How to fast-track your career developmentHow to fast-track your career development

We live in the era of immediacy. This can be reflected in all aspects of life from entertainment to career development. While some people take 30 years or a lifetime to get to their desired positions, others achieve the same results in just a few years.

Is it possible to fast-track one’s way to the top? This article presents some guidelines to achieve your professional goals faster.

Setting your objectives and timeline

First, we need to establish what it means to develop a career. Although this goes beyond the scope of this article, we can pinpoint a few concepts. Career development is the process a person makes towards finding their ideal job position or lifestyle. This includes decision-making, training, and self-improvement.

Ask yourself why you want to boost your career growth. Generally, professionals strive to get the highest positions for three reasons:

• Better payment
• Professional achievement
• Greater status

The next step is setting your objectives. The clearer you can establish them, the better. Not having a goal will only lead to a waste of time and effort. Along the way, you’ll be offered many propositions including paid jobs, internships, etc. In some cases, you won’t be able to take them all. So, how to choose?

If you have a clear goal in mind, you can assess the value of the proposition. You can prioritize the opportunity that will lead you to where you want to be, even if it’s not the most profitable one at the moment.

This is an important stage of your journey. Your goal sets out the foundation of your career project and serves as an assessment parameter. You can ask yourself ‘Am I closer to the goal?’, ‘Am I where I was supposed to be at this stage?’ ‘Am I stagnant in one job?’

The next video brings an insight into establishing your professional goals.

Let’s suppose that your objective is to be CEO by 2030. Now you need to establish the positions and roles you’ll need to assume throughout the journey. These can be Senior Sales Agent, Sales Manager, and Head of Production. This works as a career timeline.

How to achieve the result? – Career moves

With your plan properly set out, you can start thinking about how to achieve your goal. The first thing you need to understand is that your career won’t develop by itself: you have to make it happen. Generally, there are three basic ways to move one’s career forward:

1. Get a more senior position in a different company
2. Get a promotion within the same company
3. Move to a similar job

Option number 1 is the best but also the hardest. Usually, people prefer to move to similar positions at a different company. The second alternative requires a little luck. Professionals are promoted when a senior colleague retires or leaves their position.

If you see the opportunity for promotion in a near future, then moving to another company might not be the best move. Anyway, if you decide to do it, it must be with a strategy in mind.

When to change jobs, keeping the same position?

This is not the best move option if you are following a strategy. Professionals may be tempted to accept jobs that offer higher salaries, better work conditions, health plans, etc. But these are only short-term benefits.

Professionals must keep focused on the bigger picture. Choose a job that will take you closer to your ultimate objective. Consider what new skills will you acquire that will help you develop as a professional. Will this job get you recognised qualifications? Will this company improve your reputation within the industry?

Jumping to the next level: How to get a senior position

While there are many ways to land a senior position, we will focus on two. These are factors that you can control and can be of great help: CV and interview skills.

The CV

Like we discussed in our article ‘Tips and guidelines on how to write a strong CV’, your resume is your presentation card. It must convey your skills clearly. Make sure the CV reflects what you actually can do. Avoid writing descriptions that are hard to measure like ‘Highly organised’, ‘Attention to detail’, ‘Motivated’, etc. Focus on your hard skills so recruiters understand the value you can bring them. It helps to describe your previous roles, responsibilities, and achievements in detail.

The job interviews

The interview will be harder depending on the position and company. Highly coveted jobs will mean tougher competition. You may be going against candidates within the same company striving for a promotion. In this case, you have more to prove. You have to give them a reason why they should hire you over a person that’s been working with them for some time.

Proper preparation is vital for a successful interview. It’s also the best complement to your CV and qualifications.

A conclusion on how to fast-track your career development

Picture your career as a table. If you want yours to be solid enough to support your future, you need a strong base.

Your four table legs must be:

• Properly established goal
• Motivation
• Investment
• Perseverance

With a properly established goal, you can build your career plan and assess your results. Don’t hesitate to invest in yourself. Invest time and money in courses, training, research, summits, and conferences. Finally, there will be times when the picture looks discouraging. Keep up the good spirit knowing that you can achieve great things.

