Career Boosters That Are Actually Worth it

When you’ve been in the game for a while, it can be tempting to find ways to spruce your career up a bit. We only have this much time to learn and progress, and spending the majority of our years in a boring office is often less than satisfying.

There is a jungle of options out there, though, and the variations are so many that it can be tricky to find one that’s actually worth your time.

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Luckily, a bunch of experts have put their brilliant minds together and found a couple of ways to boost your career that’s totally worth the time and energy you put into it.

Get out of your comfort zone

The painful thing with spending decades in an office is that we’re often quite aware of what needs to be done in order to make a change. It’s just a bit too scary to get there – and where we’re at suddenly seems a lot more comfortable.

Think about how you can stretch yourself a bit further to get where you’d like to be; if you don’t like public speaking, sign up for a class to challenge yourself. The same goes for putting yourself out there and speaking up at a meeting, getting your thoughts heard, and being daring enough to expose yourself to negative feedback.

It could happen; they could tell you that your ideas are no good, and that’s completely fine. It takes a lot of bad ideas to make a good one, so keep tossing them in there, and bounce right back if you don’t succeed right away.

Keep learning

The days of staying put in the same job are long gone – luckily, according to the younger generation. Many companies consider the efforts they put into training their employees as wasted, considering that many of them will jump ship in any way.

By showing your employers that, not only are you keen to learn, but you’re also able to take the initiative yourself by signing up to those webinars.

Let your employer know that you’re considering to boost your knowledge with an accounting BBA, for example, and ask whether they’ll be able to reimburse you for this. The companies who know how to value their employees are usually able to; if not, their competitors will probably be happy to take such an eager and knowledgeable employee onboard.

Keep networking

Networking came easily when we were in college as everything was laid out for us. Many forget completely about furthering their network as they climb up the career ladder and, sooner or later, they’re bound to get back out there on their own.

You can easily continue to build your network by attending events that are relevant to your field – or even by shadowing a senior at your company for a while. Many experienced professionals will be happy to let you shadow them for a day to gain a bit of knowledge. And who knows; they may even know someone who would love to boost your career a bit.

By staying hungry for knowledge and showing initiative, you’ll already be doing a lot more than your co-workers. It’s the kind of stuff that both your current employer and prospective ones will appreciate, so keep learning – and take a few large steps out of your comfort zone.