If you come in on time, keep your head down, do your work and show you are a team player – surely your boss will realize your dedication right? And there’s no way your company will be able to overlook your hard work and above and beyond contributions right?
Related:How To Stand Out: Define Your Strengths
Wrong. In today’s world of work - hard work, being a team player, and adhering to basic professional standards are baseline expectations of all employees. Promotion, recognition, and reward more often land on professionals who have learned how to maximize their exposure to the right people and the right opportunities.
How To Increase Your Visibility At Work
Increasing your visibility at work isn’t about kissing up or brown nosing – it’s about positioning yourself in the right place to make your next best career move. Savvy professionals take the initiative to be relevant, contribute, and make sure their efforts are visible to people of influence within their industry and organization. Here are six ways to increase your visibility at work:
Unless you are in a very small company, there’s a wealth of action taking place outside of your desk, cube, department, and floor. And, chances are, the people making decisions aren’t sitting right across from you. Looking for special projects you can be a part of is a great way to get your name, skills, ideas, and performance in front of people who can help you make vertical and horizontal career moves.
2. Share Information With People Outside Of Your Normal Network
While your primary responsibilities may be in IT, spend some time browsing trends and insights in other areas. Did you come across an interesting article about marketing? Or, maybe you just found out about a new book related to leadership development. Pass a quick message onto someone outside your normal connections to start building new relationships and increasing your exposure.
3. Attend Those “Optional” Meetings And Events
Meetings, especially boring meetings can be the bane of existence for busy professionals. But… they can also be a good place to show your face with higher up required attendees. Show up, listen, contribute, and introduce yourself. Not only are you increasing your visibility, you are showing you are interested and getting first-hand experience of how things work outside your cube.
4. Ask For Bigger And Better Assignments
When a new project is announced, step up and ask for the lead role. The misstep here is one of two things: You either expect it will go to the usual person that gets put in charge of things, or you wait and hope you will be hand picked by your boss. Don’t wait for someone to be assigned or someone else to take the lead. Speak up and step up to ensure you are getting more responsibility and more opportunity for exposure.
5. Start A Group
Chances are there are other ambitious professionals looking to connect within your organization. If there are no existing opportunities to connect through something like a book club or community service project, create one. This gives you a chance to practice and demonstrate leadership skills as well as build new relationships.
6. Learn How To Toot Your Own Horn
You can be the most productive, innovative results driven professional in your company, but if no one knows about it – it won’t help you build the career you want. Most of us know how to talk about ourselves – we share our successes with friends and family easily. The challenge here is to find a way that feels comfortable for you to communicate your accomplishments.
For tips on how to do this, check out this practical article from Psychology Today: How To Brag About Yourself Without Being Seen As Narcissistic.
There’s an old saying, “out of sight, out of mind.” Help ensure you are never out of sight by using the tips above to increase your visibility at work. Being proactive about your exposure puts you exactly where you should be – in the driver seat of your career.
This post was originally published at an earlier date.
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.
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