Tips and guidelines on how to write a strong CVTips and guidelines on how to write a strong CV

Landing the right jobs can give an important boost to your career. A good job can be defined by different aspects. Obviously, the ultimate goal is to get a position with a good salary, possibilities for self-development, and a healthy work-life balance.

But there are different ways to get here. Some works may be ad honorem or offer low remunerations. In this case, the employer is rewarded in some other way like getting free training, qualifications, or good references.

Other jobs may offer higher payment but heavy workloads. When taken at an early stage these are good for achieving specific goals. These include saving an amount of money, financing a project, or paying for further education.

All in all, the type of work you go after is the one that best suits you at a particular moment. But one may ask ‘How to land my dream job’? There’s not a unique answer, but the CV is an important factor. Even if you are referred by a trusted person, the recruiter will probably ask you for your CV. This is the first point of contact between you and your potential employer. So how to write a strong resume? This article presents some useful guidelines to create a CV that won’t go unnoticed.

Hard and soft skills

Your CV must convey a message. Recruiters need to understand your most powerful skills at a glance. It helps if this is done with a clear and elegant layout. If you don’t have designing skills, you can find templates online. Popular software like Microsoft Word also offers CV templates. The next step is to list your skills.

When creating your resume, you must understand the difference between hard and soft skills. Hard skills (or technical skills) are those related to your job specifically. On the other hand, soft skills are associated with a person’s character. This includes flexibility, communication, and trouble-solving. We have covered the five main soft skills to boost your career in a previous blog entry.

Hard skills examples

These are abilities that can be measured. For example, you can say that you have three years of experience in sales or working with JavaScript. These are some examples:

• Budget management
• Complaint handling
• Programming
• Sales
• WordPress editing

Soft skills examples

These are general abilities that work for any type of job. These are not tangible and are hard to measure. Some examples are:

• Teamwork
• Attention to detail
• Stress management
• Decision making

What soft skills to include in your CV?

This will depend on the job requirements and, of course, your actual attributes. However, some skills apply to all industries and job positions. This section presents some of the capabilities that recruiters mostly look for.

Organisation

Employers look for people that can effectively organise their workflow. Keeping the office neat and meeting deadlines is key.

Planning and time management

Nothing wears down a working relationship like bad planning. Good time management leads to effectiveness and punctuality. Your manager won’t enjoy chasing you around for uncompleted tasks.

Communication

Don’t forget to add your communication skills to your resume. All forms of communication are important. This includes projects presentations, and the ability to convey a message verbally and in written form. Project managers look for people who are not afraid to ask questions or report issues that can affect the workflow.

Motivation and proactiveness

Make sure your CV reflects this important aspect. Recruiters love ambitious professionals who are willing to take the initiative and not wait till they are told what to do.

Diplomacy

This is especially important if you are applying for a management position. When issues arise, managers must stay calm and try to get the best in people. This helps create a healthy work environment and hence attract talent.

What hard skills to include in your CV?

Applicants must include all their skills. Let’s suppose you have finance, IT, and sales skills. If you want to land a sales management position, you may be tempted to leave out those skills that don’t relate directly to the job description.

This is a mistake. Today’s job market is highly demanding and usually, employees need to perform a variety of tasks. If you run a sales department, you may need to take care of payments and invoicing. If you have IT knowledge it might come in handy too.

Therefore, don’t underestimate any type of hard skills and include them on your CV.

Where and how to include your skills in a CV

Imagine that the editor of a newspaper is looking for a journalist. Which one of the two sets of instructions will he/she give?

1. I need a journalist specialising in politics and economy with at least two years of experience working for a newspaper, must speak at least two languages and have proofreading skills.
2. I need a writer with high attention to detail, the ability to meet strict deadlines and teamwork skills.

Option ‘A’ is the most likely one. Applicants must keep in mind that recruiters are looking for specific and measurable abilities. While everyone needs an employer with option ‘B’ characteristics, option ‘A’ reflects a clearer profile of the person needed to fill the position.

Recruiters will scan your CV looking for these specifics. Hence, your hard skills must be prominent and easy to find. They must be placed at the top quarter of the page. Thus, they can be seen at a glance without having to scroll down.

Soft skills, on the other hand, can be trickier. They can’t be measured, and recruiters are not actively looking for them. Hence, implying these abilities is more effective. For example, instead of writing ‘highly organised’, write something like ‘5-year experience leading the news section of newspaper x releasing a weekly report, supervising the editing processes and distributing tasks across journalists.‘

This description already conveys an idea of your organisation skills without stating it specifically.

