Refresh Your Professional Life: Spring Clean Your Career
We’re a few weeks into Spring - have you tackled your Spring Cleaning yet? If you’re like me, you’ve got a list of projects around the house, but what about for work? While it’s OK to put off your household Spring Cleaning chores, don’t delay Spring Cleaning your career.
Why should you Spring Clean your professional life?
Whether you’re job searching, or you’re happy in your current role, it’s imperative that your career information and resources are up-to-date. In our digital world, you never know who is looking at your online presence! Beyond your digital career assets, organizing your work, files, and work space are extremely helpful for job success and satisfaction.
So where should you start?
First, reflect on the past year. If you haven’t taken the time to document your successes and achievements yet, do it! Add some quick bullet points to a running resume and even your LinkedIn profile. You’ll likely want to update any portfolio that you keep of your work, as portfolios continue to help professionals illustrate their experience in everything from performance evaluations to job interviews.
Also assess what you’d like to accomplish this year. Do you want or need new skills? How can you align with your passions or values better through work opportunities? Do some research on courses or certifications that can help you learn new skills or better align with what’s meaningful to you.
Next, focus on refreshing your network. So many people hate “networking,” but there are so many social events in your area through different professional associations, chambers, and even nonprofits, that it feels more like a professional happy hour than a “networking” event. For many of these events, you don’t have to be a member to go!
If you’re not into group events, try reconnecting with former colleagues or mentors for a coffee or virtual catch up, or if you’re feeling bold, reach out to someone from your industry on LinkedIn who you’d like to get to know. These one to one interactions can be just as valuable as the networking events.
You can even take the opportunity to ask for feedback about your performance, and get an outside perspective on ideas that you have for future projects. Often times people will give you more candid feedback if you don’t work together anymore. Asking for feedback from your current manager or colleagues is just as important. You can then use the feedback to set new goals, which is one of the best ways you can freshen up your career this spring. Don’t forget that goals aren’t always technical skills. Leadership development training opportunities for new power skills can be on your list, as well!
Finally, clean up your office or workspace. Decluttering and organizing your work area, whether it’s physical workspace or digital, allows you to be more efficient and productive. Studies show that less clutter at work allows you to not only be more creative and even embrace new opportunities that weren’t on your radar, but it also allows you to navigate unexpected challenges with less anxiety and stress. You can read more on the benefits of cleaning your office in this Business.com article. In the meantime, clear out old files, wipe down any dusty work areas, delete those emails from 10 years ago that no one has ever asked about, and sanitize your keyboard and mouse.
Set a recurring reminder in your calendar to Spring Clean your career assets every year. The time it takes to keep these resources current are well worth the investment for a successful long-term career strategy. If you’re feeling like you don’t have the time for all of this, you’re not alone. The Wilbanks Consulting Group has a team of professional coaches who help professionals and executives keep their career momentum moving seamlessly, and a team of professional writers who help clients update their resume, LinkedIn profile, and more.
Reach out to The Wilbanks Consulting Group today and schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation to get organized and make a plan for continued success.