Take every opportunity
In the brave new world of employment, temporary contracts seem to be a fact of life. But how can you make any job work for you? Here are a few ideas of how to maximise your work for your own benefit.
Keep one eye on your next job
It’s easy when you get a job to feel you’ve made it! You’ve succeeded. Whew! You can now rest easy.
Sadly, that’s often not the case.
Whether you’re on a grad scheme, temporary or fixed term contract, it’s quite likely at some point that your job could come to an end. So what can you do to maximise your current role and make yourself more employable in the future?
From day one, then you need to keep an eye on your next job. What really interests you? What would you really love to do? What are your aspirations? Do you want to win awards, or is your heart set on promotion?
The work you’re doing today then needs to be shaped by what you are working towards, otherwise things won’t work out the way you want them to.
Seek out the experience
Your priority is to get as much experience as possible to make you even more employable, particularly if you’re on a short-term contract and you may be job-hunting again soon.
There are two main ways to gain experience: Training and Project Management. Training is probably the easiest – simply find those areas of your job where you can get training and see if your boss will release you to do it (and pay for it!). In the great job-hunting arena it’s not enough to say you can do a certain thing – it helps to have the certificate to prove it.
Project management is harder, because managing projects is hard work. However, when it comes to listing ‘achievements’ on your CV, those things like ‘instituting a new filing and archiving system’, or ‘establishing a fully-compliant data protection policy’ are useful things to put on there.
Another tip is to seek out the ‘internal stuff’. If there is a staff morale committee (or equivalent), then get involved. It will show you’re a team player. Train in first aid, or as a fire marshall. Organise the Christmas party. There are literally dozens of internal ‘projects’ that can give you vital transferable skills to help make you stand out.
Take control of your career
If you like what you do, but you want to get a better job doing it, then consider joining a relevant professional body. You’ll learn plenty of useful skills that will make you more valuable to your current employers, and also a whole new range of jobs will be open to you.
Professional bodies often have a trade journal, and many companies looking for specific skills will only bother to advertise there. Being on the mailing list will give you access to better jobs. Having the membership is a bit like going on a training course – it proves you can do what you say you can do. And that may be the difference between you and the next person. It may be the thing that keeps you in your job during an economic downturn. So have a google and see what you can join.
Keep your CV alive
It’s a good idea to revisit your CV regularly – if it’s a ‘living document’ that you keep up-to-date with your success, training, achievements and other skills, then you will never face the horrible situation of having to rewrite a CV from scratch and trying to remember everything.
But when you write out your CV, you may feel that there are a lot of blank spaces. The temptation is to include a lot of ‘filler’. But everything you write on your CV should have a purpose – to show you have a host of useful transferable skills that you can use to the benefit of your next employer. Hobbies and interests that involve responsibility are worth listing. For example, if you built a website for a local community group, then include that.
And finally…
Remember, when it comes to work, you’re not just working for the boss – you’re working for you. Proactively seeking to learn, either formally, or ‘on the job’, taking on extra duties and so on will all work in your favour in the long run.
Written by Jon Mathias. Posted on 21st April.
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