Final thoughts on writing a strong CV

When you apply for a job, your CV is probably one of many. Recruiters will be scanning resumes to find talent as fast as possible. Hence, it’s important to skillfully highlight one’s abilities so they can be grasped at a glance. Use any of these guidelines to write a solid resume but there is a golden rule: Never Lie. Preserving your reputation gives you credibility and trustworthiness to help you land your dream job.

Five key soft skills to boost your careerFive key soft skills to boost your career

Many people think that getting a degree is the most difficult part of their careers. Indeed, getting into college and majoring in a chosen profession is no easy task. But this is only the beginning. While grades and marks are important, many companies look for further skills. This is something young professionals need to consider in an ever-competitive world.

What are soft skills

Opposite to hard skills, soft skills are the ones relating to interpersonal relationships. When hiring new staff, companies look for more than talent. Being good at one’s profession is important but contributing to a healthy work environment can be much appreciated by employers.

Soft skills are not related to a person’s knowledge. It’s his or her character that makes the difference. Under this perspective, a professional is assessed by more than knowledge, abilities, degrees, and grades.

To achieve a smooth workflow, teams need skills like communication, understanding of products, the ability to layout and understand instructions, problem-solving, and tolerance. High performance under pressure is another plus.

It’s vital for company leaders and managers to have these types of skills. Since the whole project rests upon their shoulders, they are a key part of the business’s success. Managers need to listen to their employees, be willing to take advice, and learn from their mistakes. They must know exactly what to delegate and who to delegate it to.

Great leaders can be detected thanks to their negotiation skills. The key to a successful negotiation lies in a simple principle: they must consider what their counterpart wants while pushing their own objective.

In general, companies look for the right balance of hard and soft skills when hiring new people. For a comparison between these types of abilities, check out the video below.

Five essential soft skills to boost your career

When applying for a new position, soft skills are more crucial than you may think. They are important to boost a career for three main reasons:

• They allow you to build relationships.
• They help you build a reputation.
• They open the doors to new opportunities.

This section presents 5 key skills to accelerate your career growth.

Number 1 – Communication

The work environment has become more complicated. With the development of technology and communication software, many cross-border teams have been created. On one hand, companies have turned to overseas staff to perform some tasks. By outsourcing, they can reduce costs and access employees with specific skills.

On the other hand, the coronavirus pandemic has boosted the home office concept, and this doesn’t seem to be over anytime soon.

Good communication will help you understand and set instructions clearly. You can also build relationships and avoid misunderstandings. Companies value communication as it makes the workflow smoother. Hence, the team will achieve better results.

Number 2 – Being a team player

There is no ‘I’ in ‘team’. The only way to finalize a large project is through teamwork. This is why employers look for people who can work well with others.

While talent and experience are important, good teamwork improves the office’s environment. It helps create a workplace culture. A respectful environment and well-organized processes make professionals want to stay. It also attracts new talent.

If one of your co-workers needs help, offer them a hand. Help train new staff or offer to cover for a colleague. Your employers will value these initiatives. Another key aspect for smooth teamwork is being able to acknowledge one’s mistakes. If you make a mistake, accept the responsibility rather than putting it on someone else.

Number 3 – Adaptability

If you want to build a successful career, adaptability is crucial. Your ability to face new challenges, adapt to new conditions, and learn new skills will pay off. New technologies, tools, and software are constantly being released. Your employers will value your good predisposition to change and willingness to take new challenges.

Things are not always like we expect them to be. No matter how qualified you are for a position, issues will arise, and challenges will appear. It’s your approach to this that will make the difference.

For example, when a plan doesn’t work, good leaders find solutions instead of complaining. Find a way to solve the problem rather than make it worse. When recruiting, employers look for professionals that can adapt to the change rate of the company.

Number 4 – Problem-solving

In line with the previous point, professionals need to find solutions instead of complaining when something goes wrong. Problem-solving is key.

Employers need to find quick answers and make fast decisions. If you are a manager this skill is a must-have. If you are an employee, it will make you stand out. Companies face problems every day.

Hence, recruiters give great importance to someone’s ability to step up during a difficult situation.

