Today we’ll share 10 ways to stay relevant in your career. Things move so quickly these days that, no matter whether you are a graduate embarking on your first role or a seasoned professional with 20 years of experience behind you, there is a risk that you will get left behind at work.
Becoming irrelevant is a real worry for so many people in just about every industry. Staying competitive and being effective at one’s job is more important than it has ever been, but how exactly do you do that? Here are a few useful ideas:
- Read
One of the best ways to stay relevant in your career is to simply make reading a daily habit. Read trade publications, magazine articles, news stories, and training materials that will enable you to stay abreast of the very latest information in your industry and there will be no danger of your knowledge becoming irrelevant and out-of-date any time soon.
- Renew and learn new skills
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You cannot stay relevant if you let your qualifications lapse or do not embrace new skills and qualifications. So, whether it’s being sure to study for your BLS renewal so that you can keep practicing in healthcare or it’s taking your Microsoft Technology Associate Developer certification so you can compete in your IT company, you need to be constantly looking for opportunities to renew old skills and learn new and relevant ones that will help to keep you up to date.
- Develop existing skills
Of course, as well as learning new skills and ensuring that your older certifications are up to date, you also need to take the time to develop your existing skills. The more time and effort you put into improving your current skills base, the more effective as an employee you will be. You will then become invaluable in that you will be able to not only work more effectively but also train others in the workplace to your level too.
There are a lot of ways that you should be able to develop your existing skills. One way is to use better tools, so that you are able to engage with your current skill set a lot more powerfully and effectively. This really can make a surprisingly big difference. Just something like using a git cheat sheet can help a developer, for instance, and this is the kind of thing that you should certainly be aware of.
However you do it, developing your existing skills is always going to be hugely important for your career.
- Brand yourself as an authority
In 2022, one of the best things you can do to help you stay relevant in your career is to work on your personal branding to set yourself up as an authority. You can do this by blogging about your industry and all of the ins and outs or writing for trade publications, for example. Once you have the reputation of knowing what you are talking about and being an authority in your industry, as long as you keep it up, you will pretty much always be in demand.
- Build up your network
Networking is always one of the things you should focus in n if you want to stay relevant in your career. Often, you can get further if you know the right people than you can by simply being talented at what you do.
If you surround yourself with the movers and shakers in your industry, and you develop long and lasting friendships with them, then you will always have more opportunities for work than you otherwise might.
- Pursue awards
If your industry has a culture of awarding people for various things, then it is never a bad idea to throw your hat into the ring if you think that you fit the criteria. If you have a lot of important industry awards that you can include on your resume, then hirers are always going to look more favorably upon you than they otherwise might. Awards are impressive and there is no one who will not take them seriously on your resume as long as they are probably accredited industry awards that are well known within your sector.
- Attend trade shows
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Not only are trade shows a great place to network, but more importantly than that, when you listen to speakers and check out the latest development, you learn the latest buzzwords, terminologies, and technologies that people in your industry are using, so that you too can adopt them and fit in more as things change around you.
- Get to know your clients
The better you can get to know your clients, the easier it will be for you to adapt and change to their needs. Even when an industry does not seem to move on much over the years, their clients often do, so it is never a bad idea to see what it is the customers who will be benefiting from your work really want. That way, you can get ahead of the industry curve, develop the skills they desire, and position yourself as one of the most important people in your company.
- Maintain a social media presence
In a similar vein, you should ensure that you maintain a strong social media presence. Doing so will not only ensure that you are highly visible, but it will mean that you can keep a keen eye on the competition and what they are doing, as well as the customers and what they want too. You can also use your social media profiles as a selling point in many industries, especially if you have used it to demonstrate your knowledge and pick up lots of followers in the process.
- Embrace change
If you are not willing to embrace changes in your industry as they come around, then no matter what else you do, your co-workers and bosses will sense your unease and thewy will not be impressed by it, which could mean that you are looked over for promotion or chosen to be laid off wif there is a need for the company to streamline. So, have an open mind and try to look upon new advances in your industry as something that can be a positive in your working life.
If you want to ensure that you stay relevant in your career, whatever sector you have chosen to work in, you could do a lot worse than to take the above ideas onboard. Do anything you can to stay as informed and effective in your role as you can and chances are you will have nothing to worry about.
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