A simple Career PD tool

Each week on a Wednesday as part of my professional development for my career practice I take a trawl through the online classifieds for work, on sites such as TradeMe Jobs and Seek. While there, I pick out interesting roles which my clients might like to apply for, along with changes in titles, and shifts in focus. Over time my weekly habit keeps me up to date with local trends, and helps me to better advise my clients as to qualifications, short courses and realignment of skills they may need in order to get into the work they aspire to.

Alongside this, I also look at roles which are similar to mine, to see what is now being asked for ...and to obtain the odd job description or two. In looking at career practice roles - though these roles don't come up very often - keeping on top of the evolving skill set and emerging areas of practice is very interesting. This helps me to think about what I should be doing for professional development in my own field, encouraging me to assess my own areas of expertise and find areas to upskill and add to my own toolkit.

It is surprising how much value such a simple practice can add. I had never thought about this habit as being worthy of a blog post until I recently read a post from Harvard's 'Management Tip of the Day' series more or less reiterating my own practice.

"You know it’s important to your career to keep learning new skills, but how do you know which ones to focus on? Start by looking at recent job postings from the top companies in your industry. Notice which qualifications keep popping up; the most common skills are probably the most essential. Next, reach out to people in your network who have a job you may want someday. Ask them what they’ve been learning to succeed in their roles. For example, if you want to know which skills and technologies are valued in sales, talk to some high-level salespeople. Also ask these experts whether they can recommend courses or other materials that will help you gain the skills you’re missing. And don’t feel intimidated about reaching out: Most people are happy to share this information, either because they like helping others or because doing so reinforces their expertise" (Harvard Business Review, 4 June 2018).

Hopefully something sparks here for you to apply an element of this practice to yourselves too, and make professional development easier.

Anything that makes keeping up to date less effortful has to be good :-)


Sam

• Reference: Harvard Business Review (4 June 2018). Management Tip of the Day: Learn the Skills Your Industry Will Need in the Future. Retrieved from http://m.a.email.hbr.org/rest/head/mirrorPage/@BTBNMQocCRrvu-nudZyQBq4Whcfufe-OGRD4_374GVJtT5kHynV6iA42FFKCDdZFSaKGOmYkKq7qX0JISQ5qDqXKbBs5huXM19_VP2yDqF3sTwZB.html?deliveryName=DM6865