5 Steps To Your Next Career Move

As we head toward the end of the year, you might be thinking to yourself, "what's next for me? What is going to be on the cards for next year?" And you might want to start planning what that is.

Now, when we start to create any career transition or any move, we need to make sure that we're coming at it from a very planned approach, because when we come at it from a ad hoc way, we tend to get some ad hoc results. And we want to be able to make the transition as seamless as possible.

So right now I'm going to take you through the five steps to successful career transition and what they look like.

STEP 1: Preparing Your Mindset

Step number one is preparing your mindset. Whether you've been made redundant or you're wanting to make a change ie. change industries or roles, take on a leadership role, try something new or challenging, how you approach this career move will be critical to your success in terms of how quickly you can make that change.

The first thing to do is to start thinking about is what has stopped you in the past, because usually what has stopped you in the past will stop you from making this move or limiting you in this particular move.  We want to recognise what that is and put some things in place to have you not be stopped this time. And purely having that as a focus can make such a big difference.

STEP 2: Creating Your Career Plan

It's time to create your career plan and take the time to reflect on what is important to you in an organisation, in a manager, in a role, the tasks that you do, the type of work, how you want to make a difference, and writing that down and making sure that it connects with your values and how you want to represent yourself within your career.  When there's a misalignment in values with the organisation that you're working in, generally, that's when unrest and unhappiness comes in.  So you want to be able to know that upfront before making some of those really critical decisions.

Once you have all that, you've created a plan, you know where you're wanting to go, then you need to start submitting some really standout applications.

STEP 3: Create Standout Applications

Making sure that you have your CV cover letter ready and tailored for your upcoming roles is next.  Making sure that you have an updated LinkedIn profile and ensuring all of your applications are written in a way that really reflect your key skills; removing all the fluff, putting in your key skills and key talents and not letting your mindset or any limiting beliefs come into play when you're writing this. We just want to hear the black and white of where you can add value to a business.

STEP 4: Leveraging Job Platforms & Networks

Then we need to move into leveraging job platforms and also people in your network. And not crazy networking events, things like that, but making sure that you are uploading your details to job platforms such as SEEK and LinkedIn, and ensuring that you have the right keywords within your profile so people can find you. You want to be able to access some of that hidden job market as there are jobs out there that are not being advertised. So it's making sure that you have all of those details online, ready to go and optimise your profiles.  That also means that people can start finding you.  It's also important that you are reaching out to the right recruiters in your field, connecting with them so they know that you are available. If you're looking for internal promotions, making sure that the people within your organisation actually know your career goal, having conversations for what that next step is.

STEP 5: Ace Your Interviews

This can be a really scary, scary event for people, but you want to walk into your interview, super confident; making sure that you understand the questions that they're going to be asking as best as you can.  It's important to look at the position description or the job ad, making some really careful assumptions about what they could be asking and practice, practice, practice!  Write out your answers.  Be super prepared.  And again, always going back to your mindset (ensuring it's a positive one). You need to go in as yourself, not as your limiting beliefs.

If you can nail each of these five steps, preparing your mindset, creating your career plan, creating and submitting some really standout applications, leveraging job platforms and people, preparing to ace your interviews, you are well on the track to a successful career transition.

If you would like my support in any of these steps, or all of these steps, I'd love to help you.  You can start my joining my Career Accelerator Program, an innovative 6-Week Career Mentoring Program that has you gain the clarity, confidence, and skills to make your next career move...even if you don't know exactly what that looks like yet OR how to get there!

Join >>> Career Accelerator Program