INSIDE THE

Hit These 6 Career Resolutions Out of the Park in 2019

Last year the top New Year’s resolution was to lose weight and eat more healthily.¹ Odds are that’s the top resolution for most years, with finding a new job much further down the list.

But you may not know right now that you need to be preparing for a job search or career change later in 2019. Taking the viewpoint that a failure to plan is a plan to fail, let’s think about resolutions for your career or for your job search. We’ll keep the list of resolutions for your job search and career to a manageable and achievable list, as fewer than 10% of New Year’s resolutions are typically kept in the coming year.²

1. Review your marketing materials. Take a truly critical eye to the resume and cover letter you use as your template documents, and ask others for their opinion as well. Any time you talk to a Recruiter or Hiring Manager ask them for feedback on your resume, whether that’s in an interview or in a less formal setting. Are there any updates you need to make based on achievements made in the past year? As to cover letters, do you even still use a cover letter? Most recruiters are not that interested in them, but hiring managers often do like them if they actually have something to say.
2. Take another look at the companies you’re targeting. Challenge your strategies with some honest questions, and open your mind to other possibilities. Are your targets still the companies that make sense for you? Do you need to broaden your job search? If you’re only considering big contractors because you think it’s a good fit for you and your ambitions, how about considering a rapidly growing mid-size company? If you’re only considering smaller contractors, what about a contract that gives you that small feel in a big package?
3. Take stock of the information you have posted online.Have you registered on a variety of job boards or company web sites? When is the last time you updated your information or logged in? When you’re actively seeking a new job, you need to login to your job board and company profiles at least once per month. That updates the date associated with your account and puts you at the top of recruiters’ searches. What about your social media profiles? Are they up-to-date and reflective of the professional image you wish to portray?
4. Check in with your references and others in your network.The New Year is always a time to touch base with friends and others in your network, including your references. If you haven’t talked to your references in a couple months, you’re overdue for a status update and to see if there is anything you can do for them. Just as with your networking contacts, you need to be in regular communication with your references to keep them informed of your progress. Your job search is your priority, but rarely the priority of your network or your references, so it’s important to stay top-of-mind.
5. Prepare for all your interviews in 2019.Think of the word interview much more broadly than you probably have in the past. Any discussion you have with a potential employer is an interview, whether it’s chatting with a recruiter by the coffee station at a job fair, a phone conversation on a phone-screen interview, or a casual encounter with a potential hiring manager at a conference or professional event. Are you preparing for these opportunistic encounters by having your success stories and your elevator pitch well polished?
6. Commit to doing something more for your career. It’s easy to get in a rut, without giving much thought to how to grow your career or reinvigorate your interest in your profession. Join a professional association or meetup and participate and contribute. Take some new classes or certifications you’ve been putting off. Attend a professional conference. Push yourself to network and engage with others in your profession, as studies continually show that active networking is the number one predictor of career success.³ It’s work, but you’ll be glad that you did.

^1,2 Statistic Brain

³ Network Science