Time for a Career Audit

Downtown Women's Club

Downtown Women's Club, February 2010

It’s now February – have you kept your resolutions? Enough with the get in shape ones. How about taking on a new and improved work life or career? As 2010 begins both a new year and new decade, consider pausing to reflect on the following questions and acting upon your realizations.

Are you in the right company and/or right position? Is your company a good fit and one you’re proud to list on your resume? Do you feel passionate about what you do? Or at least mostly enjoy what you are doing?

It’s now February – have you kept your resolutions? Enough with the get in shape ones. How about taking on a new and improved work life or career? As 2010 begins both a new year and new decade, consider pausing to reflect on the following questions and acting upon your realizations.

Are you in the right company and/or right position? Is your company a good fit and one you’re proud to list on your resume? Do you feel passionate about what you do? Or at least mostly enjoy what you are doing?

Are your work priorities aligned with those of your supervisor’s and your company’s? Business is not about you…it is about results. If you do what it takes to make your boss or your boss’s boss meet his or her goals, you will get noticed and eventually promoted.

Is the message you’re projecting to others, what I call your brand image, one that you are proud of? Consider what people think of when they think of you as a brand. You need a look and manner that feels comfortable and right to you and that you feel confident presenting to the world.

Are you making the most of your own unique skills and talents? Tailoring your career to your unique skills makes your efforts more natural, not such a struggle.

Do you have work-life balance? In today’s fast-paced world, it’s all too easy to get caught up in your many responsibilities and feel you have no time to do things for yourself. This is a mistake, though, and one that took me years to realize. Taking just a few minutes of “You Time” each day will make you a more productive and pleasant person, and this will ultimately make you more successful in your career.

If you don’t like your answers to these questions, consider what you could change to be more effective or happier. This is when the word “resolution” tends to comes up, but I don’t like big resolutions which all too often lead to needless guilt, frustration and giving up. Instead, I like to think of each year as an opportunity to “reassess,” to think about the changes you would like to make and come up with some small steps you can implement throughout the year to help you get there.

As you make your personal assessment, set small, manageable goals, and no more than three at a time. Once you have achieved these goals, then set three more. In this way, you never feel overwhelmed or overly stressed about the changes you’re making. Proceed little by little and be happy when you do meet a goal. Adjust as you go. Unlike a grand resolution that only sets you up for failure, these little alterations add up over the course of a year to create real, lasting change…without all the guilt.