future
- Don’t feel limited by what you did earlier- Whether that’s in studies or your initial goals for a career. We are always changing, so your interest and career goals are allowed to change too
- Take part in extra curricular activities- Not too many, but ones you are interested in. Who knows who you might meet there
- Get some business cards before you go to somewhere new- Some people might like what you chat about, and want to continue talking with you. Make it as easy as possible to help them find you in a professional manner.
