The Three Best Things to Help Your Career in 2015

As we look forward to either finding a new job or a promotion in 2015, it is a good time to introduce three things that will help your career. Adding these three things to your weekly routine will help you have the right contacts, knowledge, and attitude to move forward in your career. Best of all these are cheap and fun things. Learning, networking and starting the day with a positive attitude.

1. The number one thing to help your career in 2015 will be to build a good network of contacts. Studies have shown that a good network of contacts is key to finding a new job or getting a promotion. Studies have also shown that who you know outside of work, within your own company and in your industry can be key to a successful and financially rewarding career. Buying a coffee for a friend, coworkers, supervisors or someone from church or hockey can be one of the best chances to learn about them. Learning about people and where they work and how they moved up in their career can be a great lesson and if you are interested in them, they will be interested in you and your career. Having open ended questions to ask about a person regarding what they like to do outside of work, how they built their career and about their industry can help you build a relationship with a person. They then might refer you to a hiring manager in the future.
A. “What did you get up to this weekend?”
B. “How did you become a Maintenance Superintendent?”
C. “What are the things that your company looks for when hiring apprentices?”
Follow up after coffee with a quick thank you and an invitation to connect on Linkedin or Facebook for the people you really connect with. With 2 coffee dates a week you will have a strong network that you can always reach out to if you see job openings or want to do an informational interview at a company you are interested in joining.
2. The second thing we can do to help our career is to learn something new that will contribute to our knowledge, employment and resume. In our time crunched world and with college courses costing thousands, how can we afford to learn? If your current employer will not pay to support your learning free online courses from the world’s top universities can get us started. Coursera, Edx, and Open2study are websites that offer great FREE courses. These courses can stream from our smart phones, while commuting or can be done on a computer at home, after the kids have gone to bed.
Two Examples Include:
– An introduction to mining engineering, great for anyone interested in working in the Mining Industry.
– An introduction to Electricity for those thinking of becoming an Industrial Electrician or a Powerline Technician and eventually write their Red Seal Exam.
3. Start each day off with something positive and steer away from the negative! Having a favorite thing to look forward to each morning can really change your outlook. Small positive changes will help you and then people around you will start to take notice of your great attitude. Start by waking up to music you like, rather than an annoying buzzer or negative new radio. Make a great coffee, or taking your dog for a walk are other things you can do to start your morning off right. Steering yourself to positive places, rather than checking the news on falling oil prices and unemployment, can make a big difference in your life. As a person who loves dogs I wake up and go check in with my dog, a Labrador Retriever cross, every day. On Facebook I block negative people, and follow the Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind and the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. If your passion is Coffee, Cats, Heavy Equipment, Interesting Engineering, Soccer, Hockey, Football, Birds, Alternative Energy or Trucks, surround yourself with reminders of your passion and make sure you can see them every morning or at least every week on Facebook.

2015 is going to be a great year and taking these three steps will help you reach your career goals.