For the past few years, we have noticed a massive change in the labor market. A career is no longer built the way it once was. Young people are now starting to notice that there might be a gap, bigger than what they thought. A gap that is preventing them and some times discouraging them from building their bright future.
As a young person in Europe nowadays, you need to stay connected with all the latest news and changes in the labor market. That alone will allow you to enhance your skills and competencies according to the needs that appear to be creating.
A successful career will offer you benefits, opportunities that you may not have thought of before, and most importantly financial stability. But how do young people nowadays in Europe and the rest of the world prepare to build a bright career?
Others will call it a list of goals, others might call it an ambitious plan. Whichever the case, a strategy is needed to start building a career. That strategy will help you identify your skills, your needs, and your potential future. Here is a list of important factors you will need to add to your strategy and start building your career.
Know your career goals
There is no way to start building a career if you do not know what you want that career to be. Setting goals and milestones will be the first step to take in building a future. Once you set up your goals you can start setting up your path to meet them.
Remember that this is a major step, seeing as setting your goals is all about choosing what you want to do in your life and what kind of career you will ultimately choose. You need to be more than just satisfied with your choices. Be happy with your choice.
You can do that by rationalizing your desires and interpreting them to sustainable goals that you can start reaching.
Educate yourselves
Education will play the most important role in building a career. When most young people think about the education they think about University, MBAs that they could acquire and so on. However, there is no end to how much knowledge a person can earn throughout their lives.
By attending webinars and seminars as often as possible, you will increase your knowledge, you will evolve your current skills and of course, develop new ones. There are countless options for you to choose from.
Find the classes that you are most interested in. The free versions are great but you must not forget that some paid options could provide you with better material and more information as well as a complete schedule. For example apps like the Ling app, could be a great way for you to start learning a new language which is an amazing skill to add to your portfolio. Think of it as investing in yourselves.
Build your career expertise
Attending seminars and webinars in one way to build your expertise. Personal research and training are another. Try to focus on a specific part of your job that you like most of all. Study that part as much as possible.
You can do online research on popular articles, find scientific papers on it, even study statistics, and apply methods to see what works and what doesn’t. By doing so you could start developing your methods and strategies that will help you do your job better and produce more efficient results.
Business owners are always looking for talents that will take their business to the next level. You can be that talent.
Consider an apprenticeship
Apprenticeships are a great way to evolve your skills and competencies and find yourselves in a work environement. By being an apprentice you get to study under professionals, you get to learn more about the workplace and you get to identify your strengths a lot easier. Many benefits could come from an apprenticeship position.
The most important benefit however is the network.
Build your network
As an aspiring employee or a future entrepreneur, networking yourselves and your work needs to be one of your top priorities. You already know how good your results are, and you can brand yourselves properly. How are you going to do that?
Create an online presence by creating a LinkedIn profile. Make sure your profile showcases your skills and qualifications, however, avoid listing non-traditional pedigrees such as LinkedIn certifications, as they might get you overlooked.
By building a network of acquaintances, mentors, and potential future collaborators, your expertise will start growing. You will learn new techniques to promote your work, and you will understand what works best for you.
Most importantly, you will develop connections to people that could promote you and help you rise. You will need to start small of course but if you preserve and nourish your network you will be met with sustainable growth on a personal and professional level.
Be responsible for your life
Professionals are characterized by many qualities. Responsibility is one of them. As a professional you will need to be responsible for the good and the bad.
Everyone has bad days and in a workspace, arguments will occur. As a professional you need to be ready to take responsibility for your share. If one of your projects does not produce the right results, be ready to take responsibility for your part, and make sure that you will do it better next time.
A responsible professional inspires others and fills them with trust. You want to be that professional.
Be ready to face problems
Apart from being responsible for your actions in the workplace, as well as in real life, you will find yourselves in bad situations that will not be your fault or your doing. Unfortunately, this is not something you can avoid.
If you want to build a career for yourselves, you need to be ready to face these types of situations. You cannot cower out of your work problems. You need to face them with responsibility and integrity. Once you successfully do so, you will feel empowered and ready to face the next challenge.
A career cannot be built in a day. You will need to devote time and effort and you will need to arm yourselves with a lot of patience. Sacrifices will need to be made. You will find yourselves miles away from your comfort zone and you will need to be persistent if you want to succeed Your commitment to yourselves and your goals will pay off at the end!
The European Union supports career building to the maximum. There are projects that are being implemented every year, focusing on people of all ages and career building. One of those projects, implemented by IED, is the Career Skills project focusing on enhancing skills and competencies of your people to help them build a career.
