With endless job opportunities in the hair and beauty industry sometimes we often become confused in which direction to take. As we approach a new year, January is a time of career change for many. Some decide it’s time to progress into a more senior role, others might want a complete change, often moving into a new industry and I also speak to many successful people who make the choice to take a step back in their career to improve their health and lifestyle, for example, spending more time with family and on themselves. No matter what direction you decide to take, planning your career is vitally important in the process of achieving your goals. Without this you will have no real direction on where you want to go and how you will achieve it. Here are a few tips on career planning:
- Know Yourself. Once a year, set time aside to plan your career. Firstly, identify the end result, where you want to be this time next year, then work backwords and write down the steps that you believe will take you there. Ie: do you need upskill or further train? there are many short courses available to improve your skills such as management, IT and digital marketing.
- Be aware of your key strengths – what are you good at, what makes you stand out from other work colleagues, what did you love to do in your current or previous role and what motivates you? Take note of what you liked and disliked. If there are more dislikes than likes, then its possibly time to make a change!
- Know your areas of development, what could you be better at? What areas of your career do you need assistance with? Everybody has these so don’t be afraid to explore further. Psychometric tests are an excellent way of finding this out.
- What are your life values? As most of us spend one third of our day at work, think about what you really want out of your career and what is most important to you. Is it to become financially independent, to have more personal time, to reach management level or to open your own business?
- Know how to market yourself if you are planning to job hunt in 2018, make sure you have an outstanding CV, Cover Letter and online profile.
- Explore the options. With endless job opportunities and further training we have so much to choose from. Never stop learning and regularly update your skills and knowledge. There are many short courses available that are designed to fit in with work hours, so if you work full time don’t let his stop you.
- Sign up for job alert with various job boards, search engines and company career pages and explore job opportunities that interest you. What skills are needed for that particular role? Do you have them and if not what are the steps to get you there?
- If there is a particular company you want to work with, don’t be afraid to contact them and introduce yourself. If you don’t ask you won’t know and quite often companies are planning to recruit but have not advertised yet! When contacting, make sure you get through to the relevant person otherwise it could be a waste of time ie: HR department or Management.
- Decide on your goals. Now that you are aware of your key strengths, areas of development or have identified further training and suitable job opportunities, the next step is to write your plan for the following year.
- Be specific about your goals and write them down. The more specific you are the easier it will be to plan. You may have one or many goals ie: you have decided to return to education, you want a promotion, you want to change your work hours or maybe you would like a complete career change.
- Take Action. Work towards achieving your goals and set yourself deadlines recording important dates in your diary ie: Mark college open day events and meetings in your diary.
- Arrange appointments ie: Organise a meeting with your manager to discuss career promotion or if you would like a complete career change but confused on how to go about it, book a meeting with a career development consultant.
- You can write a career plan outlining your goals as seen below:
- Make to do lists or reminders ticking them off as each task is completed.
- Save a copy of your career plan in a safe place so it can be altered at any time. Your plan is never set in stone and your choices can change but as you continue to update your plan don’t forget to mark and reward yourself on your achievements!
By Maria Morgan, Career Development Consultant & Psychometric Practitioner.
