Career hacks for a new you!

Swati Rai

The year 2018 is upon us and so are a new set of career goals, aspirations and deliverables.  Crafting a new you at work doesn’t have to be synchronous with the New Year, but is a good place to start from.  The battle is in sticking to the chosen path. In an era where deadlines are stiff, and expectations of the employer at an all-time high, remodeling and working on oneself and the way one works, has become a necessity and not a luxury. 

Tech organisation

With the ever increasing dependence on technology, the data that we deal with on a daily basis is also humongous. With gadgets galore at our fingertips and information required at the click of our fingers, it's important to organise our files and folders. One also needs to, e-cleanse computer system to avoid any loss of information. Timely re-look and ordering of the hard drive used professionally, is important. Not doing so may land you in a muddle of excessive data management and take your attention away from doing important and significant part of the job.

Learn unlearn

In a mercurial professional setting, when newer skills are being added every day to a portfolio and the older ones are getting obsolete as we speak, it’s important to take stock of the situation realistically and learn new skills techniques and perhaps unlearn a few redundant ones.

Volunteering, enrolling in professional development courses, conducting training programmes for new employees and mentoring and getting mentored, are a few ways to keep pace with the changing times and flavor of the coming your.

Communicate right

Brushing up on your communication skills be it polishing them or aiming at mastering them, should be one of your resolutions.  A lot depends on your ability to communicate to stakeholders in less time. So, choosing appropriate words to match the needs of the client is the key.  Meetings, video conferencing, telephoning, writing proposals and reports require communication that needs to be concise and correct.   Honing skills of delivering effective presentations, learning of new techniques of public speaking can come in handy at any given time. Public interface and talking with prospective and existing clients, makes it obligatory to brush up on the skills in the coming year.

Saying No

You are the star employee at the company great, but you’re human as well. There’s only that much you can do. Without compromising on quality and principles. And there are just too many requests for you to assist in, filtering from every quarter, some seeking help the others instructing for help. Within a certain given deadline, you can only do as much. A good idea of saying no, therefore, becomes an effective tool for time management as well. Learning to say no politely yet firmly is better than accepting without a squeak, all the time.

Setting your limits, making colleagues subordinates and superiors aware of these is a professional tool to must possess in the coming year.  

Social media devil

Like it or not social media as a networking tool is ever-growing and it has become a mammoth. Without stepping out of the four walls of your home or office you can now take part in virtual meet ups, webinars, online courses and network on your gadget. Leveraging these websites and tools for best results in 2018 cannot be negated. Become a part of professional social networking sights post on relevant professional themes regularly, volunteer information when you can, seek assistance on professional matters. Remember not to go overboard, avoid personal and controversial arguments and stick to meaningful engagements.

Being either a big fish in a small pond and a small fish in a big pond, the eternal conundrum of success might be elusive in both situations.  However, constant endeavor to re-energise 

and reinvent oneself from learning new aspects of one’s job, taking up challenges, maintaining positive energy at work and having tenacity, never went out of fashion, in a New Year or otherwise.