Being stuck in a dead-end job for years on end can drain your energy and will to live, and doing your best to improve your career will do a lot in improving your life.
But to improve your career, you need to put in work. Perhaps substantially more than the average joe. You need to develop your skills and talents and be a useful and encouraging force to those around you. A combination of skills, charisma, and a bit of luck will help you in advancing your career. Below are some of the skills you need to develop for a better chance at growing your career.
Communication skills: Be Good at Talking to People
Whatever job you have, be it a part-time food service attendant or a specialist in an HR services company, you need to be good at communicating. This is very important as our world is a social one. We interact, we live, we socialize with people 24/7, and jobs that require little to no social interaction are very rare. Communicating your ideas and intent will help you create better relationships with your colleagues, help you better express your ideas, and generally make you a likable person that people want to follow.
Flexibility: Adapt to the Changing Circumstances
The inevitable truth is that your plans will sometimes fail. Life will throw a wrench at your carefully laid-out plans and if you aren’t willing to budge, it will be your loss. Being flexible means you can easily adapt to whatever obstacle comes your way and can shift your gears to better address the problem. Being stubborn rarely helps, and understanding the situation and adapting your ways to become more efficient and useful will be a skill that you will constantly need to have to progress in your career.
Stoicism: Learn to Work Under Pressure
We all work under some form of pressure. It’s just that we react to those pressures differently, and different situations have different intensities. Learn to be stoic and everything in stride, this will help you keep a clear mind to focus on your work. This will also help you keep your composure and not become too stressed or anxious when facing a difficult task. Stoicism teaches you not to react emotionally, and instead approach solutions rationally and objectively. This will help you make better decisions and avoid becoming a slave to your own impulses.
Problem-solving: Troubleshoot Problems and Learning to Fix Them
Just as you need to be flexible to adapt to ever-changing situations, you also need to learn how to look at something objectively and learn how to fix it. Problem-solving is an integral part of everyone’s job, be it a top-level manager or an office worker. You need to learn to look at a problem, define what is wrong with it, and come up with a solution to fix it. Always keep an open mind to alternative solutions as you may find an efficient way of solving it from the strangest of places.
Confidence: Trust Yourself, You Can Do It
Most importantly, of course, is trusting yourself. Deciding to improve your career is already a notable and admirable trait: you’re taking your fate into your own hands and controlling your own destiny. Be confident in your own decisions and it will make help you stand firm in the face of difficulty. People are also drawn to confident people, making you a charismatic person that people can put their faith in. Have confidence, and soon enough your career will catch up to it.
Your career is an important part of your life. It’s the main source of your income (something that could determine whether your life will be comfortable or not) and it can be a source of fulfillment and happiness.
