Last week I had the pleasure meeting with a number of women in tech (and women working to transition into tech) both one on one for career advice and in a fast paced workshop I facilitated on taking the next steps in making a career breakthrough. Before the workshop I ran a poll on help needed to make career progress, and the answers boiled down to three main areas:
- People: Mentors, coaches, manager support, sponsor, network, personal advisory board
- Knowledge: What, how and next steps to become a manager, get to C-Suite, pivot
- Self Awareness: Limiting beliefs, strengths, personal brand
Sound familiar? Most attendees raised one if not all of the above challenges in figuring out next steps to achieving three to five year career goals. So what can you do to make progress? Here are some of the tips I shared as each picked 2-3 things to focus in on over the next 90 days:
People
- Ask former managers, and your current one, if they would mentor you or become a member of your personal advisory board.
- Seek out new groups relevant to where you want to go so as to grow your network and uncover new potential mentors.
Knowledge
- Find people doing what you want to do in the future and ask to have an informational interview with them to learn how they got to where they are today.
- Enroll in ongoing education on soft, leadership and business skills and determine how you can apply what you learn on the job to demonstrate expertise in front of those that matter.
Self Awareness
- Ask 2-3 colleagues (bosses, peers, friends) to provide you feedback on what they see your strengths and talents are
- Reflect on what you have done in your career so far – are there any patterns to what you do? Activities you gravitate towards?
- Write your limiting beliefs down and think about why they exist. Should they exist? What do you need to do to change the belief?
- Ask for help.
Want to uncover what’s holding you back and put in place your 90 day action plan? Join me this Friday for a virtual version of the workshop! Register here: https://careeragilitysystem.com/?tribe_events=career-breakthrough-workshop-three-steps-in-next-90-days-to-reach-your-five-year-vision