A good way to summarize this is: always approach your boss with a solution instead of a problem.

Number 5 – Critical thinking

Critical thinking brings value to a company. Your ability to bring new ideas to the table will be much appreciated by your superiors. A proactive attitude, good analytics skills, and pros-and-cons balance are some of the attributes of a productive employer.

Discuss your ideas and generate a proper field for brainstorming. This approach will increase creativity that can only be a plus for the business.

A conclusion on the 5 key soft skills to boost your career

The perfect model is an employer that can balance these 5 skills. In combination with the right hard skills, this will make you unstoppable.

The 5 attributes presented here must complement each other. By developing your solve-problem skills, you’ll be more flexible in new situations. Thus, you’ll become a worthy team player that brings value to the company.

Welcome to hfals.co.ukWelcome to hfals.co.uk

Welcome to our blog. Here you’ll find interesting material that will help you develop your career. No matter what your industry or sector is, some factors apply to all cases. We are committed to self-development. Hence, we write about the topics of interest for young professionals.

Our weekly and monthly entries will provide tips, facts, and news about the career development world. This first post intends to present a general picture of what readers will find.

Weekly posts

These will feature hot topics such as interview preparation, skill assessment, salary issues, quotations, entrepreneurship, career changes, tests, taxes, effective goal setting, choosing the right position, and others.

We live in times where immediacy, constant change, and unpredictability are the order of the day. Young professionals tend to be lost between different trends, information sources, and demands. Gone are the days when a college degree was the ultimate goal: now it’s only the beginning. In this section, readers can access a variety of tools to boost their career growth in the 21st century.

Monthly posts

These are entries that feature the opinion, points of view, and guidelines of successful career achievers. Once a month we’ll publish interviews where these professionals will share their experience, work, and advice.

When you see a person at the top of their career, one tends to believe it has been easy for them. This is not only untrue but, in most cases, quite the opposite. Understanding the struggles of successful people in the early stages of their careers helps to relieve the pressure. In a culture based on success and high achievement, this can avoid unnecessary frustrations.

These professional experts also offer online training and career development courses.

Our topics

We focus on the relevant topics of the niche. Generally, we write about tools and strategies to climb up the professional ladder.

Most content is not oriented towards any field in particular. We encourage readers to improve their soft skills such as teamwork, communication, oratory, creativity, flexibility, critical thinking, problem-solving, and others.

But we also present entries about technical skills. This includes ‘Top hard skills to develop in 2022’, ‘Most demanded hard skills’, and career-oriented content. Readers can find information on the hottest professions like social media management, sales, online marketing, consulting, IT and programming, design, web development, app development, WordPress management, copywriting, editorial, and SEO translation.

The 5 career stages of a professional

These guidelines are meant to accompany you throughout the journey. Hence, it’s a good idea to establish the main stages of a person’s profession.

Stage 1 – Exploration

Although this stage is prior to entering the workforce, it’s crucial. This period usually goes from college graduation to landing the first job. Young professionals tend to have unrealistic assumptions. They are subject to parents’ expectations and conditioned to what they experienced in their environment. If this is not properly managed, it can lead to frustration.

Stage 2 – Early career

Now, the person has landed his/her first job. This is the first real encounter with the industry. The young professional will experience his/her first failures and achievements. They rarely will get a high-paid position at this stage, but usually, they have fewer responsibilities too.

Stage 3 – Mid Career

This is a key point as it consolidates the career path. There are two options. If the person has achieved a certain level of success and feels comfortable in his position, he will successfully jump to the next stage. This implies training advanced skills and further specialization.

But the person may not be satisfied with his career choice. The job may not be fulfilling financially, emotionally, or both. This is the time for priority adjustment, career shifting, or seeking new lifestyles.

Stage 4 – Late Career

This is the period where professionals can relax. They probably enjoy a reputation and are respected by colleagues and junior staff. Usually, late-career professionals take up teaching.

Stage 5 – Retirement

The challenge at this stage is to find the right replacement to continue a person’s legacy.

Wrapping up

Hfals is committed to career development. We understand the challenges of the current work market and want to help professionals achieve their goals.

Whether you are just graduating from college, considering a change of career, or simply feeling stagnant in one job, you’ll find useful information. These guidelines can put you on the path to success.